The EU Is Willing to Go To War Over Lithium?

By Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook

January 3, 2024

The riddle of unhinged EU support for the Zelensky regime in Kyiv is now solved. Anyone inclined can unravel why the Germans, in particular, backstabbed Russia in the Minsk peace boondoggle. Lithium.

Energy Monitor’s parent company, GlobalData, recently released a report showing that Europe’s biggest lithium reserves lie in the Donbass region of Russia. The former Ukrainian Shevchenkivske field in the Donetsk region and the Kruta Balka block in the Zaporizhzhia region are now part of Russia. These reserves add tremendously to Russia’s humongous Lithium deposits (now 1.5M metric tons) and solidify the country’s top ten position globally. If we consider other BRICS nations’ reserves, including China (2M metric tons), EU industry is at a leverage point.

Net zero is the reason we have empty supermarket shelves

Green blob [credit: storybird.com]

If officials think empty food shelves are a price worth paying for vain attempts to change the climate, they’re way out of touch with reality.
– – –
It wasn’t meant to be like this: rationing is back, now being introduced in some supermarkets for fruits and vegetables, says farmer Jamie Blackett @ The Telegraph.

Typically, the public debate remains stuck on Brexit – or “Vegxit”. But this is much more to do with cold weather in farming regions, poor harvests in North Africa and Spain, and continued high energy costs.

If public expectations are that they should be able to eat tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in February, something previous generations could barely imagine, it is perhaps understandable that logistics along an attenuated supply chain will play a major part.

Brussels takes legal action against UK over use of British parts in wind farms

Offshore wind farm [image credit: Wikipedia]

Will Brexit bitterness ever die? Renewables are now mired in international politics.
– – –
Brussels has launched a legal challenge over the use of British parts in the UK’s offshore wind farms, reports the Telegraph.

The European Commission submitted its complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the first such move it has made since Brexit.

The UK Government asks offshore wind farm developers to say how many of the parts they are using are from Britain.

Brexit: Ireland’s land bridge to the continent boosts UK ’emissions’

Dublin-Holyhead ferry link [image credit: Stena Line]

The report below refers to air pollution but ignores carbon dioxide emissions, which are *supposed to be* a much bigger problem according to climate obsessives.
– – –
A no-deal Brexit could cost up to 5,000 jobs in Ireland’s fisheries, but it’s not just access to the UK’s coastal waters that the country is hoping to hold on to in any post-Brexit arrangement, says The Conversation @ Phys.org.

Perhaps more important to Ireland is the UK’s motorway network.

Every year, more than 150,000 trucks transport over 3 million tons of freight to and from Ireland to the rest of the single market across the UK land bridge.

One route involves goods being shipped from Dublin to Holyhead by ferry and then by road to Dover before being shipped to Calais.

It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of this land bridge for Ireland.

Still waiting for greenhouse: No response to my last email to Roy Spencer

Before the last time I had to dive deeply into politics to defend the EU referendum result, I had an email conversation with Roy Spencer in an attempt to resolve the conflict between physicists like himself, who believe the radiative greenhouse theory is correct, but it’s effect small, and physicists like Ned Nikolov, who contend that the theory is fundamentally incorrect.

After a couple of to and fro emails I sent this response in Feb 2019, to which I never received a reply. It’s time we got this discussion back out in the open, because Boris’ green reset #netzero plan for the UK post Brexit and post pandemic is set to ruin our economy and cause untold suffering, deprivation, and death.

the lukewarmers have utterly failed to convince the fanatics that although they think their theory is correct (it isn’t, but that’s their misguided opinion), they’ve overestimated the magnitude of the effect.

It’s time they stopped supporting the fanatics by deploying false arguments against better theory which will exonerate CO2 and move the debate away from ridiculous and expensive ‘mitigation’, and forward to adaption to the effects of natural climatic change.

