Brexit
Express
BREXIT BRITAIN has scored yet another major victory with millions of people set to save £130million as Boris Johnson uses new freedoms available to him to slash European Union red tape.
Millions of bottles of wine are downed by Britons every week but now each one could become 13p cheaper in a major boost following Brexit. VI-1 forms – an exercise that includes lab tests to verify the acidity of the wine – are set to be scrapped, industry insiders have claimed. The requirement for imports from outside the European Union coming with the documentation is set to be abolished by Downing Street, which has also decided to scrap plans imposing the rule on wines coming from the Brussels trading bloc to the UK.
In a major boost to Brexit Britain, industry officials believe the move could save as much as £130million for consumers.
They also estimate the scrapping of this EU red tape could save the industry £100million on non-EU wines and mean costs of up to £70million on those coming from Europe will no longer have to be imposed.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association said nearly all wine bought and consumed in the UK is imported and from that, more than half (55 percent) comes from the EU.
A similar story can be found in the Telegraph
Northern Ireland
Express
EU BOSSES have warned action is needed to fix the Brexit Protocol amid a ‘seriously unbalanced’ situation in Northern Ireland.
European Union leaders have been warned the bloc must work with the UK to ease burdens on Northern Ireland rather than “prioritise” the single market. Senior Government Minister Penny Mordaunt informed MPs on Thursday that a “seriously unbalanced” situation is developing in how the Northern Ireland Protocol is operating. The Cabinet Office Minister added the British Government stands “ready” to develop an alternative post-Brexit trading arrangement.
Ms Mordaunt told MPs on Thursday that the EU’s approach to trading arrangements for Northern Ireland and caused issues including “critical medicines being at risk of being discontinued” and companies having “given up” delivering.
She said: “We must respond to people’s concerns and that means the EU working with us to ease the burdens on Northern Ireland, not prioritising the single market.”
Ms Mordaunt added: “A seriously unbalanced situation is developing in the way the Protocol is operating.
Illegal immigration
Mail
Albanian criminals charging up to £20,000 to smuggle migrants to the UK brazenly tout their services on TikTok and other social media sites.
A Mail investigation found popular sites awash with adverts from human traffickers, sometimes mocking attempts by the British authorities to stop them and posting slickly produced step-by-step tutorials to help illegal migrants sneak into the UK.
They illustrate the scale of the problem facing Home Secretary Priti Patel, who recently visited Albania to sign a deal speeding up deportations of criminals and failed asylum seekers.
The number of migrants crossing the Channel has surged in recent days to reach more than 8,000 for the year so far – more than for the whole of 2020.
One people smuggler, whose TikTok account has been viewed by tens of thousands of people, boasts in his profile: ‘All interested who’d like to get to England contact my inbox. Journey secure 100 per cent.’ His videos feature pictures of the Union Jack and Big Ben with the comment: ‘Secure journey from Albania to the UK. 23K Euro.’
Telegraph
Channel migrants make up nearly half of asylum claims, up from six per cent in just a year, official figures have revealed.
Amid growing concern at the record surge in migrants crossing the Channel, Home Office data shows that during the spring and summer they comprised between 35 per cent and 44 per cent of all in-country applications for asylum.
It represents a six-fold increase on the previous year’s figures of between four and six per cent, according to the research paper by the House of Commons Library.
The data, for 2020, shows applications from other routes including planes, trains and ferries declined during the pandemic due to tighter border controls, but that fall was “partly offset” by the surge in migrants, rising from 1,800 in 2019 to 8,400 last year.
This year, the numbers are already more than double than last year’s at the same point, with more than 8,800 having reached UK shores so far and there are projections that they could pass 20,000 for the full year. The researchers revealed 98 per cent of the migrants arriving by boat seek asylum.
Similar stories can be read in the Independent, Guardian
Labour Party
Guardian
Labour is to launch a “new deal for working people” this week, as Keir Starmer seeks to put creating more secure, better-paid jobs at the heart of his offer to voters.
The world of work is one of two areas, together with tackling crime, where Starmer’s team believe they have a distinctive offer and a strong line against Boris Johnson’s government.
His deputy, Angela Rayner, will launch the programme on a visit to a social enterprise on Monday, where she will say Labour wants to see jobs that are a “source of pride, security and dignity” and which pay a “proper wage that people can raise a family on”.
Starmer’s team has been cautious about announcing reams of new policy since he took over the party last spring, and even when they have done so, it has often been hard to get a hearing as the pandemic raged.
The party hopes to bring together policies already announced, including a minimum wage of at least £10 an hour, a guarantee of work or training for young people, and a buy-British approach, intended to use government procurement to support employment.
Announcing the programme, Starmer highlighted his background – his mother was a nurse, his father a toolmaker – and said a “new deal for working people” was necessary as the economy emerges from the Covid crisis.
Flooding
Mail
London streets were yesterday left underwater and hospitals in crisis after torrential rains hit the capital, as forecasters predict more thunderstorms to continue.
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for storms covering the capital and some of the Home Counties where homes and businesses are at risk of flooding.
A yellow warning for storms which could cause travel and power disruption was issued to the south from Norwich to Plymouth.
