A Trade Deal with Trump Will Change Britain for the Worse

THE OBSERVER: The EU has opposed brutal animal welfare and rampant tech monopolies. Post-Brexit Britain will be exposed to both

A trade deal with the US would be a defining moment for the UK. It is not an exaggeration to say it would reveal the country’s direction of travel more than any other decision in the aftermath of Britain quitting the European Union.

Amid the confusing array of government pledges – more police and more spending on the regions while also cutting taxes for the better off (mostly in London and the home counties) – it is the basics of any trade deal that will set Britain’s course for decades to come.

The most emotive questions apply to agriculture, and not just in the UK. It’s fair to say that American farmers can get very emotional about access to foreign markets, especially when they have put more time and effort into producing cheap food than probably anyone else in the world.

US policymakers have long understood that cheap food and cheap energy are the bedrocks of a flourishing economy. In the modern era, they are the keys to higher disposable incomes when wages are flat. They allow workers to maintain some semblance of their living standards from year to year while the producers and owners of capital walk off with the bulk of any gains. » | Phillip Inman | Saturday, August 17, 2019

Trump Offers Trade Deal to the UK | DW News

US President Donald Trump has offered the UK what he calls "a very substantial" trade deal once Britain has left the EU. On the second day of his state visit, Trump met Prime Minister Theresa May. They held a discussion with business leaders from both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile parts of London are on security lock-down to seclude Donald Trump from protesters and anti-Trump rallies.

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

Ed Miliband: 'We're Locking Ourselves in Donald Trump's Boot' - BBC Newsnight

"Our reputation around the world matters": Ed Miliband makes passionate critique of Donald Trump - and says Theresa May and the UK government need to stand up to him. He speaks to Kirsty Wark.

Special Report: The Libya Investment Firm and the Release of the Lockerbie Bomber
THE TELEGRAPH: Americans are questioning why a company was set up in London a week after news broke that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, may be released.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in Tripoli. Photo: The Telegraph
The terraced house just around the corner from the American embassy in London looks like most in the affluent street. Tall and elegant, only the shiny brass plaque gives a clue to what lies beyond the black front door.

The name reads Dalia Advisory Limited, a company established by Libyan businessmen just a week after the country's officials were told the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being considered for release on compassionate grounds.

Dalia Advisory is in fact a "front" for the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a sovereign wealth fund with £80 billion, to invest in Britain and beyond. The Georgian town house, bought for £6 million, is, ironically, only a few yards from the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

Senior business sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that had Megrahi died in a British jail, the LIA would have taken its vast sums elsewhere. "If Megrahi had perished in Scotland, we would have become a pariah state as far as the Libyans were concerned," said one source.

Oliver Miles, a former ambassador to Libya and now deputy chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, said: "At the time of his release everyone knew that if he died in a Scottish jail, it would be bad for our relations."

But some 1,500 miles from the LIA's Mayfair headquarters, Megrahi, 58, is clinging defiantly to life despite his terminal cancer – much to the embarrassment of the authorities in Britain.

The former Libyan intelligence officer is living at government expense in a prosperous Tripoli suburb in a two-storey villa surrounded by gardens, where he is looked after by his wife, their five children and a team of medics.

He enjoys superstar status, repeatedly feted as a "much-loved" hero of the Libyan people. According to Megrahi's family, he has received up to 30,000 house guests – a white tent was erected in the garden for visitors – while newborn babies across Libya have been named after him. Gaddafi family members have also made several private visits, friends say.

But he is said to be lower in spirits than when he first arrived home, and does not leave the house – spending much of his time propped up in bed, sedated for the pain.

Prof Karol Sikora, one of the doctors who suggested Megrahi had just three months to live, insists that there is no miraculous recovery. "I am well-informed he is dying; he is just not dying as fast as we predicted," he said. Scottish authorities insist that the study by Prof Sikora and two other doctors, which was paid for by Libya, had not been considered and was not a contributory factor to Megrahi's release.

