David was a former MEP for the East of England from 2009 to 2019 and stood down on 2nd July 2019. This website remains open for access only, and no further postings will be made.
Category Archives: Permanent Featured Content
Right to the Front of the Queue: Key Elements of a New US/UK Free Trade Agreement’
Download a pdf by clicking the image
David outlines the framework of a new US/UK Free Trade Agreement and explains how it can be concluded in less than six months.
David Campbell Bannerman has launched a paper which outlines the framework for a US/US Free Trade Deal. The MEP noted that “Such a negotiation for an immediate short-term deal would be envisioned to last no more than 180 days.” and that ‘“Brexit brings many global opportunities for the United Kingdom but the reaffirmation and deepening of the relationship between Britain and America through a new post-Brexit US-UK bilateral trade deal has to rate as the most natural, benign and highest priority of them all. We can take full advantage of being put right to the front of the US queue now for trade deals under the new President Trump Administration.”
The Daily Mail reported on the 4th April 2017 that David Campbell Bannerman’s US/UK Trade Agreement paper has already received the backing of ‘Ted Malloch, the President’s designated ambassador to the EU (who) endorsed claims it could take just 180 days to agree a deal that eliminates tariffs on cars, food and clothes.’ The paper reported that ‘Mr Malloch said the special relationship can ‘best survive the rest of this 21st century’ through ‘a US-UK Free Trade Agreement, as spelled out in this thorough and well-documented paper’. Ted Malloch added: ‘Britain and America belong together, not in Europe. The future will much need Anglo-American leadership – more than ever.’ ‘ The full article can be found here and the paper was also referred to in the Daily Mail Leader Comment section.
The launch was also covered in the Daily Express on the 3rd April 2017 and the full article can be read here.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph on his US/UK Trade paper, David Campbell Bannerman noted that ‘the quick deal I suggest is educated by the Canadian-EU trade deal CETA I worked on through the European Parliament’s trade committee.’ and that ‘a US-UK trade deal is rich in potential, is a natural addition to the well-established “Special Relationship” and could be delivered in just 180 days of pressing the button.’ The full article can be found here.
You can download the paper here.
David’s solution to the HS2 Debate – the HSNet Alternative
Local MEP David Campbell Bannerman has made a major contribution to the HS2 debate arguing for high speed trains to go up an improved East Coast Main Line through Peterborough instead of via Birmingham.
He said: “The Government is absolutely right to pursue visionary plans for a high speed rail network – I worked personally on Britain’s first high speed network. But if current HS2 plans go ahead our nearest fast trains will be in York and London. The current route is not good news for the economy of the East of England. We’ll be bypassed. We need to ensure we too enjoy the benefits of high speed rail.”
David explained that the paper related to constituency concerns he had previously expressed, is not party political and is nothing to do with the current elections.
The paper is available to download as a pdf here.
EU Waste – The cost of the EU to the British Taxpayer
For nearly 40 years, the UK has been bound by European Union regulations and directives. Some estimates say that there are over 100,000 European Union laws enacted on UK statute. This has come at a cost. The independent think tank Open Europe has estimated that since 1998, EU regulations have cost the UK economy £124 billion, or £4,912 for each person in the UK. More information can be found here – http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/stilloutofcontrol.pdf
This section will present to you the negative impact EU directives have on the UK. In bitesize, digestible format, we will show how ill thought out EU legislation harms business in the UK, affects our freedoms and prevents the UK from becoming a competitive global economy. This section will be regularly updated with briefings on existing EU directives and forthcoming laws.
PDF Documents available to download:
The 3 EU Postal Services Directives
The EU Road Transport Directive
The EU Large Combustion Plant Directive
The EU Environmental Liability Directive
The EU 2nd and 3rd Directive on Driving Licences 91
The EU Pregnant Workers Directive
The 3 Money Laundering Directives
The EU Part Time Workers Directive
The EU Temporary Working at Height Directive
The EU Investigation Order Directive
The EU unfair commercial practices directive
The EU Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
The EU Young Workers Directive
The EU Waste Incineration Directive 2000
The EU Works Councils Directive 2008
The EU Renewables Directive 2008
The EU Late Payments Directive
The EU Traditional Herbal Medicines Directive
The EU Directive on Artificial Optical Radiation
The EU Cross Border Health Directive
The EU Biocidal Products Directive
The EU Asbestos Directive 2003
The Environmental Noise Directive
EU Public Service Procurement Directive
EU Industrial Emissions Directive
EU Emissions Trading Directive and the EU Linking Directive
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2002
The EU Equal Treatment Directive
The Ultimate Plan B – A Positive Vision of an independent Britain outside The European Union
David Campbell Bannerman has published ‘The Ultimate Plan B: A Positive Vision of an independent Britain outside the European Union’ booklet.
