Brexit
Express
BORIS Johnson’s negotiating team are “confident” of striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU by the end of the year, it emerged. They insist that Brussels wants to wrap an agreement up as soon as possible and that sticking points over issues like fishing will be ironed out. Talks between the UK and the European Commission continued last week online but ended with little progress and Brussels claiming that Britain was “playing for time”. But sources close to the UK negotiating team stressed that relations are still good while admitting further progress needs to be made. A crunch meeting in June could be a make or break moment for talks, they indicated.
Times
Downing Street is pushing for one to one talks between Michel Barnier and David Frost, the EU and UK’s chief Brexit negotiators, in an attempt to break their impasse. In a plan to repeat the intensive and secret negotiations that led to a breakthrough over the Irish backstop last year, senior government figures are urging the EU to open a parallel line of communication to the formal negotiating rounds. They said that unless the EU were prepared to change its approach to the talks that aim to bind the UK into future rules and regulations then a deal would not be possible.
Guardian
The UK is still optimistic about striking a trade deal with the EU but has warned that talks could collapse in June unless Brussels abandons its demands for a common fisheries policy and a level playing field, a source close to the UK’s negotiating team has said. The source said only “limited progress in bridging the gaps between us” had been made at last week’s talks, but there was “confidence that progress can be made quite quickly”.
Reuters
Britain is confident it can get a deal on its future ties with the European Union if Brussels starts treating it as an independent negotiator, a source close to the British negotiating team said on Thursday. But, underlining what sources in Brussels say is an impasse at talks since Britain left the EU in January, French officials later reiterated the 27-nation bloc’s position that London must make concessions for a deal to be reached this year. The two sides have been unable to find any compromise on three main areas – the so-called level playing field guarantees of fair competition, governance and fisheries policy, according to the sources in Brussels and London.
Mirror
European negotiators have until a crunch meeting in June to change tune on fisheries and the role of EU courts in a post-Brexit trade deal or risk talks collapsing, UK sources have said. Talks between the UK and the European Commission continued last week online but ended with little progress and Brussels claiming that Britain was “playing for time”. But sources close to the UK negotiating team have hit back at claims from Brussels – and warned that the EU must change its tack on key areas or risk the talks ending without a deal.
Lifting lockdown
Mail
Ministers have warned lockdown may need to remain in place for months until the number of new cases falls below 1,000 per day after Professor Chris Whitty raised the spectre of a second peak far worse than the first. The total number of new coronavirus deaths in all settings was 674 on Thursday, down from 765 the previous day, but there was a leap in the number of new cases to 6,032 from 4,076 on the day before. Although this was in part down to increased testing, ministers say they want daily infections down to the hundreds before any easing of the lockdown, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Independent
Boris Johnson has told Britain to wait another week for an exit strategy from lockdown, despite declaring for the first time that the country has passed the peak of the coronavirus pandemic and is “on the downward slope”. The prime minister came under fire for claiming his approach to the crisis had succeeded in “avoiding the tragedy” seen elsewhere in the world. The latest death toll of 26,771 – up 674 in a day – puts the UK potentially on track to be the worst-hit nation in Europe.
Telegraph
Boris Johnson will outline his “roadmap” for exiting the coronavirus lockdown next week after declaring that Britain is “past the peak and on the downward slope”. The Prime Minister said he would make clear to the nation the “menu of options” he will have to choose from when he eventually decides to begin lifting the current restrictions. He said it was still too early to say when there would be any easing of social distancing measures but that plans were in place to restart the economy, reopen schools and enable people to travel to work safely.
Times
Britain is past the peak of its coronavirus epidemic and on the “downward slope”, Boris Johnson said last night as he promised to publish a roadmap out of the lockdown next week. The “comprehensive plan” would address how to get the economy moving again, how people could safely commute and work and how children could return to school, he said. The prime minister said that the government would recommend face-coverings, partly to give people confidence to go back to work.
Face masks
Independent
Face masks will play a part in easing Britain out of coronavirus lockdown, Boris Johnson has said in the most substantive comments yet from the government on the public use of the coverings. “What I think Sage is saying, and what I certainly agree with is that as part of coming out of the lockdown I do think face coverings will be useful, both for epidemiological reasons but also giving people confidence they can go back to work,” the prime minister said during a Downing Street press briefing. More details will be given next week, he said, as part of a new plan that charts the way out of lockdown.
Mirror
Boris Johnson tonight said face coverings will be a “useful” tool for coming out of the coronavirus lockdown. The Prime Minister gave the first clear suggestion that people across the UK will be advised to cover their faces in public to help slow the spread of the virus. He said further information would only be confirmed next week. People in Scotland have already been advised to cover their faces in some public places. Scientific advice to the UK government from SAGE says masks have a weak effect, if worn by someone with Covid-19, in stopping them passing the disease to others.