However long Megrahi now survives, the fact is business between Britain and Libya is currently booming. British exports to Libya are now double what they were a year ago while imports from Libya have risen three fold. In the first two months of this year alone, the UK exported £110 million of goods and services. >>> Robert Mendick, Philip Sherwell in New York and Andrew Alderson | Saturday, July 24, 2010

NZZ am SONNTAG: BP und der kranke Attentäter: Laut Libyen befindet sich Lockerbie-Attentäter im Sterben – Die Ölfirma BP hat sich vor fast einem Jahr für die Begnadigung des todkranken Terroristen al-Megrahi eingesetzt. Nach den Prognosen müsste der Libyer heute längst tot sein. >>> Kristina Bergmann, Kairo | Sonntag, 25. Juli 2010

Lockerbie Bomber's Release Linked to Trade Deal, Claims Gaddafi's Son
I stated yesterday that this ‘deal’ was linked to trade and commerce. It had LITTLE or NOTHING to do with compassion!

We in the West are being led by a-licking, brown-nosing, fawning fools! Gordon Brown is the arch a-licking, brown-nosing, fawning FOOL!

Recently, in answer to an ePetition that I and many other people signed, he stated that the government does not believe that there has been an encroachment of Islam on our country. If Gordon Brown believes that then he is a bigger fool than I thought he was.

Now this news that the release of the man who killed 270 innocent people is linked to a trade deal! What can any decent person say to anything so despicable as this?

The politicians of the West are showing themselves to be disgusting, unworthy, obsequious nincompoops. They should be kicked out of office forthwith. They are selling our culture and civilisation down the river. Gordon Brown speaks in his wooden way about Ramadhan, and sends his best wishes to the Muslim community on the eve of Ramadhan here. Then we have the leader of the free world arse-licking Muslims here.

This stupid man – Barack Hussein Obama – speaks for all Americans. I know many Americans for whom he does NOT speak.

It is all very well to send greetings to Muslims on the occasion of Ramadhan; indeed, it is a noble and lofty gesture. But this should only be done in reciprocation. But have you ever known of a Muslim country sending us greetings on the occasion of Easter or Christmas?

I shall welcome the day when both sides send greetings to each other. Until that day comes, I shall continue to object to anyone representing me sending greetings to the other side. Don’t forget this: The other side is waging the Jihad against YOU. The people on the other side want nothing less than to bring down Western civilisation. That is what these fools, our so-called representatives in government, refuse to acknowledge. Why? Partly because they don’t have the balls to do so, and partly because commerce is ruling the roost. The bottom line is everything, as the release of Megrahi has shown us all too clearly. Paying attention to the bottom line, letting the bottom line be everything, is precisely what will ultimately bring down the West. If this is how we are going to proceed, then we are doomed to failure. Islam will be our future. – ©Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif, claimed the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was linked to trade deals between Britain and Libya.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi . Photo: The Telegraph
He made the claims in a television interview for Libyan television recorded as he accompanied Megrahi on the flight back from Scotland to Libya on Thursday.

The claims were vehemently denied by the UK government.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “There is no deal. All decisions relating to Megrahi’s case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities.

“No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country.”

The claims came as Megrahi said he would produce evidence proving his innocence before he dies.

In an interview with The Times, Megrahi said: My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury.” He refused to elaborate, or speculate about who was responisble for the deaths.

The comments came after President Obama condemned the welcome Megrahi received in Libya as 'highly objectionable'.

Mr Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, earlier denounced the scenes in the Libyan capital Tripoli when returned home as "outrageous and disgusting".

Speaking before he left the White House to spend the weekend at Camp David, Mr Obama led US condemnation of the bomber's return.

"It was highly objectionable," he said in reference to the release and arrival at Tripoli's airport of Megrahi, where he was greeted by hundreds of people on Thursday night.

Mr Gibbs said: "The images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting. >>> James Kirkup and Aislinn Simpson | Friday, August 21, 2009