EYE CATCHING GIVEAWAY BUDGET

The Daily Mail reports that  Rishi Sunak will use a giveaway budget next week to pave the way for a post-lockdown boom. Help for motorists, hospitality firms and the housing market is expected to be among a string of eye-catching policies.The Chancellor is set to shelve plans for tax rises, including a threatened 5p increase in fuel duty and introduce vouchers for high street shoppers and lower alcohol duty for restaurants and pubs  continue the stamp duty holiday and extend the jobs furlough scheme and VAT and business rate cuts for the hospitality and tourism industry, A return of last summer’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme may also be set to return. Record borrowing has seen the national debt top £2trillion for the first time. But the third coronavirus lockdown has forced him to shelve plans for immediate tax rises.

 

CHANCELLOR REVIEWS ALCOHOL TAX DIFFERENTIATION

From the Daily Mail: The Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that the Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering rolling out lower rates of  alcohol duty for pubs than for supermarkets as the Chancellor prepares to unveil his Budget on March 3. Tory MPs have urged the Government to treat pubs differently to large retailers to stop them being ‘undercut by cheap supermarket booze’. Mr Johnson said at PMQs on Wednesday that a review into so-called ‘differentiation’ has been carried out and the Chancellor is looking very closely at the findings amid claims that he will extend the stamp duty holiday until the end of June to give a boost to the housing market.

 

BREXIT BRITAIN  BOOM DESPITE REMAINER WARNINGS

From Breitbart: The economic future of Brexit Britain has defied doomsday Remainer warnings yet again, as some 1,000 financial firms in the European Union are planning to open up offices in the UK and London has been declared as the top city in the world for investment opportunities. Despite the economic damage inflicted by some of the strictest coronavirus lockdown measures in the world, the UK is set to defy dire predictions from anti-Brexit actors. An estimated 1,000 finance firms in the European Union are planning to open up shop in the UK for the first time.

 

NO BREAKTHROUGH AT UK-EU MEETING

Reuters reports that there was no breakthrough at a hugely disappointing meeting between the European Commission and the British government on Wednesday over post-Brexit trade issues in Northern Ireland, the region’s first minister, Arlene Foster, said on Wednesday.The British government is demanding concessions from the European Union to minimise disruption in trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom that have emerged since Britain left the bloc’s trading orbit in January. The European Union has said it will be pragmatic in seeking solutions, but has blamed the disruption on Britain’s decision to exit the European Union and has called for London to implement measures agreed.

 

NO TOP OFFICER CHANGE AT THE MET

The London Evening Standard reports: Cressida Dick has  brushed aside speculation about her future as Britain’s top police officer as she declared that she “loves her job” and remains “completely focused” on her task of keeping Londoners safe. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner  has faced suggestions that she could be replaced following an interview in which Home Secretary  Priti Patel three times failed to say that she had confidence in her. She appeared before the London Assembly’s police and  crime committee, Dame Cressida firmly rejected the idea that she no longer enjoyed the Home Secretary’s support. ‘My job is to make sure we have the strongest possible Met for now and in the future, medium term and long term and I’m completely focused on that’ she said.

 

EXAM CHAOS FORECAST AS TEACHERS TAKE CONTROL

The Daily Mail reports that plans to make end of year exams voluntary and give teachers almost complete control over deciding the GCSE and A-level grades of their pupils this summer have sparked warnings of further grades chaos and widespread inflation. Under government proposals, exam boards will prepare a series of test papers for every subject – but teachers will be allowed to choose whether or not to use them to inform their predicted grades.Teachers can decide to rely on previous essays, coursework, mocks or any other type of classwork if they wish – and can also choose to set their own ‘mini-exams’, either of their own making or using exam board questions.  However, students will not need to take the papers under exam conditions, while teachers will also be able to decide whether they are taken at home or at school. Experts warned that the new emphasis on ‘trusting teachers’ completely with determining results risked jeopardising the credibility of the qualifications and could lead to soaring grades with little consistency.

 

COMMITTEE WANTS PRISONERS TO HAVE COVID JAB FIRST

From The Times: Teachers, police and other key workers should not get priority for Covid jabs but prisoners can be vaccinated en masse, the government’s advisory body has concluded. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) handed final recommendations to ministers on Sunday advising that under-50s be vaccinated by age rather than occupation, and that people from ethnic minorities should not get priority, The Times understands. At least 150,000 more people with learning disabilities have been added to the present vaccine priority list, after concerns that too many with severe problems were being missed. Ministers are due to sign off the next phase of the vaccine programme imminently and are expected to follow the committee’s advice.

 

COVID TO MASK COST OF BREXIT

The Guardian reports that a former French Ambassador, Sylvie Berman, says in a new book that   Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others. She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove. Bermann, who served as the French Ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017, has assessed the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of  Brexit.

 

TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK

The Independent reports that people in the UK may not have to wear face masks during the summer months, but they might be needed again in the autumn and winter – the deputy chief medical officer has said. Jenny Harries told a Downing Street briefing that the warmer summer months are a “generally much safer period for us, with less need for interventions” on socialising, but said they could not be ruled out as the UK enters the winter period again.

 

IMPORT AND EXPORT DELAYS DUE TO BREXIT

The Guardian reports that delays importing and exporting goods to and from the EU have worsened since  Brexit was introduced at the start of the year and will result in stock shortages and price rises for consumers, according to a report. A survey of 350 supply chain managers found that two out of three had experienced delays of at least two to three days getting  goods into the UK, compared with 38% who reported delays in a similar survey in January. A third of this group said the delays were significantly longer than in January, 28% said slightly longer and 15% reported delays of a similar length to January. Just 18% of those surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) said they experienced no delays or fewer delays. The situation was only slightly better for exports, with 44% experiencing delays of at least two to three days getting goods into the EU.

 

ANTI THATCHER STATUE 

From The Times: A statue depicting Margaret Thatcher’s head on a spike has been placed on the plinth that is destined to support a controversial monument to the former prime minister in her hometown. The sculpture appeared in Grantham, Lincolnshire, over the weekend and was put on the plinth built for a statue of Thatcher which the local council plans to unveil later this year. South Kesteven District Council removed the “unauthorised” work yesterday and said it had made the area safe for members of the public after reporting the matter to the police.

 

AND FINALLY

From the Daily Mail: Critics have called for an end to a year-long e-scooter trial in Newcastle after just seven days – after riders ditched helmets, rode on pavements and almost hit pedestrians. Some 250 electric scooters were opened up to the public for the first time last week as the Government decides whether to legalise the use of e-scooters on public highways across the UK. But just a week in, the trial has seen riders almost collide with buses and pedestrians, refuse to wear a helmet and even share one scooter between two.

 

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