Dear John,

It’s been a busy week so let’s get right to it, shall we?

Sunak’s net-zero conscience

The week’s news agenda was turned upside down on Tuesday evening when the BBC caught wind that the Prime Minister was preparing to ditch key climate commitments in his desperation to divide the nation ahead of the next election on an issue where most people agree.

In a hastily arranged press conference on Wednesday, Sunak confirmed that he was indeed doing just that, u-turning on schemes to prevent NEW petrol cars and gas boilers specifically. Not content with doing his part to make the planet boil, Sunak made our brains boil in a speech which claimed:

• He’s doing what’s difficult while doing what’s politically easiest
• He's being honest while lying about scrapping policies which never existed
• He’s taking responsible long term decisions while shafting future generations
• He wants the consent of the British people, when almost no one voted for him to be Prime Minister
• The decision was not about slogans while standing in front of his new election slogan

Starmer’s French Connection

Keir Starmer might be forgiven for acting like he already has one foot in Downing Street, and to be fair, the French seem to be doing the same.

On Monday, the ‘Prime Minister in waiting’ tour brought Keir and his top team to Paris to rub shoulders with business leaders and press the flesh with French President Emanuel Macron.

While there was no joint press conference following the talks, it was widely reported that improving the current shambolic Brexit deal was top of the agenda.

Coincidently, their meeting was closely followed by the publication of a paper from European Ministers positing what some have described as an ‘onion model’ for the EU with an inner circle with outer rings envisioning associate EU membership for countries like the UK. Be still my beating heart.

Starmer’s statesman credentials were optically burnished by the King’s visit to Paris two days later resulting in this Anglo-Gallic love-in on the streets of Paris.

Brexit Corner

The Divergence Dance

Hopes were raised at Best for Britain Towers on Thursday evening when footage emerged of the Labour Leader stating that if he won power, Labour would not seek to diverge from EU standards and protections.

As divergence from our largest market increases prices for British businesses and consumers, and as beneficial alignment is a key recommendation from our cross-party commission, you can imagine our excitement at this admission of common sense.

Inevitably, the Government and right-wing media jumped on his comments with a shrillness we haven’t seen in quite some time, playing all the hits; including ‘Brexit Betrayal’, ‘Remoaner plot’ and everyone's favourite, ‘Brexit hasn’t been done properly yet’. Cue Labour spinners falling over themselves to explain that Starmer was referring exclusively to things like food standards and environmental protections. We’ll take it… for now.

Thank EU for the music

Bored of Trade? Time for a revamp.

Last week we heard rumours that the Secretary of State for Business and Trade was limbering up to unveil her new look UK Board of Trade, now with celebrity fashion designers and music moguls. Skilled though they undoubtedly are, at Best for Britain we believe that the Government doesn’t need another group telling them how brilliant they are.

Disasters like the Brexit deal and the disadvantageous agreements struck with Australia and New Zealand demonstrate that the UK Board of Trade should be independent, able to impartially report on UK trading performance and analyse the pros and cons of new trade deals. That’s why last week the UK Trade and Business Commission along with 82 leading British Businesses called on her to do just that in a letter organised by Best for Britain.

Unfortunately for us she pressed ahead with her superficial revamp. Unfortunately for Kemi, her non-announcement was completely eclipsed by the leak of Sunak’s diabolical scheme to do whatever Liz Truss tells him to do (sad trombone).

The exorcism

After decades of polarising nations and injecting his poison into the global body politic, Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corp two organisations responsible for many open sewers in the US and UK masquerading as news outlets. Does this mean that we are at last free of his malign scaremongering and divisive agenda? Sadly, the genie may be out of the bottle on this one.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

As we say in Belfast, where this edition of Weekend Wire was penned, ats us nai. Georgia will be with you next week. Have a great weekend.

Best wishes,
Niall McGourty
Director of Communications
Best for Britain