UK To Impose A Competitive Carbon Tax After No-Deal Brexit

Photosynthesis: nature requires carbon dioxide

A hint of commonsense in post-Brexit climate policy, if or when we get there? So-called ‘carbon’ taxes may well be a pointless nonsense, but if one has to be endured then the lower the better.

The United Kingdom is set to impose a £16 per ton tax on carbon if it leaves the European Union without a deal on October 31, according to government plans, reports The GWPF (from Forbes).

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, it will also leave the EU’s Emissions Trade System (ETS), the centrepiece of the bloc’s efforts to meet European countries’ emissions reduction obligations.

The long march to #Brexit: Local election campaign update

Keep it simple: Window poster

Things are getting very busy for me over the next week so I thought I’d write this quick update now on the local election campaign where I’m standing for democracy and independence. I may be too engaged to get around to writing more posts before May 2nd.

7500 of my campaign leaflets have been pushed through letterboxes in my ward. Another 5000 arrive tomorrow for the final push when my team of volunteers (including Oldbrew, thanks mate!) will take to the streets this weekend and hand out more leaflets and window posters. During the weekend we’ll also be canvassing at addresses near polling stations and getting pro-brexit residents’ agreement to emplace signboards in their gardens in time for polling day next Thursday. The old V6 Ford will be dragging a trailer with large banners mounted around the local streets and carparks too.

The Long March to #Brexit: First opportunity to boot Parliament in the ballot box.

As I mentioned in the last installment of this series, as soon as I got home from the march on Parliament from Sunderland, I began preparation to stand in the local government elections on May 2nd. This will be voters’ first opportunity to give parliament a swift kick in the ballot box since the Brexit Betrayal on March 29th.

Campaign Leaflet – front side

This is really important because a genuine electoral threat is the only thing the main parties take any notice of. They will carry on undermining our country’s democracy unless they become convinced they will lose significant numbers of seats at elections.

The Long March to #Brexit: Parliament Square Rally

The 50 core marchers strode through London with thousands of people from all over the country behind them and joined the throng in Parliament Square on March 29th. After great speeches from leavers left and right, the man himself topped the bill with a short but inspiring message to all democrats.

It took us 14 days to march from Sunderland to Westminster. This bloke has given 25 years of his life to the cause of regaining independence for the UK. Spare him 8 minutes of your time.

The Long March To #Brexit : Current analysis

I’ve been on the March To Leave for a week, and just got a day off to visit family and give my plates of meat a rest. I’m back on the march tomorrow, so no time for a big write up yet. Here is my simple summary, as delivered to ITN news two days ago, and below, some more complex analysis of the current situation from Simon Pearson on twitter

As crowds gather for the #PutItToThePeopleMarch, Leavers say Remainers need to accept the result#MarchToLeavehttps://t.co/kP3pfGyiR4 pic.twitter.com/OK0uU2vp1a

— ITV News (@itvnews) March 23, 2019

I’ve worked it out. Bear with me…

1. The EU pronouncement on extensions to 12 Apr or 22 May was conditional on the WA being either approved or rejected.
2. For the WA to be approved or rejected Parliament has to have MV3.
3. No MV3 means no approval or rejection…👇

— Nomis 169 (@169Nomis) March 24, 2019

4. Which means EU dates become irrelevant and we still leave on 29 March.
5. Unless, that is, Remainers sieze control of Govt business from the back benches and across party?
6. But can they? To stop UK leaving on 29 March requires primary legislation – it is the law if the land.

The long march to #Brexit : Part One

• 

  Sixer of the fox patrol bearing the Union flag in 1972

When I was a ten year old kid back in 1974 I got a first inkling that my country becoming a member of an international club might have some downsides. One evening, I overheard my Grandfather, a veteran of two world wars, and my Dad, an engineer, discussing ‘the common market’. They both had misgivings about it being ‘the thin end of the wedge’. I don’t recall many of the details, but the following year during the referendum campaign, I chose to wear an ugly yellow pin badge handed out by local Labour party campaigners which said ‘NO’ on it in black block capitals. My sister chose the pretty white badge with the flying dove carrying an olive branch on it which said ‘YES’; a much more positive message from that nice Mr Heath.