Sun
BORIS Johnson has said the public will be asked to wear face masks when lockdown measures are lifted as they are “useful”. The PM today confirmed The Sun’s story last week that scientists have advised they can have an effect on stopping the spread of the bug. He said a full announcement was going to be made next week as part of his plans to finally start ending Britain’s lockdown.
Vaccine
Times
The NHS will be given priority access to a potential Covid-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists under a partnership announced yesterday. Oxford University said that the drug maker AstraZeneca had agreed to manufacture and distribute a vaccine developed by its researchers if it proved safe and effective. AstraZeneca said that it would give priority to increasing production capacity for Britain provided that positive results were returned from human trials over the next eight to twelve weeks.
Mail
Doubts have been cast over the promising COVID-19 drug remdesivir that has shown ‘fantastic results’, after another study found it had no benefit. Remdesivir was reported by US officials to have ‘clear-cut’ evidence that it can help people recover from COVID-19, shortening the time of recovery. Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said unpublished results from an international study of 1,000 people showed the drug ‘could block the virus’.
Sun
BRITISH scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine have said they will know by early summer if it works. Human trials of the Oxford University jab began last week. Now, the team has struck a deal with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for a huge roll-out of the vaccine at cost price. The company has pledged to produce 100million doses this year if the trials prove positive. And it has promised to put the UK at the front of the queue for early access to millions of jabs.
Fox News
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that there are 102 potential COVID-19 vaccines in development and that eight of the contenders have been approved for clinical trials. On Monday, the global health arm of the United Nations reported seven possible vaccines had been given the green light for testing. One of the groups approved for clinical trials on humans is from the United States.
Testing
Times
Matt Hancock hopes to declare victory in his attempt to reach 100,000 tests by last night, after they jumped more than 50 per cent to 81,611 on Wednesday. While allies acknowledge that reaching the target remains “touch and go”, the health secretary will argue that even if he falls slightly short it counts as a moral victory to have increased testing almost tenfold in a month. The prime minister boasted last night that Britain was now carrying out a similar number of tests to Germany as he promised a further expansion.
BBC News
The government is “likely to get very close to or meet” its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government would achieve the aim by the end of April – which was Thursday – and those figures are expected later. Just over 81,000 tests took place on Wednesday, but Mr Shapps told Question Time there had been capacity for more. It comes as the PM said the UK was now “past the peak” of the outbreak.
Guardian
More than 81,600 tests for coronavirus were carried out on more than 54,000 people on Wednesday, marking a significant move towards the government’s target of 100,000 a day by the end of April. Boris Johnson revealed that there had been a huge jump of 30,000 tests in the previous 24 hours, but it will not be clear whether ministers have met their goal until later on Friday. Earlier, the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, had conceded the government was likely to miss its deadline, as only 52,000 tests had been carried out on Tuesday.
Sun
A NEW antibody test which checks if people have already had coronavirus is said to be 99 per cent accurate. The test has been certified for use across Europe, raising hopes this side of the Channel. Accurate antibody tests could be a game-changer for countries under lockdown. It would allow experts to look at how many people have already had the virus, and potentially relax rules for those people found to have immunity. Global diagnostics specialists Abbott, which has a UK base in Maidenhead, has said it is expecting to have shipped millions of the new lab-based tests across the UK by the end of May.
Morning Star
GOVERNMENTS are under pressure after conceding today that targets for the number of coronavirus tests carried out each day are set to be missed. Health Secretary Matt Hancock had announced a target of 100,000 tests to be carried out daily by the end of April. Downing Street insisted the government was “working hard” to hit the target but ministers conceded it may not be met, with capacity levels at 77,365 tests on Tuesday, when 52,000 exams were carried out.
R0
Telegraph
There are a lot of figures involved in understanding the coronavirus pandemic, be it around cases, deaths or tests. But there is one number above all others that experts obsess over – and, increasingly, use to guide the UK government’s approach to relaxing the lockdown. It is called the reproductive value, or “R0 “, pronounced ‘R nought’ or ‘R zero’, and it basically tracks how many people, on average, will be infected for every one person who has the disease.
Mirror
At the heart of almost every government decision about battling the coronavirus is a simple number, which just a few weeks ago was a relatively obscure calculation used by people who study diseases. That is the R number or R0 (pronounced R-nought), which measures a diseases ability to spread. When R is 1 every infected person infects one other person – spreading the coronavirus. If R is below 1 then every infected person is passing it on to less than one person and the spread of the infection slowly but surely sinks.
