Fisheries 

Express
MICHEL Barnier has barged into France’s ongoing fishing dispute with the UK with a visit to Boulogne, whose Mayor pointedly described the former EU Brexit negotiator as a “staunch defender of the fishing industry”.
Fishermen operating out of the port are among those with the most at stake given Boulogne is arguably the centre of the French fishing industry. The strategic port has also been a key battleground as furious French fishermen protesting against the Brexit deal staged a blockade there earlier this month.
Pictures of Mr Barnier meeting fishing industry leaders were shared on Twitter yesterday by Daniel Fasquelle, Mayor of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage as well as a member of France’s National Assembly for The Republicans, the same party as Mr Barnier.
Mr Fasquelle yesterday posted a series of messages which were retweeted by Mr Barnier, who is widely believed to be ready to challenge French President Emmanuel Macron next year. 

Illegal migrants 

Mail
Migrants suspected of smuggling guns on boats heading for the South Coast sparked a major security alert in the English Channel this weekend.
Amid a record-breaking number of arrivals on Saturday, the French alerted British intelligence agencies to the possibility of firearms on one or more of the vessels which had left northern France.
The warning was relayed to Border Force and British coastguards by the National Crime Agency, Britain’s equivalent of America’s FBI. 
The Kent coastguard helicopter stayed two miles away from migrants’ boats as a safety precaution several times during the day.
Lifeboats along the South Coast were also ordered to stay a distance from inflatables they were trying to rescue. 
At 4pm, off Hastings in East Sussex, a lifeboat bringing a migrant vessel to shore was advised by coastguards to drop the tow line and ‘move away’ following suspicions about the occupants.
Earlier in the day, an inflatable acting ‘strangely’ off Dover was also put under emergency surveillance by Border Force when its occupants – a group of men and one woman – hid their faces as a lifeboat approached it. 

A similar story can be read in the Times 

Driving licences 

Times
More than 200,000 people are waiting for a doctor’s assessment to renew their driving licences, according to a study.
It has also emerged that motorists who submitted paper applications are facing potential delays of almost five months for new driving licences because of a backlog at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The new estimate suggests that tens of thousands of applications face being delayed even before submission. The British Medical Association, which made the estimate, said that it feared that public safety could be put at risk if drivers went to services offering quicker fit-to-drive assessments without access to full medical histories.
All HGV licence applications must be accompanied by a medical assessment.  

Express
REMAINERS such as Lord Andrew Adonis are WRONG to “scapegoat” Brexit for a shortage of HGV drivers which in turn has been blamed for gaps on supermarket shelves, an economist has claimed.
Julian Jessop was speaking after the issue received widespread attention in recent weeks. Among those weighing in were the outspoken Labour peer himself, who last week tweeted: “The Transport Secretary says he would rather have HGV driver shortages, and thus food shortages in the shops, than allow more EU truck drivers. Incredible Brexit blinkers.”
However, Mr Jessop, the former Chief Economist and current economics fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), said attempts to blame the UK’s decision to quit the EU were misleading.
He told Express.co.uk: “There are many reasons for the shortages of HGV drivers, with Brexit only playing a small part.
“The main factors are due to Covid, including a big fall in the number of driving tests, international travel restrictions and of course the ‘pingdemic’.” 

Education 

Mail
The start of the new school term for secondary school pupils in England will be delayed by at least a week as heads across the country call students in for on site covid tests.
Lessons in many secondary schools are not expected to start until the second week of term in September after the Department of Education confirmed schools in England will be able to stagger start dates as pupils are tested twice for the virus. 
Close contacts of those found to be infected will be traced and, if they also test positive, will need to self-isolate. 
Assurances made by Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, in July look to have made little impact on schools in England. 
Earlier in the summer, he ditched measures, including teaching in small groups or bubbles and requiring students to wear facemasks. 
But, a survey this weekend showed that many schools will not obey government instructions to open as normal without taking measured to curb coronavirus transmission. 
A poll of more than 1,200 senior teaching staff found that nearly one in five schools are planning to stagger the start or end of the school day throughout the autumn/winter term. 
Masks will be worn by pupils in class in one in eight secondary schools, and a third of all schools have said they will take precautions. 

