Brexit
Mail
The Government is bracing for a fresh Brexit clash with Parliament and the courts as ministers tell the EU it must agree to make major changes to Northern Ireland‘s border rules.
The UK wants to renegotiate the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol and Brussels is expected to set out its offer on Wednesday this week.
However, Boris Johnson and his ministers fear the EU’s plans will not go anywhere near far enough, with the bloc so far only willing to make tweaks to the current arrangements.
A failure to agree to a significant overhaul is expected to prompt the UK to unilaterally tear up the offending rules in a move which would result in fury in Brussels.
Walking away from the arrangements by triggering Article 16 of the protocol could require laws to be passed through Parliament to enact the move.
Ministers believe they will face ferocious opposition from the House of Lords while any attempt to tear up the rules without passing new legislation could result in a Supreme Court legal challenge.
Meanwhile, ministers will tell the EU this week that removing the European Court of Justice’s oversight of the protocol is a ‘red line’ for the UK in a move which is likely to further inflame tensions.
There are more details in the Express, Breitbart, Evening Standard
Illegal migrants
Express
FRANCE has upped the stakes in its war of words with Britain over migrants illegally trying the cross the English Channel to the UK – by demanding the £54million it says it has been promised to stop them doing so.
And French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has also sought to pin the blame on London by telling Boris Johnson Britain needs to make itself less “attractive” to people who lacked the necessary credentials. Mr Darmamin, speaking during a visit to the northern port of Dunkirk, said “migratory pressure” was returning after COVID,” stressing that France, led by President Emmanuel Macron, had increased its efforts to stop it.
French maritime authorities were now preventing 75 percent of migrant boats from crossing the 30-mile channel which separates England from France, Mr Darmamin stressed.
However, he said it would be possible to reach 100 percent if the UK paid the £54 million which was pledged at a meeting in July.
The money is intended to bankroll France’s plan to double the number of police patrolling French beaches.
Other media covering the story include Times, Breitbart, ITV News, Yahoo News, Evening Standard, Sky News
Police
Express
NEARLY 2,000 police officers, specials and community support officers have been accused of sexual impropriety, new figures show.
A catalogue of allegations includes 370 incidents of sexual assault, 100 accusations of rape and 18 child sex offences over the past four years. The figures, revealed for the first time, show serious allegations and proven sexual misconduct now touch every force in the country.
The disturbing picture will be the subject of a special Channel 4 Dispatches programme tonight called Cops on Trial.
It is being screened less than a fortnight after rouge cop Wayne Couzens was handed a whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard in a case that sparked national outrage.
Twisted Couzens admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old marketing executive, falsely arresting her for a breach of Covid guidelines.
Dispatches used Freedom of Information laws to get responses from 39 of Britain’s 43 forces.
They revealed only eight percent of allegations led to dismissal and even in upheld cases of sexual misconduct, dismissals were less than one third.
Nearly two-thirds of allegations led to no action (because cases were either not upheld, there was deemed no case to answer, the probe was discontinued or no further action was taken).
Nearly one third of accused officers had previously been reported for some kind of misconduct (not necessarily of a sexual nature), raising questions about the robustness of vetting.
More coverage of problems in the police are in the Times, Express, Evening Standard, Times, Sky News
Sausage wars
Telegraph
Sausages and sandwiches are not a risk to the EU, government sources have said, with Lord Frost set to tell Brussels on Tuesday that the “deep imbalance” in the Northern Ireland Protocol must be addressed.
The Cabinet Office minister and former chief Brexit negotiator will deliver a speech to diplomats in Lisbon and is set to say that, without new arrangements, the agreement “will never have the support it needs to survive”.
Lord Frost will say that the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in overseeing the Protocol “and the consequent inability of the UK Government to implement the very sensitive arrangements in the Protocol in a reasonable way has created a deep imbalance in the way the Protocol operates”.
Sources close to Lord Frost said on Sunday that the imbalance refers to a favouring of north-south trade on the island of Ireland at the expense of east-west trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the EU being unreasonable in its judgment of the risk posed by goods sent from Britain.
They referred to British businesses that have stopped selling in Northern Ireland because it had become “too onerous” due to the fact that Northern Ireland was trading more with the Republic than with Great Britain.
A source said: “A sandwich or sausages for example – that’s being seen as a threat and it’s not, and it is this imbalance. The risk level is way too high and it needs to be a lot more proportionate in terms of what is genuinely a risk to the EU single market and what isn’t.”
Trade
Express
THE UK has begun talks on a six-country trade deal as ministers seek to bolster Brexit Britain’s position on the world stage with a crunch summit.
Britain already enjoys strong economic links with the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprised of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. But ministers have now opened preliminary talks to agree on a free trade deal that could be worth billions.
Trade between the UK and the Gulf nations topped £30billion in 2020 with the deal being a priority for Britain’s world trade agenda, Express.co.uk understands.
The deal is expected to cut tariffs on key imports and exports including cars and crude petroleum.
Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani, Bahrain’s minister of industry, commerce and tourism, said: “It brings me great joy and pleasure to officially announce the official launch of FTA negotiations between GCC countries and UK.”
Mr Al-Zayani said the deal was an “initiative that we have worked tirelessly on realising since the kingdom of Bahrain’s assumption of the GCC presidency at the beginning of this year”.
NHS
Telegraph
The average GP is now working a three-day week following a “significant” drop in working hours, government research shows.