Elderly
Telegraph
Boris Johnson’s Government should stop treating the elderly like “a crazy old people’s club” and let them work out how to keep safe from coronavirus themselves, former Government adviser Joan Bakewell says today. The Government’s policy is that the over-70s should stay at home and avoid social gatherings to avoid catching the Covid-19. But Baroness Bakewell – who advised the last Labour government on policies towards pensioners- tells today’s Chopper’s Politics that they should be trusted because none of them want “to die young” either and are “certainly going to resist being told what to do by strapping youngsters”.
Sun
PEOPLE aged over 50 should remain under lockdown for longer than younger Brits and fined if they can’t prove their age when they are out, experts claim. Researchers at the University of Warwick believe a “rolling age-release strategy” to let younger people out earlier combined with social distancing is the safest way out of the UK’s lockdown. Covid-19 deaths among 50-year-olds are 20 times higher than among 20-year-olds, with deaths among 60-year-olds about 50 times larger than with people in their early 20s, the study claims.
Mail
Keeping the over-50s in isolation longer and requiring people to prove their age when out and about is ‘the safest way out of lockdown’, researchers claim. A Warwick University study found that a ‘rolling age-release strategy’ was the best option to end the lockdown introduced to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The strategy proposed by researchers is based on the fact that death rates from COVID-19 among 50-year-olds are 20 times higher than deaths among 20-year-olds.
Education
Sun
CHILDREN could be given the chance to go back to school part-time before the summer holidays under plans being drawn up by ministers. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is considering allowing kids of all ages to return on a rota basis. One option would be to let year groups at a crunch moment in their studies back first. This could include 11 year-olds moving from primary school to secondary, or pupils doing GCSEs or A Levels.
Telegraph
Teachers have been warned over “unconscious bias” amid fears that ethnic minorities and poor children could be given incorrect GCSE or A-level grade predictions. Schools should be required to inform exam boards about pupils’ socio-economic status, ethnicity and disabilities alongside their predicted grade, according to the UK’s equality watchdog. This would enable exam boards to analyse trends in the predicted grades they receive from teachers and check for any “systematic advantages or disadvantages” for particular groups of students.
Mail
An equalities watchdog has warned the body in charge of school exams that not enough is being done to stop ‘unconscious bias’ against black and ethnic minority students (BAME) when teachers award grades for GCSEs and A-levels cancelled in the coronavirus crisis. Schools have been instructed by Ofqual to rank pupils within each grade for each subject for their GCSEs and A-levels, but they are not allowed to share these with families until results are issued in August. The Equality and Human Rights Commission says Ofqual’s measures will not go far enough to keep grades fair for disadvantaged pupils.
Sport
Times
Football matches would be played behind closed doors all next season under plans being considered by the sport’s authorities. Senior figures believe that games in the top four divisions, including the Premier League, will be held without crowds until Christmas as Britain tries to control the coronavirus pandemic. They think this could continue until May next year if government permission for mass gatherings is tied to production of a widely available vaccine.
Air travel
Times
Airlines have been told to refund passengers left out of pocket by flight cancellations despite warnings that it could lead to the collapse of some carriers. The Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday that millions of customers were entitled to a cash repayment for grounded flights, with a suggestion that legal action could be taken against airlines that flouted the requirement. The Competition and Markets Authority also pledged to investigate businesses that failed to respect cancellation rights, adding that customers should not be “misled or pressured” into accepting credit notes as an alternative to cash.
ITV News
Gatwick is the UK’s second busiest airport. One in five flights that come and go are British Airways flights. At peak times of the year BA operates 180 flights a day from the airport. For now the BA fleet here is grounded. The airline is indicating said flights may not resume here even when borders reopen and restrictions are lifted. In an email to staff, Adam Carson, the airline’s Managing Director at Gatwick, wrote: “As you know, we suspended our Gatwick flying schedule at the start of April and there is no certainty as to when or if these services can or will return.”
EU
Sun
EUROPE is suffering its worst financial crisis since World War II as France and Italy plunge into recession and Spain’s economy collapses. The coronavirus pandemic has killed tens of thousands across the continent and wrought economic havoc as whole countries were locked down. Business activity from hotels and restaurants to construction and manufacturing has been frozen by shutdowns aimed at preventing the bug’s spread. And the latest figures today show the European economy shrank by a record 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
Express
A FREE trade deal struck between the EU and Mexico – which has parallels with the Brexit deal the UK is requesting – has triggered a backlash across Mexico and Europe. Politicians, scientists, environmentalist and campaigners say the deal struck between EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan and the Mexican Minister for Economic Affairs Graciela Márquez Colín yesterday will trigger human rights abuses and crimes against the environment. A collective of so-called civil society European organisations which took part in the so-called Toxi Tour in Mexico demand the trade deal is scrapped.
