COVID EMERGENCY POWERS EXTENDED
The Express reports that lockdown powers have been extended until at least the end of October – with ministers refusing to rule out keeping the draconian powers throughout winter. MPs have backed the extension of Covid rules for further six months. While a number of Tory MPs voted against the extension, Labour supported the Government, securing Boris Johnson an easy Commons majority. In total 484 MPs voted to extend the emergency laws, while 76 voted against. New rules have also been introduced as part of the legislation, with it now illegal for the public to travel abroad from Monday. Speaking in the Commons Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the powers were necessary in order to help the country beat the pandemic as quickly as possible.
NEW BRIEFING ROOM NEW SLOGAN
From the Daily Mail: Boris Johnson will make his debut appearance in Downing Street’s newly-completed White House-style press briefing room next week as the PM prepares to unveil a new Government coronavirus slogan. Downing Street has confirmed the work on its £2.6million media room in Number Nine has now been completed. Mr Johnson will use the room for the first time on Monday as he hosts a press conference to update the nation on his lockdown exit roadmap. The room will then be used to host all future Government coronavirus press briefings. News of Mr Johnson’s debut in the room came amid reports that he is planning to ditch the ‘Stay Alert, Control The Virus, Save Lives’ slogan. Ministers have signed off on a new ‘let’s take this next step safely’ slogan which will appear on Government adverts when the stay at home order is dropped from March 29, according to The Sun.
OVER 50’s URGED TO BOOK A JAB NOW
The Telegraph reports that the national medical director for the NHS is urging the over-50s and those at risk to book their Covid-19 vaccines quickly before slots dry up. Professor Stephen Powis called on anyone who qualifies for a jab but has not yet received a first dose to book an appointment in the next few days.The NHS is expecting a slowdown in UK vaccine supply for the whole of April, meaning medics will concentrate on delivering second doses, with fewer first appointments available. NHS England has said no first appointments should be booked for people under the age of 50 unless they fall into a higher priority group, such as those who are clinically vulnerable.
NO COVID JAB IF SPRAY AND SNIFF WORKS
The Telegraph reports: The pain of having a coronavirus jab could be taken away after Oxford University scientists appealed for participants to test a new vaccine administered by nasal spray. The team is reportedly aiming to begin a phase one trial of around 30 healthy adults aged up to 40, which could start as early as next week. Participants will receive at least one intranasal dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with half the group then randomised to receive a booster dose. If successful, the trial could extend the reach of the vaccine delivery programme by making it potentially quicker and less off-putting for people with a fear of needles to be vaccinated. It comes after The Telegraph revealed that children could start receiving the Covid vaccine as early as August. The annual flu vaccine is already offered to children via an intranasal method as a way to maximise take-up. Scientists also hope that a nasal spray vaccine could cut transmission rates more than injections because the Sars-Cov-2 virus is predominantly passed on from the upper airways.
ANOTHER 200000 PEOPLE ON FURLOUGH LAST MONTH
The London Evening Standard reports that the government has supported more than 11 million jobs with £58 billion in furlough money since last year. Another 200,000 people were put on furlough for the first time last month as the Government paid out nearly £4 billion to cover wages. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said it had paid £57.7 billion in furlough cash to around 11.4 million people since the pandemic began. The furlough scheme covers up to 80% of these workers’ salaries, taking pressure off personal finances.Around 4.7 million people were still on furlough by the end of February, the new figures show. Businesses have also been given support over the past month, borrowing an extra £2.2 billion from three Treasury-backed loan schemes.
UK MEAT INDUSTRY FACES LOSING 50% OF EXPORTS
The Independent reports that the UK’s meat industry faces a loss of up to 50 per cent of all its exports because of ongoing problems with “mountains” of Brexit red tape, a leading trade body has warned. In a new report, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said “systemic weaknesses” in trade arrangements meant a potential loss of trade for UK exporters of between 20 and 50 per cent. It also outlined that meat producers face an additional £120m a year in extra costs because of the trade deal forged by Boris Johnson’s government. BPMA has urged the government to establish a new agreement on food standards with Brussels to ease problems sending food to both the EU, and from Great Britain into Northern Ireland (NI).