The research, commissioned by the Department of Health, is from before the Covid pandemic – during which concerns have grown that it is getting harder to see a GP.
There are particular tensions over access to face-to-face appointments, with Boris Johnson intervening last month to say every patient has the right to see a GP in person.
The new figures show that GPs carried out just 6.6 half-day sessions a week – the equivalent of just over three days – in 2019, the lowest on record. In 2010, it was 7.5 sessions. The data also show a fall in the proportion of time spent on “direct patient care”. Just 59 per cent of GPs’ time was spent in this way in 2019, down from 63.1 percent in 2010.
The National GP Worklife Survey of 1,332 GPs, carried out by the University of Manchester, shows that the average number of weekly hours “decreased significantly” between 2017 and 2019.
The figure of 40 hours a week compares with almost 42 hours in 2017 in the first drop since 2010. Meanwhile, rising earnings saw average GP pay top £100,000 before tax and expenses in 2019/20, NHS statistics show.
It comes amid growing concern about difficulties in obtaining face-to-face appointments with a GP. Before the pandemic, around 80 percent of consultations took place in a doctors surgery – but in August the figure was just 57.7 per cent.
Further aspects of the story are in the Mail, Times, iNews, Guardian
The mere mention of Boris Johnson these days makes my heart sink, it really does He is just so full of meaningless hot air when it comes to the European Commission and our relationship with it. We are fed up to the back teeth with the empty threats that he comes out with, with reckless abandon, and it is no wonder that the French treat this country like the mugs we so obviously are with Eton educated numpties like him in charge. Johnson, you utter clown stop talking and making idle threats, we need action from you, and we need it now. It cant be that difficult to make a decision and act in the best interests of the citizens of this country. And as for that other buffoon namely Prince Charles………..powering his Aston Martin on old English white wine and Cheese. My Aunt F…….
What leapt out at me today, was that the E.U. (and Southern Ireland) are working very hard at separating N.I. completely from G.B..
Pauline, the EU divides EU member states into EU Regions. Mainland Britain was (and still is as far as Remoaners and Brussels are concerned) divided into nine EU Regions. Scotland and Wales are each one EU region, and the whole of Ireland is also just one EU Region.
So from the start of their Euro federal project Brussels has refused to recognise Ulster as part of the UK. Unavoidably the EU’s supreme court, its Court of Justice, also refuses to recognise Ulster as part of the UK. But then, as a result of years of tedious Article 50 negotiations, the UK is still subject to the EU’s Court of Justice.
Yes, quite Ralph. That is why I was alert to what is happening and worded it the way I did.
What is more, at one point EU were trying to carve up England and join much of the south onto part of France.
Even Blair realised he couldn’t get away with that – at that time!
You thought Heath was the biggest traitor?
It is difficult to think of a P.M. that was not a traitor, since WW2.
Illegal migrants:
Surely the blame lies entirely with our own government and Boris in particular for failing to defend our sea border. I doubt a single one of the illegals meets the definition of “asylum seeker” since they have passed through at least one safe country on their way. Australia showed Boris the way to deal with it; there are no valid excuses.
I fully agree with the French in pointing out that Britain is not doing sufficient to remove the ‘pull factor’. Bunging a slug of taxpayer money to avoid taking tough action is all to common an action by the Tories. The enemy is within.
Make them do a weeks work for the minimum wage like sweeping the streets or cleaning the parks or some other job no one wants to do.
Paul – If no one wants to do the work and you want to make (your word) immigrants do it, isn’t that a definition of slavery?
Michael. D …NO. When things get rough its a matter of survival. Life is like that.
The (mostly Midddle Eastern) migrants directed through Belarus into Poland don’t stay very long at all. They know both the government and the people don’t want them there and there is no welfare support available.
East Europeans returning to Poland will re-inforce this view after seeing the ghettoisation of British towns and cities. The best way is to avoid following Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Sweden etc is to let their governments know they will reject any political party/government that allows mass immigration like Western Europe has.
Dead right
This is interesting. Hundreds of flights cancelled due to ‘bad weather’ in Florida. However, some of the media is reporting that airline crew didn’t show up because they don’t want to take the covid ‘vaccine’.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/10/10/staffing-shortages-in-jacksonville-bad-weather-led-to-widespread-flight-delays-faa-says/
100,000 a year for a three and a bit day week. Nice work(?) if you can get it.
Next up, every Friday off – golf dont ya know. And same salary, of course. Receptionist will sort you out.
Yes it does sound really disgusting that G.P.s should grab those conditions Biscotte.
What annoys me just as much, is that the media keep banging on about the one item of ‘face to face’ appointments when there are far worse problems in the G.P.’s way of working now.
Sometimes, for me anyway, a phone consultation is actually the best possible sort but it is very nearly impossible to get even that.
Recently a medicine had been taken off my repeat prescription for no good reason. Speaking to reception and dispensary did not put it right. All that happened was that a few tablets were delivered to me. I now have to start the whole rigmarole over again.
Apparently in some practices RECEPTIONISTS are PRESCRIBING!
A friend has had no diabetes check of any sort since the beginning of the Covid scamdemic.
At my Health Centre, due to their inadequate I.T. and phone system, I’ve missed blood tests and breathing consultations. No one there has a clue how the system works or how it should work. They just tick boxes.
It was about 6yrs. ago I actually managed to get a home visit from my G.P.
Has anyone else any memory of such a thing?