Laugh to see Uni researchers confusing corona. infection rate with death rate .
wheres the evidence that over 70s spread the bug more than sweaty needle -sharing clubbers ?
Nice to think druggies and burglars get out of house arrest before codgers…as it should be.
Lock ’em up I say
Good for “the thinking mans’ crumpet”. – Joan Bakewell
At least there is one “prominent voice” that has managed to get out in the media that over 70’s are conscious that every year at advanced age is PRECIOUS?That,s not to say we are all gung-ho creators and initiators of new enterprise, but all of us see a future for ourselves and most of us hope it will be positive where we are free to express ourselves in word and deed and not be controlled by a seemingly malevolent government who were intent on implementing global control strictures also had it in for the elderly drones anyway.
While assuring the government that the elderly are not complete economic liabilities, we also contribute fully in many other ways and what’s more we are entitled to a LIFE.
Life does of course come with ups and downs, but that does not include alienation and ostracism by ageism and that is what appears to be the fate of the over 50’s even if the latest prognostications of our evil MSM are to be believed that our lot will be released from gaol in some sort of age rotation..
I for one will have no hesitation in bursting the curfew the moment I hear my golf course is open again – doesn’t have to be the clubhouse just that lovely green sward stretching out from the first Tee
There would likely have been an economic collapse this year due to the irredeemable debt and lack of reform after the 2008 GR. Covid19 might by itself have been enough to prick the debt bubble with people going out less but it is the ludicrous lockdown policies that has not only triggered the end of the “boom” but made the coming depression far far worse than it would have been.
And just as our tax revenue falls off a cliff a genuine chronic health crisis will be building in the form of late stage cancers, late presenting heart attack and stroke victims, huge backlog of operations and treatment, general poor health due to unnecessarily compromised immune systems, big rise in mental health issues, earlier dementia, alcoholism, drug use, obesity etc. We will need the blasted NHS but can it afford to treat us now?
Just been thinking about what you said MWT about the economic collapse forecast prior to the arrival of the Chinese Virus..
I had felt that with Brexit we were going to have to become a true trading nation again and that must include actually manufacturing tangible things that the greater world would buy, and not be so reliant on what they call “service industries”
In fact I had heard from time to time of a third industrial revolution and i did hear on BBC an interview with the CEO of Rolls Royce of wonderful innovation in the nuclear industry. He didn’t say what that was, but I subsequently guessed that might mean mini nuclear power systems (why not? they seem to get submarines to do it)
I won’t enlarge much further, but I would like to know if others had similar impressions and if so this sort of initiative is still a runner AND more importantly part of government strategy or even if now the economy will be so wrecked with the additional imposition of Covid 19 wrecking ball that any strategy is out of the window ( that’s forthe birds !)
I should have read your News Report before Writing my comment ” on Brexit Betrayal ” Sorry.
Sovereignty. What,s ours is ours. ! Fishing , NI etc, ? No Arguement. ! Why talk ?
Oh dear ! Issues like Fishing will be ironed out. Where is UKIP when needed?#Come back Mike Hookem’.
Was there ever a better named Fisheries Spokesperson ?
🙂
I am afraid the writing is on the wall, the government will back down and allow foreign fishing vessels to fish within our waters and no doubt they will allow some sort of level playing field where we will continue to part of the EU structure. Wasn’t it announced this past week that the government have stopped planning for a WTO Rules Brexit. Already there seems to be a reluctance to stem the tide of migrants coming to our shores illegally. UKIP however is finished, but we need The Brexit Party to be brought out of its self imposed hibernation sooner rather than later. However there is a prominent politician who is planning to create a new right of centre political party to fill the void of The Brexit Party if this does not occur.
I fear you may be right Colin, but I have always said Boris can get away with the Covid 19 mess an d responsibility with the electorate, but he will be out if he doesn’t deliver a full enemcumbered Brexit and Trade agreement
He might get away with a Canada style agreement, but not an Australian (WTO) one., I hope your information on the cessation of WTO planning is wrong, because I am not too happy about the Canadian deal, I believe it leaves too many loopholes and clouds the immediacy of being able to instigate policy without reference to others
That is why I would like Nigel Farage to bring The Brexit Party out its of ‘care and maintenance’ regime as he put it. Not sufficient to shout from the sidelines on LBC. If he doesn’t do this, another political party will be formed before Autumn to take its place. No General Election for another 4 years, but there are local elections to be contested next year, so whether its The Brexit Party or another party to step up to the plate and challenge this governments record, remains to be seen.
There`s two n `s in encumbered
Apologies for typo