SUEZ CANAL REMAINS BLOCKED SHORTAGES OF SUPPLIES FORECAST
The Independent reports that some goods bound for Britain may be delayed by the grounding of a massive container ship in the Suez Canal, according to the government. The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged vessel operated by Taiwanese company Evergreen and owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, of Japan, became wedged sideways across the canal on Tuesday following strong winds.The government’s warning came amid fears it might take weeks to refloat the massive container ship. Peter Berdowski, the chief executive of Boskalis, a salvage firm involved in the rescue operation, told the Dutch current affairs programme Nieuwsuur on Wednesday evening that the vessel could not be simply pulled free because of its weight. Ever Given is a 200,000-tonne, 400m behemoth capable of carrying 20,000 containers. Some 150 ships are now queueing both behind and ahead of it to pass through the vital canal, which carries about one-tenth of the world’s trade.
COURT MARTIAL CONVICTS MAJOR GENERAL
The Times reports that a British Army Major General has become the highest-ranking army officer to be convicted at a court martial for more than 200 years after he conned the army out of £48,000 in private school fees. Major General Nick Welch, who had a glittering career and was awarded an OBE, was today found guilty of fraud after breaching army education allowance rules. He is the most senior officer to face a court martial since 1815, when a lieutenant general was convicted during the Napoleonic wars. The father-of-three was found to have abused the continuity of education allowance (CEA) to send two of his children to private schools in Dorset after a colonel neighbour complained that he never saw him or his wife at their London address.
POLICE IN SCHOOLS CREATE A CLIMATE OF HOSTILITY
The Guardian reports that more than 650 police officers are working in British schools, with many assigned to sites in areas of high deprivation.The number can be revealed as two police forces across the country are in the process of reviewing the role of officers in schools, following legal challenges over concerns they disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic pupils. The activities of school police officers, often known as safer schools officers (SSOs), range from being a point of contact for teachers to more intensive interventions such as stop and search and surveillance of children suspected of being gang members.
ED MILLIBAND GETS ON HIS ELECTRIC BIKE
The Times reports: Ed Miliband the Labour Shadow Business Secretary has been mocked for calling for an electric car revolution while admitting he does not own one himself. Today the shadow business secretary launched a Labour policy to expand the use of electric vehicles by part-financing the building of factories and offering interest-free loans for consumers. But asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain whether he had bought an electric car himself, Miliband said: “I haven’t yet — it’s a work in progress. He added: We were actually on our way to buying one before lockdown. It is going to happen, I promise you. I have bought an electric bike, but it’s on its way.”
POLICE NOW SAY NO OFFICERS HAD BROKEN BONES
The Guardian reports: Avon and Somerset police have retracted widely reported claims that officers suffered broken bones and a punctured lung during attempts to disperse a protest on Sunday night. There was widespread outrage when the force made the claims in a press release on Monday that “a total of 20 officers were assaulted or injured and two of them were taken to hospital after suffering broken bones. One of them also suffered a punctured lung.” But in an updated press release on Wednesday, the force clarified this was not true, saying: “Thankfully, following a full medical assessment of the two officers taken to hospital, neither were found to have suffered confirmed broken bones.” However, the force has since updated the number of injuries suffered by police officers to 40.
AND FINALLY
From the Mirror: A wedding venue was left baffled when the cake turned up with an unfortunate message written on the top – but the bakers insist they were only following orders. Many bakers allow the cakes to be personalised to ensure it’s just right, but a picture of one wedding cake was shared on Twitter after it appeared the instructions had been taken too literally. The cake was decorated with white icing and a border, but in the middle bears the message: ‘No inscription please!’
Vaccination by nasal spray is better because you typically catch the virus up your nose! – Does that mean they might give credence to the natural vaccination of having caught the actual disease up your nose (doubt it) – Amazed that where the sight of your RNA altering dose is deposited can influence your bodies immune defences – Anyway vaccination by chemicals up your nose surely means it can be distributed by adding it to vapour trails when the holiday jets are flying again ….ah wait a minute that is putting the cart before the horse, there wont be holiday jets before demise of Covid … ah wait another minute Covid like all virus will never demise.
Number 9 Press Briefing Room ?
So it is now a permanent arrangement. We are now ruled for ever, by a Dictator promulgating Law via the Media.
A bit like Charles 1 and his Divine Right to Rule without Parliament.
Pauline. That was my reaction upon reading this. Boris has now become a dictator with ‘messianic’ delusions! He likes to see himself as the “Father of the Nation’ dispensing wisdom and goodness and keeping the people ‘safe’! To have had a dedicated media room created is the height of bad taste and illustrates exactly the hubris that has consumed him! I wait impatiently for Nemesis to turn up!