Vaccine 

Express
BRITAIN ordering tens of millions of a French vaccine before the European Union has been declared yet another “Brexit victory” for the UK by a leading Frexiteer, who has sent a huge warning to Emmanuel Macron.
The European Union and President Macron did not secure pre-orders of the French produced Valneva vaccine after talks collapsed with the firm earlier this year. But in yet another major boost for Brexit Britain, the jabs are instead being made available to the UK first. Boris Johnson‘s Government has reportedly secured an order for 190 million doses, with the first 60 million of the 100 million doses set to continue into the first quarter of next year, with the remainder due in 2022.
British officials also have the option to buy an additional 90 million doses that would be delivered between 2023 and 2025, sending the total value of the order surging to £1.2billion. The manufacturing process will take place in Livingston, Scotland.
But the EU and France failed to secure an agreement with Valneva to deliver vaccine doses to the bloc.
Talks with the pharmaceutical firm began at the start of 2020 but dramatically collapsed on the grounds “the French company had not fulfilled the conditions” for marketing in Europe.
This has infuriated Generation Frexit President Charles-Henri Gallois, who agrees this is “another big victory for Brexit Britain” and perfectly illustrates why France should ramp up plans to leave the EU as soon as possible. 

A similar story can be read in Breitbart 

Scotland 

Express
SCOTTISH taxpayers will be forced to fork out more than £1millon for the SNP’s “coalition of chaos” with the Scottish Greens.
An agreement between the two Holyrood parties, which will see two Scottish Green MSPs enter government and a move towards a shared policy platform, was announced on Friday. The SNP national executive committee approved the deal on Saturday, with a consultative poll of members set for next week, while Green members will vote next Saturday on the agreement.
But the Scottish Tories, who have branded the Greens “extremists”, claimed the agreement would cost the Scottish taxpayer £224,497.88 each year just in wages and pension contributions.
This would mean until the end of the next Holyrood term in 2026, the agreement would cost Scots more than £1million extra.
The agreement sets out that there will be two Green ministers and two special advisers appointed.
The Green Party will nominate two MSPs from the existing eight MSPs to be Ministers who will be paid £94,821 per year. 

Similar stories can be read in Mail, iNews 

Trade 

Express
CRICKET STAR Sir Ian Botham is set to become Britain’s new trade envoy for Australia.
The cricket legend, 65, is one of ten members in the new Government team aimed at promoting British businesses. This is following the UK’s first post-Brexit trade deal with Australia a few months ago.
The trade deal is expected to bring cheaper barbecue food and wine to the UK.
“The Aussies love Beefy and he knows the country and the business community as well as anyone,” an ally of International Trade Secretary Liz Truss told the Sun.
“It’s an inspired appointment by the PM and Liz.”
Lord Botham is a part of the Government appointed team that will boost British business collaboration with Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
“We might be rivals on the cricket pitch, but Britain and Australia share a strong belief in the power of free and fair trade,” Liz Truss told the Sun.
“Having Lord Botham going in to bat for British businesses will help them seize the opportunities our trade deal presents.”
Sir Ian Botham has been hailed as one of the greatest all-rounders in UK history.
He represented England in both Test and One-Day International cricket, before retiring in 1992.
The famed cricketer added: “It’s a great honour to carry out this role in a country that I love and have come to know so well.

A similar story can be read in Sun 

Express
Families are on the cusp of making massive savings as the UK prepares to strike a post-Brexit trade deal that will unlock a Pacific market worth £9trillion.
Britain’s latest triumph in talks with New Zealand should result in a fall in the price of goods – including wine and apples – traded between the two nations as tariffs are scrapped. And there is excitement in the Government that the breakthrough will pave the way for a speedy deal with a group of 11 Pacific-facing countries, which would allow the UK to deliver on the promise of Brexit. The New Zealand deal, now in its final stages of negotiation, should slash tariffs worth up to 20p on a bottle of sauvignon blanc or pinot noir.
It may also drive down the cost of manuka honey and apples, as well as open up a host of opportunities for UK exporters.
It is hoped it will also lead to membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
New Zealand is a leading member of this free trade area – which includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
An ally of International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said: “A deal with the Kiwis will boost British exporters and benefit consumers, but its wider significance is as a gateway for Britain into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which offers even greater prizes. 

