Liz Webster: Rural Revolt & Political Earthquake Looms

Jun 9, 2024 | Rural Tory heartlands look set to reject the Conservatives after they have been taken for granted and betrayed. What lies ahead for these seats and Britain?

The very last thing we need in this country are the low standards of American foods! In America, food manufacturers are allowed to use all sorts of banned substances in the production of those disgusting and unhealthy fast foods which America is so famous for. Europe has much higher standards when it comes to foods and food production. Let the United Kingdom stay with European food standards. It will be better for us and for our health.

What we put in our mouths plays a big part in keeping disease at bay. We need to reverse Brexit forthwith! Keep British food standards high! – © Mark Alexander

Britain Facing Surge of Salmonella Cases because of Brexit

Dec 9, 2023 | Britain is facing a surge in salmonella cases due to a lack of post-Brexit quality checks on food, a union has warned.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) said the UK was seeing recurring cases of salmonella because meat, poultry and eggs have not been checked properly since leaving the EU. It comes as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was investigating a recent rise in cases of salmonella food poisoning linked to poultry from Poland.

“A number of the cases have involved the consumption of eggs produced in Poland and used in meals in restaurants and cafés,” said Tina Potter, head of incidents at the FSA.

More than 200 human cases of salmonellosis linked to poultry products such as eggs and meat were reported this year.


These Tories should be unceremoniously kicked out of office as soon as possible. The buffoons in that party are utterly stupid. Please note that I write as a lifelong, but ex-Conservative voter. Never would I vote for those clowns again! They have ruined this country. It would be hard to imagine how they could possibly have done more damage to this country in the last thirteen or so years than they have done.

Our country is not safe in Tories’ hands. Get the SOBs out of office now! And let the party die a natural death, just like the Whigs before them. The party is not fit for purpose. For starters, they spend taxpayers’ money like drunken sailors. Corruption is rife in the party to boot.

Why the LibDems don’t come out and say unequivocally that they intend to take the UK back into the EU at the earliest possible convenience is beyond my comprehension. This country desperately needs to go back into the European Union, even if we have to abandon the pound sterling and adopt the euro. Taking us back into the EU would be a vote-winner for the LibDems; indeed, I would go as far as to say that this policy alone could be the making of the party. It could knock the Tories into third place, into the long grass – where they belong.

Sir Ed Davey is a thoroughly decent man who should seize this opportunity. Fortune favours the brave! – © Mark Alexander

New Trade Minister Liz Truss Had Private Talks in US with Libertarian Groups

THE OBSERVER: Fears for weakening of UK’s food safety and animal welfare standards in any deal with America

The cabinet minister in charge of negotiating a new US trade deal met with a series of rightwing American thinktanks to discuss deregulation and the benefits of “Reaganomics”, new documents have revealed.

Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, had a number of meetings with libertarian groups that have championed parts of Donald Trump’s deregulatory agenda and tax cuts.

New details of her three-day visit to Washington last September have been uncovered by Greenpeace’s investigative journalism team, Unearthed. Truss met senior representatives from the Heritage Foundation, a thinktank committed to shrinking the state and cutting environmental regulation, to discuss “regulatory reform”. Also at the meeting was the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Both groups were part of the “shadow trade talks” project, designed to advocate a wide-ranging US trade deal allowing the import of American goods currently banned in Britain. » | Michael Savage | Sunday, August 4, 2019

Food Fight: Doubts Grow over Post-Brexit Standards

THE GUARDIAN: Soil Association raises concerns over chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef

Chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef are already infecting the debate over a post-Brexit trade deal, with one of the US’s most senior diplomats dismissing the European Union’s “museum of agriculture” approach to food safety.

The US ambassador, Woody Johnson, claimed fears over US food standards leading to lower quality food were “myths” and part of a “smear campaign” to cast American farming in the worst possible light.

The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has pledged that food standards will be the same if not better after the UK leaves the EU, but campaigners are concerned that welfare and environmental protections could be jettisoned in the rush to strike a US trade deal.

On Wednesday, the leading Brexit supporter George Eustice, who resigned from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week, wrote in the Guardian that the UK should not countenance signing any deal that would reduce food standards as it could “give free trade a bad name”. He called US agriculture “quite backward”. » | Lisa O'Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Wednesday, March 6, 2019

US Ambassador to UK Under Fire over Defence of Chlorinated Chicken

THE OBSERVER: Critics say process Woody Johnson called ‘no-brainer’ is ‘harmful’ to nation’s health

The US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, has come under fire from a leading food critic, a farming union and trade justice campaigners over his push to open up the UK to American farmers post-Brexit.

Jay Rayner, the BBC presenter, Observer columnist and MasterChef critic, said the UK should tell Johnson where he can stick chlorinated chicken, the US’s preferred approach for protecting consumers from pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter.

Writing in the Telegraph on Friday [£], Johnson attacked warnings that a post-Brexit trade deal would result in chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef arriving on supermarket shelves. “You have been presented with a false choice,” he wrote. “Either stick to EU directives, or find yourselves flooded with American food of the lowest quality. Inflammatory and misleading terms like ‘chlorinated chicken’ and ‘hormone beef’ are deployed to cast American farming in the worst possible light. » | Jamie Doward | Saturday, March 2, 2019

Concern over Food Safety as US Seeks Greater Access to UK Markets

THE GUARDIAN: US sets out aims for post-Brexit trade deal amid fears about chicken and beef standards

The US has outlined its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, demanding greater access to the food markets where products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef are currently banned under EU rules.

The US laid out its aims for a trade deal to cut tariff and non-tariff barriers for US industrial and agricultural goods and reduce regulatory differences.

The Trump administration is seeking to eliminate or reduce barriers for US agricultural products and secure duty-free access for industrial goods. » | Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Friday, March 1, 2019