POUND HITS HIGHEST LEVEL FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS
The Mail reports that the pound hit its highest level in almost three years amid increasing optimism about the vaccine rollout across the UK. Sterling rose above $1.39 for the first time since April 2018 – reaching a high of $1.3918 – as investors around the globe snapped up the currency. The pound has been boosted by hopes the UK economy could be one of the fastest to recover from the pandemic. Experts believe it could reach $1.45 this year – levels last seen before the Brexit referendum.
SPAIN TO SURRENDER THE ROCK FOR A SECOND TIME
The Express reports that Spain has capitulated on Gibraltar and is set to surrender the Rock for a second time, according to a former Spanish foreign minister. José Manuel García-Margallo said a last-minute Brexit deal between Madrid and London was nonsense and very difficult to implement in practice. And in a blistering attack on the socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, he warned his country had shown a lack of “national will” and was in danger of becoming a “foreign irrelevance”. Mr Margallo said the agreements were sold as a diplomatic victory by Madrid but had in fact represented the resignation of all Spanish interests on Gibraltar. He said Brexit negotiations had provided the greatest opportunity”to defend Spain’s interests but that those chances had been lost.
WAVE OF DEFAULTS ANTICIPATED BY BANKS
The Times reports that the banking industry is set to abandon plans to create an agency to collect overdue emergency Covid-19 loans. Lenders are getting ready to handle recoveries themselves after it was decided that a collection utility would merely complicate the business of dealing with the anticipated wave of default on £45 billion worth of taxpayer-backed debt. UK Finance, the banking trade body, began a feasibility study last year on the creation of a vehicle that would oversee debt collection on behalf of lenders who took part in the state’s emergency bounceback loan scheme. The proposed utility had been intended to ease the pressure on banks concerned about their ability to collect bounceback debt given the unprecedented scale of the scheme.
JAB OR TEST PROOF MAYBE NEEDED TO GAIN SOME FREEDOMS
From the Express: Boris Johnson has hinted a form of coronavirus vaccine passports will be necessary for the UK to return to normal. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted the Government is heavily considering people requiring vaccines or taking tests in order to open much of the hospitality sector. During the Monday coronavirus briefing, the Prime Minister explained one of the possibilities on how the UK could return to normal. He insisted protecting people in the hospitality sector had proven one of the hardest nuts to crack during the pandemic. He admitted that providing proof of taking a vaccine or a rapid test could be a measure taken before allowing entry for some elements of hospitality.
CARE HOMES WANT STAFF VACCINE PASSPORTS SAYS MATT HANCOCK
The Times reports: Care homes want to introduce vaccine passports for their staff, Matt Hancock admitted as he said that only about two thirds of workers had been vaccinated. Hailing the strides England has made in vaccinating its most vulnerable groups, the health secretary nevertheless admitted that the uptake among social care workers had been substantially lower so far. For social care staff it’s around two thirds, so we’ve still got a third who need to come forward, Hancock told BBC Breakfast.
NEW HEALTH BORDER CHECKS AN ABSOLUTE JOKE
The Guardian reports: UK Border staff received guidelines on how to execute England’s new “red list” quarantine rules in an email two and a half hours before they came into force in a rollout that one worker described as an absolute joke. British and Irish nationals or UK residents arriving from a list of 33 countries are now required to book a 10-day quarantine package costing £1,750 per adult, as the government seeks to limit the spread of new and potentially more dangerous coronavirus variants arriving from abroad. Border Force sources told the Guardian that all immigration control staff had received a lengthy email with five attachments, detailing official guidance for carrying out the new checks at the border, at 9.25pm on Sunday. The rules came into effect at midnight and significant numbers of staff would not have seen the email when they started their shifts on Monday.
CAUTIOUS EXIT ROADMAP NEXT MONDAY
The Daily Mail reports: Boris Johnson today insisted he wants the UK to make cautious but irreversible progress when lockdown starts to be lifted as he prepares to unveil his exit strategy on Monday next week.The Prime Minister said the roadmap out of lockdown will include specific target dates for reopening different sectors of the economy and society but he stressed dates will be when the Government aims to do something at the earliest and if there is a spike in infection rates ministers won’t hesitate to delay the reopening.In comments that are likely to anger Tories agitating for a swift lifting of the lockdown, the PM said the Government’s aim is to get the rate of infection down very low indeed in order to reduce the risk of new variants and to guard against the fact that no vaccination programme is 100 percent effective.
SIR WILLIAM MACPHERSON DIES AGED 94
From the Daily Mail: tributes have been paid to Sir William Macpherson, the judge who led the damning report into the Metropolitan Police after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, after his death at the age of 94. Sir William produced an historic report into the death of the teenager in which the country’s biggest police was described as ‘institutionally racist’. The bombshell inquiry in 1999 paved the way for sweeping reform at Scotland Yard and led to the abolition of the double jeopardy law. His career-defining moment came when he was chosen to lead the inquiry into the racially-motivated murder of 18-year-old Stephen, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus in Eltham, South-East London, in 1993.
INSTITUTIONAL UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
From the Daily Mail: Somerville College, the former Oxford college of Margaret Thatcher, told students they must complete an unconscious bias course and get 100 percent, sparking outcry from the Free Speech Union who said it could be in breach of the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act. In one section, students are asked to concede that a black lecturer is more likely to be disliked than her white colleagues. The backlash prompted Baroness Royall of Blaisdon the college’s principal, to U-turn on the instruction and say that student did not need to get 100 per cent.