Energy 

Times
Households with gas boilers face levies to fund low-carbon alternatives to contribute towards meeting the government’s net-zero target, a landmark review has suggested.
The Heat and Building Strategy will conclude that gas users could face higher bills and charges as part of the move towards low-carbon solutions, such as hydrogen boilers and heat pumps.
The paper, due to be published next month, commits the government to addressing the fact that electricity is significantly more expensive than gas and that “price distortions” will need to be looked at in the mid-2020s to avoid consumers being penalised for moving to heat pumps and hydrogen boilers.
The Committee on Climate Change has warned that they could end up paying £100 more a year.  

Universal credit 

Guardian
Labour will promise on Monday to overhaul the universal credit system by allowing low-income workers to earn more without seeing their welfare payments cut, in a move potentially costing billions of pounds annually.
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to promise to “make work pay” as part of a wider strategy to create “jobs you can raise a family on”.
The pledge is the first element of what is expected to be a significant overhaul of the wider work and social security system, including the universal credit benefit currently claimed by about 6 million people, as part of a “new deal” for working people.
The party will also step up calls for the retention of the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit, introduced in April last year in response to the Covid crisis. The government intends to remove the uplift in October, leaving claimants £1,000 a year worse off.
Reynolds is to propose a reduction in the universal credit taper rate, currently set at 63%. This means that for every £1 earned above a claimant’s work allowance, 63p is deducted automatically from their monthly universal credit payment. In practice, tax and national insurance further increases the amount deducted. 

Flu 

Telegraph
The flu jab may fail to protect people this winter, vaccine makers fear, because global Covid surveillance prevented laboratories gathering sufficient data on the dominant variants.
Health experts were already concerned that coronavirus restrictions had left people with little natural immunity to influenza, but now they fear the vaccine may also be mismatched to the circulating virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) made the recommendation about what to put in northern hemisphere jabs in late February, but vaccine makers say that global genetic sequencing of flu had dropped by up to 94 per cent in the months preceding the decision.
The mass cancellation of flights, as countries closed their borders and imposed travel restrictions, has also led to a 62 per cent drop in shipments of influenza surveillance samples, experts warn.
There are fears that a mismatched flu vaccine, coupled with waning immunity, high levels of Covid and the NHS backlog, could quickly lead to the health service being overwhelmed this winter. 

A similar story can be read in Independent 

WFH 

Mail
Hundreds of thousands of white-collar workers will carry on working from home well into the autumn, a Daily Mail audit has found.
Despite the change to Government guidance in July, the vast majority of firms had no plans to compel staff to return to the office when surveyed.
The businesses sticking with remote working are some of Britain’s biggest and span a variety of sectors, from banking giant HSBC to energy firm BP, telecoms provider Vodafone, British Gas owner Centrica and publisher Pearson.
Most said they would leave it for workers and managers to decide, with some planning to downsize their offices or introduce hot-desking.
It comes as it was revealed this month by research from the Centre for Cities think-tank that fewer than one in five workers had returned to their offices after Freedom Day on July 19.
At housebuilder Redrow, some offices have even been scrapped altogether and replaced with conference rooms.
And at online grocer Ocado, travel agent Tui and Pearson, staff will potentially be allowed to work from anywhere in the world.
Last week Apple became the latest big firm to delay a return to the office as it told staff – including 7,000 in the UK – not to come back until next year. 

HS2 

Mail
The eastern leg of the HS2 will ‘never be built in our lifetimes’ and is set to be axed to save the high-speed railway project £40billion, a Government source has claimed. 
The comments come after several leaks from Whitehall this summer which have suggested plans to extend the HS2 to Leeds will be scrapped – despite the northern city having already started work on a £500million station. 
Other projects in the Yorkshire capital are also relying on the project – which one Tory MP dubbed a ‘hugely expensive white elephant.’ 
Last month the prime minister was warned voters in ‘Red Wall’ constituencies would be furious at the idea of the Leeds leg being shelved.
But a source told the Sunday Mirror: ‘They might make some announcement about doing the work in the future but everyone involved knows the truth.
‘They have run out of cash and there’s no way we’re going to see this built in our lifetimes.’  

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