INTRODUCTION
For nearly forty years, Britain has been a member of the European Union (EU) and its forerunner organisations, the Common Market, European Economic Community (EEC) and European Community (EC). In that time, the protectionist pressures of the 1960s and 1970s which drove the UK to enter the EU Customs Union have been much reduced and the world environment has become more inclined to free trade, thanks primarily to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), formerly the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
Despite this relaxation of the World economy and of tariff ‘walls’ to trade, the European Union (EU) has remained at heart undemocratic, protectionist, centralist and over bureaucratic. The EU has generated a red tape mountain that forces the member states to impose unacceptable burdens on their businesses and to make unwarranted and often damaging interventions in the lives of their citizens. This is not the British way but a Continental one which favours state control over personal liberty.
Supporters of the European Union try to scare British people into believing there is no alternative to British membership of the EU. They claim there is no ‘Plan B’ for Britain and we are fated, out of fear and a lack of confidence in our destiny, to remain with ‘Plan A’ – i.e. immersed within “an ever closer union” (as stated in the Treaty of Rome) to become a bit player with a diminished role within an emerging political superstate called the United States of Europe. Plan A has already led to Britain paying £48 million a day in membership fees, imposed over 100,000 regulations and directives on us2, and led to at least 50% (80% plus if German studies are to be believed) of our laws emanating from the EU.
Yet ever since joining the EC, a majority of the British population has expressed a wish to leave, particularly if an alternative trading relationship was proposed. An Angus Reid poll in July 2011, for example, found approximately 2 to 1 against staying in the EU: 49% would vote to leave the EU in a referendum; only 25% would vote to stay in, whilst 57% say EU membership has been negative for the UK; and only 32% believed it has been positive. Support for withdrawal from the EU is the majority view, and that view is hardening. A You Gov Poll in August 2011 found 52% of British citizens want to leave the EU, and just 30% want to stay in.
The Ultimate Plan B argued for here is of a Britain replacing its membership of the European Union with a simple, free trading relationship under a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement.
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a binding bilateral international agreement between sovereign countries and/or association of countries. The EU currently has 53 free trade or special trading agreements with countries all over the world, and is actively working for 74 more. Countries as diverse as South Korea, Morocco, South Africa, Chile and Mexico have Free Trade Relationships with the EU where their businesses can trade without the tariff barriers that were so prevalent in the past.
Under this Ultimate Plan B, Britain would negotiate a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement which conserves all the trade access EU membership currently provides but without the high cost of EU membership, and freeing Britain from the EU’s political control, federalist ambitions and regulatory burden. It is not the same as the European Economic Area (EEA) or European Free Trade Area (EFTA), which are valuable alternatives but involve more EU control. This is a cross-party position: an independent Britain could be more Interventionist or more Free Market, but either way it will be a decision taken by the British people and not the EU.
The ‘Positive Vision’ outlined shows an alternative for Britain outside the EU that is credible, sustainable, positive and better for all. This booklet introduces a theme that will be contained in a later, far more comprehensive book on the subject.
We call for the British people to be granted an In/Out Referendum on membership of the European Union. Most people under the age of 53 have never had the chance to vote on the EU and those who voted in the 1975 referendum were misled about the political nature of the project and the true loss of sovereignty. The British people only ever wanted trade – not take over.
Summarised here is a plan for the future, a better future for all.
This is the Ultimate Plan B.
David Campbell Bannerman MEP
TAKEN FROM ‘THE ULTIMATE PLAN B: A POSITIVE VISION OF AN INDEPENDENT BRITAIN OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN UNION’. PUBLISHED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE FREEDOM ASSOCIATION. READ THE ENTIRE BOOKLET BY DOWNLOADING THE PDF HERE (Acrobat Reader or equivalent required)