By the age of twenty, I was far too busy riding fast motorcycles, courting young ladies and climbing mountains to be interested in international politics. It wasn’t until I joined the Motorcycle Action Group [MAG] that I learned about the increasing amounts of bureaucratic regulation emanating from Brussels which was affecting our lifestyle. This reached a head in 1992 when the Brussels commissioners sent a raft of new legislation called the ‘Vehicle Multi-directive’ to the European parliament for rubber stamping.

David Eyles: The Quiet Revolution

A rarely spotted phenomenon, sometimes acknowledged by one or two of the more astute political pundits, is that the Labour Party has moved away from its core of working-class voters. The leadership has now fully embraced the demands of its middle and upper-middle class hierarchy and has gone full-on Quinoa Marxist.

However, the Labour Party is not alone, because the Conservative Party has also moved in the same direction, albeit not quite so far. The leadership indulges in wholesale political correctness. It then signals its virtue by casual obeisance to whichever favoured minority group is flavour of the week. Accordingly, the Tories have also stepped away from their voters – most of whom are utterly bored with this infantile nonsense.

There has been some floundering recognition that the sheer nastiness of the Labour Left is causing some Labour MPs to panic and talk of forming a new centrist party. But that will only occupy the same ground that the Tories already occupy, by virtue of their own leftward manoeuvrings. Talk of a Tony Blair led centre-left party, perhaps embracing the Liberal Democrats, would be a move into an already overcrowded marketplace with decreasing numbers of voters to whom this will appeal. Tony Blair is the most toxic brand in British politics.

Jacob Rees-Mogg: It is time to chuck Chequers

When the British people voted to leave the EU over two years ago it was an act of great political courage against the prophets of doom. 17 million people voted to leave because they believed in better. They believe in Britain and the kind of country we can build.

The Government would be wrong to be fearful of Britain enjoying an independent future. Theresa May’s Chequers proposals would shackle us to the EU forever. We would be out of Europe yet still run by Europe. This is why the Prime Minister should “chuck Chequers” and instead seek an a Canada style free trade agreement with the EU to make the most of the global opportunities that lie ahead.

The United Kingdom does not need to do a deal with the EU. The EU needs to do a deal with us at all costs. No deal means no divorce bill – handing a £40 billion Brexit bonus to the Government.

A Brexchange of viewpoints

The debate is still lively. Fresh news below the break.

The Chequers Cabinet conclusions – an assessment by Lawyers for Britain

The fix is in. UK prime minister Theresa May is on her hind legs telling us black is white and expecting us to swallow the lie. Brexit minsters David Davis and Steve Baker have resigned. Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has followed suit. Several parliamentary private secretaries have also resigned in protest at TMay’s non-brexit plan.

Lawyers for Britain chair Martin Howe has written this assessment of the ‘Chequers deal’ summary released to the press. It lays out in strong terms just how deceptive TMay is when she claims in parliament that her Chequers deal represents the Brexit the country voted for. If it was, those ministers wouldn’t have felt the need to resign their positions.

Why we need to leave the single market

.
.
Ben Somervell lays out a full and well supported case for leaving the single market on #Brexit

Ben Somervell's Brexit Blog

In this article, I will use the terms “single market”, “internal market”, “European Economic Area” and “EEA” interchangeably as they are all effectively synonyms. (The following article is a full significantly extended, revised and updated version of a much shorter article which I wrote for the “Comment Central” website which was, in turn an extended version of a 952-word article here which I wrote for the “Student Voices” website in July).

I originally thought that Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech in January (transcript here), her letter to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, invoking Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon (here) and the Government’s Brexit White Paper (here) had once and for all nipped the idea of continued single market membership after Brexit in the bud. However, since the Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in the General Election this year, it…

View original post 3,694 more words