Fisheries
Express
FRANCE is demanding a unified European front to ‘retaliate’ against the United Kingdom after Britain rejected a wave of French fishing licence requests.
France accused Britain of playing politics with fishing rules after only granting licences to 12 out of 47 applications to allow small French boats to fish in British territorial waters. Gabriel Attal, a French government spokesman, branded the decision “unacceptable” as France raged in the subsequent diplomatic fall-out. Jersey then blocked a further 75 out of 170 French requests to fish in its waters despite France previously threatening to cut electricity supplies to the Channel isle in a fishing feud. Dimitri Rogoff, president of the regional fisheries committee in Normandy, has warned French fishers were now preparing to blockade Jersey’s main port. He said: “They are ready to attack [Jersey’s capital] St Helier. It is tense, very very tense.”
Jersey authorities issued just 64 full licences and 31 temporary passes, on top of the 47 vessels already licensed earlier this year.
The 75 French vessels refused access have been given 30 days’ notice before they are completely shut out of Jersey’s waters.
French Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin said: “We have every interest in returning to the European level and jointly asking the [European] Commission to put in place the retaliatory measures provided for in the agreement.
The Times also has the story.
EU
Telegraph
An EU official tasked with monitoring the bloc’s expenditure fraudulently claimed vast sums of taxpayer money to spend on lavish hunting trips with continental royals, it was revealed on Thursday.
Karel Pinxten, a former member of the EU court of auditors, said European taxpayers should foot the bill for hunting parties in France and Belgium because “leading European personalities” were present, according to court documents.
Mr Pinxten also claimed to be on official business when really on private trips to Cuba and Switzerland, or attending friends’ marriages, the European Court of Justice found.
The expense claims totaled more than €472,000 (£400,000), plus almost €100,000 in unearned salary because many of his work absences were not justified, investigators said.
The official, who dabbled in property, also tried to rent an apartment to the EU’s top diplomat, whose expenses he was supposed to monitor personally.
More details in Politico
Express
THE EUROZONE is facing a crisis after Germany suffered its biggest inflation surge in 28 years, sparking chaos across the bloc.
For the first time since 1993, inflation rates across Germany rose above four percent. Throughout September, consumer prices were 4.1 percent above the level of the same month last year. For August, statisticians reported an increase in import prices of 16.5 percent over the previous year.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the last time the Wiesbaden authority put a four before the decimal point was back in December 1993, when it was at 4.3 percent.
Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank, warned: “The risks of inflation are currently increasing significantly.
“So far, it has been safe to say that the rise in inflation is temporary.
“But the now significantly higher raw material prices are changing the starting position.”
Illegal migrants
Breitbart
Illegal migrants who make it into Britain by obtaining legitimate visas and then not leaving are estimated at 64,000 a year, dwarfing the headline-grabbing boat migrant influx.
The ever-increasing number of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats — despite the Tories having first declared the crossings a “major incident” and promised to bring it under control in 2018 — is now the only migration-related issue to receive serious attention from British politicians.
Mass legal immigration, which the Tories no longer even pretend they will reduce “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands”, has been largely eliminated from the public discourse as a matter of debate, while illegal immigration by methods other than small boat which once enjoyed some prominence — breaking into Britain-bound lorries, for example, sometimes harming or even killing drivers in the attempt — have also been pushed into the background.
However, Sky News has now shone a light on the scale of illegal immigration, at least, beyond the boats crisis, with tens of thousands of people becoming so-called “irregular migrants” by showing up on visas for travel, study, temporary work, or some other pretext and simply not leaving once these have expired.
In an article broadly sympathetic to the migrants, the broadcaster analysed Home Office data from 2018 to 2020 and found that an annual average of 3,600 were recorded as having arrived in Britain by boat — although this is arguably misleading, as the numbers have risen dramatically year on year and currently stand at around 14,500 for 2021 with months still to go before the year’s end.
Accounting for people stowing away in lorries etc. as well, the average number of so-called “clandestine entries” rises from 3,600 a year to around 11,400 — keeping in mind that only clandestine entries that are detected are accounted for, so “the real scale is unknown and will likely never be known” — but this is still dwarfed by the hidden influx of visa overstayers, estimated at a whopping 64,400 a year.
NHS
Times
Dozens of “one-stop shops” for NHS scans and tests will be set up on high streets and in football stadiums to help to deal with Covid backlogs as the health service faces its “toughest winter yet”.
Lives will be saved and treatment sped up through more convenient diagnostic centres that keep routine checks well away from coronavirus patients, ministers say.
About 2.8 million scans a year have been promised from 40 seven-day-a-week hubs, which health chiefs believe will help to cut waiting lists for routine care. They also say it will speed up cancer diagnosis after thousands of cases were missed during lockdowns.