MINISTERS WARNED PUBS INDUSTRY ON ITS KNEES
The Telegraph reports: Tim Martin, boss of JD Wetherspoon has urged ministers to avoid economic mayhem by reopening pubs at the same time as non-essential retailers as Britain emerges from its third lockdown. Tim Martin warned that the industry is on its knees – and said that further job losses are inevitable if pubs are not permitted to reopen in line with shops with minimal restrictions in place. Other options said to be under consideration include a reopening of pub gardens by Easter, with indoor dining and drinking still banned. Mr Martin called proposals to reopen pub gardens capricious and unrealistic. He said: “It’s a merry-go-round of unviable propositions. Pubs will be heavily loss-making on that basis, with most pubs not having gardens anyway.” Ministers must ensure that pubs can reopen with minimal restrictions in place such as social distancing and enhanced hygiene protocols, similar to the reopening of pubs after the first lockdown last July.
STURGEON THREATENS TO SHUT BORDER WITH ENGLAND
From The SUN: Nicola Sturgeon has threatened to shut the border between England and Scotland amid a major row over hotel quarantine plans. Scotland’s First Minister said she couldn’t rule out imposing border controls to stop people sneaking around her strict travel measures. Her warning came as England’s hotel quarantine scheme finally came into force today for travellers from 33 high risk countries. But Scotland is demanding that all arrivals from anywhere abroad self isolate in a hotel for 10 days. Ms Sturgeon wants England to enforce her policy for everyone who plans to head north of the border.
AND FINALLY
From the Guardian: five birdwatchers have been fined for breaking Covid-19 restrictions after they travelled to Devon to try to see a rare specimen after a Twitter tipoff. They were looking to catch sight of a northern mockingbird, normally found in North America, which had been spotted by Exmouth resident Chris Biddle. The five people who travelled to Exmouth to photograph the bird were fined after Devon and Cornwall police were contacted at the weekend over breaches to coronavirus lockdown rules. In a statement, the force said: it was reported that a number of individuals, suspected to have travelled from outside the area, were trying to photograph a rare bird which had been seen in a garden. The grey, long-tailed songbird is not thought to have been seen in the UK since the late 1980s, when it was glimpsed in Essex. Known for its mimicking ability, it is the state bird of five US states, including Florida and Texas. It is also native to southern Canada, Mexico and the northern Caribbean.
Apropos The Capitol Fiasco: (Off Topic)
Every American can now sleep well under the Obama/Pelosi/Harris….Oh! And I almost forgot! BIden Presidency.
They have suggested a 9/11 style Enquiry.
Blimey O’Reilly………they can now all sleep soundly ………..Can’t they?
Can’t they?
Maybe ANOTHER opportunity for Robert Mueller to cast his spell?
Apart from dozens of other anomalies……..Does anyone recall the mysterious disappearance of just TWO items in that wonderful 9/11 enquiry?
The Black Box which, having been handed over to the CIA/FBI Operatives by the NYFD Firemen, Mueller told us all that they never found one?
The Gold, which disappeared into the ether?
If the Democrats are depraved enough to order a 9/11 Style Enquiry……….might we find out where 90% of the Security Services disappeared to on the day?
One more for the pot? JFK:Robert Kennedy:9/11……….and one more to make up the Four Horses of the Apocalype? The Capitol?
Viv, I am almost loath to ask in case I have missed something untoward, but how is Debbie?
Sterling up.. what will they do next? Cut interest rates to keep UK competiitve??
yes. So how come they found blood stains on the collar of the shirt?. Was Stephen Lawrence bitten not stabbed ?
Double jeopardy must be reinstated or the filth can just manufacture evidence until they get the politically required result.
Nasty things birds. Untidy, untrained, noisy and not in their proper place, Clearly they should be isolated quarantined and if necessary shot to make them compliant. Aggresively coloured too. Blue tits I ask you Twitchers ? Like dirty old men watching illegal activities. Into prison with ’em.
They certainly tend to s*** all over my neighbour’s solar paneled roof T.G.S!
On the other hand, I wonder how on earth they survive the Winter, now that we are forced to be so clean, tidy and responsible about recycling and waste disposal.
A flock of crows were busy devouring the grit, that had cleared the road of snow, outside my window but that is not food of course. It helps them digest food.
Blue tits are seed eaters of course. Not much left of that, this time of year. Perhaps they die and the crows eat them, along with dead shrews.
Nature always wins. Mind you, the crows have failed to deal with the flashers amongst the dirty old men!
Its the nasty curtain twitcher that I would hang from the nearest tree, they realLy are the problem
TG Spokes……… Mind you your old mate Henry II from the 12th century kept a flock of Ravens at the Tower of London did he not? They are still there (although not the original ones) Were you his honorary Ravenmaster……………
Macpherson is dead – good. A typical ‘where would you like me’ establishment man. Can any person have institutionalised and furthered the toxicity of ‘multiculturalism’ and the PC agenda in the UK than this man? He has done nothing of lasting service to this country – quite the reverse.
Err yes Jake. My reaction too.