I don’t distrust Nigel Farage, but he has let us down by resigning from the leadership of Reform UK, and the cardinal sin of course is doing it prior to major local elections. Regrettably his replacement Richard Tice who was appointed and not elected is not a leader, especially of a party aiming to go somewhere and live up to its strap line ‘change politics for good’. He just doesn’t do it for me and the same can be said for many others that I know, and Farage should have left the stepping down bit until after the election. However I suspect that the motivation behind it was the fact that he he did not relish the prospect of standing for election, and having to take his message to the doorstep rather then the top deck of a bus. Elections are won at the doorstep, simple as.
Farage has been rejected in many national elections. Cannot blame him not wanting more rejection. He also has bills to pay like every one else thus needing regular income. Fresh approach to taking on the establishment parties is needed.
Interesting Jake. At one time I hoped Conservatives would split over Euro scepticism. At other times it has seemed possible that Labour would split. But of course, they are politicians, i.e. they want the cushy job on offer – a seat in the Commons. So they’ll swallow any principles they may have started with to toe the Party line.
Meanwhile it was in all their interests to put more and more obstacles in the way of new Parties starting up.
And while all I know about Labour is that it is or has been funded and controlled by Trade Unions, more and more I find Conservatives are ruled and funded by their Central Office.
Taking them on? A mammoth task, and I don’t know how.
From Nigel Farage:
“Nigel Farage: We are on the verge of an immigration explosion”
https://youtu.be/tWf5UNgCiAQ
On the verge of an immigration explosion! What have we been going through for over fifty years, more of this invasion and we’ll loose our country and way of life.
Illegal immigrants come here and destroy their papers so that we can’t deport them; it seems to me that the only option then is to make it a mandatory death penalty for those entering our country illegally. These people aren’t our friends the want to destroy our history, cancel our culture and rape our women and children; it’ll only get worse as their numbers grow: execute the enemy while we still can.
And the newspapers and Woke, Howl about the Uighurs. Which is just another name for Muslims. And all that China is trying to do is stop them wanting to kill christians in China.( Educate them ) Or, in fact, Christians or Budhists or Hindu in fact anybody not the Uighur kind of Muslim.. China with all its strange ways is not stupid like us. Same as Mali and dozens of wars going on all round the world and destroying the whole of Central Africa., Our politicians, Newspapers like those of the entire west Seem to want another Global war. With no sense to it. Islam is designed to conquer then starve and destroy. Just like Globalists and Big business I suppose. [ Who is it that our politicians actually listen to ?. It must be big business who don’t care who it sells to, and can easily afford to.bribe and Sleaze , and like the idea of a whole new bunch of crazy customers.
Remember Salman Rushdie.
Another example of our fearless establishment, fearlessly hanging him out to dry. And hoping to forget.
Treacherous swine ( Plrl ) Do nothing and hope you’ll forget; Our Representatives. ( Not delegates ) and talk about all our freedoms as if they ever did anything, except speaches.
I find Farage’s [pronouncements interesting. He highlights things that need highlighting and that resonate with the public but I think there can sometimes be an agends here. I dont trust him .
Havent watched this yet but could this be a soften up for UN Global Migration ? Highlighting illegals and saying controlled safe migration per UN Compact is the answer? It would certainly put a stop to illegal migration !!!!! (by making it legal1)
ps sorry agends should read agenda
pps not my day today
UN Global Migration should read UN Global Migration Compact
Such tiny innoffensive little mistakes. Sweet. I make dozens per comment. Viv , And (how is Debbie? get better soon! ),) are very forgiving.
Yes how is Debbie these days? I often think about her.
Sadly – I don’t know. It’s a good week ago that I tried talking to her, only to learn that she was back in hospital with an infection and that she’d get back to me. She hasn’t, so we’ll just have to wait and wait … and wishing her all the best, keeping her in our thoughts.
I see your point mary. As leader of Ukip then as an MEP Farage was of some use. Now he has even admitted to being well out of the firing line.
I think that mass executions would not be appropriate these days. Perhaps we should try and find somewhere that can be persuaded to take undocumented migrants? I would suggest some of the central Asian republics, where the society, culture and religion are nearer to what these migrants have left in their native countries. If they thought that they were going to end up in somewhere like Uzbekistan, the flow of migrants would stop pretty rapidly. What we first need to do is to detach ourselves from some of the crazy ‘human rights’ laws and conventions that have appeared over the decades.
Philip. Never mind persuading countries to take them! I’d like to fly them over and drop the blighters out – with a parachute of course!
We can dream!