BBC News also has the story.
Energy
BBC News
A squeeze on household finances will become more acute as a new, higher energy price cap takes effect from Friday.
Typical default domestic energy bills are rising by £139 a year, and prepayment meter customers will see a £153 increase.
About 15 million households in England, Wales and Scotland are affected.
The cap has come under the spotlight owing to the crisis among suppliers, which has seen nine firms fold.
The cap limits how much providers can raise prices. Even so, the current increase is the biggest jump, to the highest amount, seen since the backstop was introduced in January 2019.
It represents a 12% rise in energy prices at a time of the year when, charities point out, people are about to use more heating and lighting during colder, darker days. It also coincides with other price rises hitting family budgets and the withdrawal of Covid support schemes, although the government has promised to continue financial help for the poorest households.
The cap does not apply in Northern Ireland where prices are overseen by a regulator.
Also find the story in Sky News
Fuel
Telegraph
Fuel supplies across large swathes of the country are not improving, industry leaders have warned, despite government claims that the crisis is “back under control”.
Petrol station bosses accused ministers on Thursday of “gaslighting” the public after more than a quarter of forecourts ran dry and motorists were again stuck in long queues.
Garages in some areas have been without fuel for five days, according to industry sources, leaving rural residents trapped in their homes.
Meanwhile, pharmacies said they were struggling to access vital medicines.
Ministers continued to insist that the shortages were easing, with more fuel now being delivered to petrol stations than sold to drivers.
Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “That crisis is now absolutely something which is back under control. The most important message is the resilience of the fuel supply chain is improving.”
The Mail has more details.
GPs
Telegraph
Face-to-face appointments with GPs have fallen by almost one million in a month despite repeated pledges by ministers to improve access to family doctors.
Campaigners for the elderly warned that remote appointments had become “the new normal”, accusing the Government of failing to “get a grip” on the problem.
The Prime Minister, Health Secretary and senior health officials have promised patients the right to see a GP in person amid concern that a reliance on remote appointments means potentially deadly symptoms are being missed.
But new figures show that the proportion of GP appointments taking place in person has barely changed since the height of lockdown.
The NHS statistics show that in August, 13.7 million patients in England had a face-to-face appointment with their GP, down from 14.6 million the previous month. This compares with 24.3 million such appointments in October 2019, and 18.1 million in August that year, before the pandemic.
Media also covering the story include the Mail, Sun, ITV News.
Education
Mail
Face masks should be brought back in secondary schools immediately, a member of Independent SAGE claimed today.
Guidance saying children should wear coverings in classrooms was dropped in mid-May as part of ending lockdown restrictions.
But with the number of children testing positive for Covid having soared to its highest level since the pandemic began, some academics now want them to return to schools.
Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician at University College London, said they should be brought back to schools ‘now’.
Addressing a Royal Society for Medicine briefing, she also called for other mitigation measures to come back into use such as keeping doors and windows open.
Current restrictions require school children to test themselves for the virus twice a week using a lateral flow device.
Face masks are already in use at schools in parts of the South West, Cumbria and Northamptonshire.
But this is not Government policy nationwide, although officials have said schools are free to reimpose some Covid restrictions including face masks in the event of an uptick.
Jabs
Mail
It is safe to get the Covid and flu vaccines in each arm at the same time, a study has found.
Research of 700 Britons revealed giving both injections in one visit raised no safety concerns and still produced a strong immune response.
Half of the volunteers were given both injections at the same time, while the others were given the doses separately three weeks apart.
Co-administering the vaccines at the same time only caused ‘mild to moderate’ side effects, researchers said.
Ministers have already said millions of Britons can get the flu jab at the same time as their Covid booster.
More than 32million people are eligible for a third dose in the coming months — but only six months after their second.
The NHS says most people who can get a booster are also eligible for the annual flu vaccine.
Getting two or more jabs at once is already fairly standard practice throughout the NHS, especially in babies and people travelling to certain destinations.
The Times, iNews, Independent also have the story.
Covid
Mail
France has ordered anyone aged 12 and older to show a Covid-19 ‘health pass’ to enter public sites in a bid to stave off a winter virus flare-up.
It is an extension of a measure in place for two months for adults visiting restaurants, sport clubs or cinemas.
Authorities are hoping the policy will prevent another wave of Covid cases as colder weather approaches and people spend more time indoors.
The pass, available on paper or as a QR code on phones, proves vaccination, a recent negative Covid test, or inoculation because a person has already had the virus.
Announced by President Emmanuel Macron in July, it prompted millions of people to get the jabs after holding out for months, giving France one of the world’s highest vaccination rates.
But thousands of people have turned out in weekly protests, saying the pass discriminates against people opposed to the vaccine because of safety fears or other reasons.
The government is nonetheless preparing a law that would let it keep imposing the health pass if necessary until next summer, calling it a key measure for avoiding another lockdown that would cripple a fragile economic recovery.
Debbie- it is one o’clock and no posts. Don’t get the idea that nobody is reading your output. I read it every day I can. And when my blood boils, I do post.
The other source of info is Russia Today, RT. They film and cover anti eu riots on the continent, Biden (or lack thereof) watching a tennis match whilst talking?, wars?, youropeeing bickering?, race wars and so on?
Anyone on GB msm said anything about the drug wall?, cia attempt to kill Assange?, covid brutality in Australia?, 199 firefighters suspended as they refused to be vaccinated and get a ‘health pass’? and on and on . . .
Sorry!! But some like myself can only read all and agree with all the publication at tea time, when the days labour is over
Fisheries:
Time to tell the EU / France to go to hell and police our waters rigorously. Anything less will result in a creeping invasion of our waters. Illegal immigrants could be dealt with in the same way. However can we expect any necessary action on both counts from the traitor in No. 10?
Jack Thomas………….I agree with your notion that it is high time to tell the European Union to go take a hike and cease interfering in the running of our country. However it won’t happen so long as useless Boris Johnson is in possession of the keys to 10, Downing Street, because he patently lacks political conviction and a backbone to do what is right for the citizens of this country, which as prime minister is what he should be doing, and doesn’t want to upset those he misguidedly calls our friends and partners on the continent. He started off well and took us out of the European Union as promised on 31st January 2020, but since then he has sat on his laurels and done very little about resolving the many issues that have come to the fore over his third rate withdrawal agreement. And as for the English Channel migrant crisis, well I give up altogether with him and his ineptitude and ineffectiveness as prime minister of this country knows no bounds. In any other occupation this fool would been summarily dismissed from his post as being unsuitable, but as we know the usual norms and standards as to whether someone is efficient at their job doesn’t seem to apply with politicians, and an ideal example of how not to run a country is laid before our very eyes in the shape of Boris Johnson. If we had a decent political opposition in the House of Commons they would have by now made mincemeat of him, but lets face it Starmer is a weak, woke and rather comical leader who few have confidence in……..
Oh how I agree with you Colin.
We probably have had two useless Political Party leaders before but never before have I felt that absolutely everything in the country is corrupt and rotten at the same time.
Pressure from one group so PANIC one way. Pressure from somewhere else so PANIC another way.
It goes on and on and on.
Labour’s conference has not threatened the Cons one jot has it.
Will we learn if anything promising happens at the Cons conference?
British society is now too complicated. Daily it is being made more complicated. By those who benefit from disorganisation. Is there a point. where something can be deemed as only either good or bad. This is the job of Religions . So give them the job, limited only by law. In Britain we had figured that out quite early but more importantly, everywhere. Whenever Law and order and organisation fails , it is a failure of religion, or religious agreement within law.
The 1940’s, 50’s 60’s and 70’s youth clubs were a testament to the principal organisation of the church. And what we have now is a tribute to a present loss of morality and babyish confusion about Fair, envy, selfish, responsibility and the more primitive emotions… ( This is purely an example not a blueprint )
This is quite correct. ..Cof E. is A reasonable chap, as are many europeans. Sikhs, Buddists, Ghurkas Indians, Australians and Chinaman , Germans are quite correct, French excitable, as are( Probably because they are Catholics, as are Spaniards, ( if only they would stop Bullfighting ) perfectly reasonable chaps. Carribeans , Nigerians Scots, Irish ( Always willing to fight for or or against us, or any one else really ) Perfectly good chaps and usually understand the rules. . Even Americans but only after a decent level of haggling and trying to sell something,
Anyway thats all by the bye.
The really dangerous, are not berfectly good chaps… They are the ones who do not care,or consider, who what, where, when, or how, they do something. They are Wild beasts and are to be seperated, or changed, or disposed of
How this is done I don’t know. I keep an open mind.There of course problems such as what to do with the unthinking and homone driven children uo to 25, Obviously they will one day be useful, but in the meantime ?
TG Spokes…….have you completely lost the plot? We don’t want religion, that is any religion to play a part in the running of this country. I don’t want Islam insofar as Sharia law getting involved and I don’t want the Church of England involved either in any way whatsoever, especially that complete idiot Justin Welby. The church should concentrate on delivering assistance to those who want their help within the curtilege of their churches and nowhere else, thank you very much. And get them out of the House of Lords as well. Religion has caused more unnecessary problems in this world of ours than anything else.