Parts of south east England saw up to 50mm of rain in just an hour on Sunday afternoon while thousands of revellers enjoying the first full-capacity festival since Covid-19 missed the rain, with thunderstorms recorded to the west of Henham Park in Suffolk.
New Cross Road became ‘a river’ amid the heavy downpours, and video showed Pudding Lane tube station almost completely submerged.
Newham Hospital in east London revealed on Twitter that its emergency department had ‘flooded in some areas’, with those needing treatment were advised to attend a different hospital.
And a critical incident was declared at Whipps Cross, which reportedly lost power and backup generators. Staff at the hospital said on Twitter: ‘We’re currently experiencing operational issues due to the heavy rainfall. Please use an alternative A&E if possible. Thank you!’
Similar stories can be found in the Telegraph, Evening Standard, Guardian, Sun
Mirror
Hospitals are in chaos after declaring an extraordinary ‘critical’ incident after flooding wreaked havoc across the capital.
The flash floods across London saw more than double July’s average monthly rainfall fall in the space of a few hours.
Cars were left stranded in rising floodwater, Tube stations had to be shut and hospital emergency departments were flooded in the deluge.
London hospitals declared critical incidents as a result of the relentless downpour, reports ITV.
It is claimed that extra staff are having to be called in to help mitigate the crisis.
Whipps Cross said on social media it had suffered “operational issues due to the heavy rainfall”, and asked patients to seek an alternative A&E if possible.
Newham Emergency Department said it had been majorly impacted by rising flood waters with ambulances being redirected.
It said on Twitter : “Our Emergency Department has flooded in some areas. We’re still here if you need us but to help us while we fix things please attend a neighbouring hospital if possible. Thank you.”
ITV reported that London hospitals had declared a ‘critical incident’ and more staff were being drafted in to help cope.
Shopping
Telegraph
Shopping is shifting back online as fear of the rapidly spending delta variant overshadows the “freedom day” scrapping of Covid-19 restrictions, experts warn.
Research from Barclays economists based on the bank’s own credit and debit card data has shown a reversal of previous trends since non-essential shops opened in April as wary shoppers head online to spend instead.
Its latest Spend Trends report showed the rotation away from store spending to the internet started at the beginning of July as the delta third wave picked up pace, Barclays economist Fabrice Montagné said.
The Barclays data suggests a 5pc rise in online shopping since the end of June, alongside a similar fall in high street shopping.
Mr Montagné said: “The reason why it caught my attention is that this is typical lockdown behaviour. It might not be imposed by the Government, it might just be individuals applying social distancing all over again. We’re basically seeing some of the lockdown behaviour come back.”
National Insurance
Express
BORIS JOHNSON is facing a Cabinet revolt over plans to hike national insurance to fund social care reforms.
The Prime Minister, in a bid to fulfil the 2019 manifesto promise to improve social care, is looking to increase national insurance contributions by one percent. It would hit both employees and businesses and is believed to raise around £10billion a year.
However, plans to hike national insurance contributions have been attacked as it would hit lower-paid workers more.
Others have pointed out people who claim their pension are exempt from paying national insurance even if they still work.
Reports have claimed Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid are “uncomfortable” with the plans.
Pingdemic
Mail
Union bosses are urging key workers to ignore the Government’s exemptions from self-isolation and stay home for 10 days if they are ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid app, in a move that threatens to make life even harder for shoppers, commuters and holidaymakers.
Leaders of the UK’s biggest unions, including the RMT, Unison and Usdaw, are telling critical workers in transport, food and border control among other sectors to quarantine if they are contacted by the app, citing fears they could become infected in the workplace.
Steve Hedley, the RMT’s senior assistant general-secretary, has threatened strike action over the exemption scheme, telling the Telegraph: ‘Why should our people be infected with Covid? We have discussed the possibility of taking action at a senior level, and I can say that nothing has been ruled out.’
Key workers are able to avoid house-arrest via a Downing Street scheme launched amid mounting fears over the chaos to key infrastructure caused by the so-called ‘pingdemic’ after more than 600,000 people were told to self-isolate by the NHS app last week.
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse has already been forced to apologise for delays at the border as families set off on the first weekend of the summer holidays, which were branded ‘total chaos’ by travellers and which he blamed on the ‘pingdemic’.
Paddy Lillis, general secretary of retail and food manufacturing union Usdaw, said staff would be encouraged to stay at home rather than return to work and said: ‘Usdaw does not believe that the current situation in the food supply chain is critical or warrants the sector being placed on the exemption list.’
Doctors
BBC News
Senior doctors in England will be asked whether they want to consider industrial action over the 3% pay rise offered by the government.
The British Medical Association union says tens of thousands hospital consultants will be contacted.
It previously said industrial action may be considered if senior doctors were not given at least a 5% rise.
The Royal College of Nursing has also said that it could consider striking and would consult members.
The Department of Health was criticised over its previous stance that only a 1% rise was affordable.
But earlier this week, ministers announced a 3% pay rise offer following a recommendation from an independent pay review body.
It is for most NHS staff in England, including nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists and salaried GPs and is backdated to April 2021.
All NHS staff in Wales are to be offered a 3% rise by the Welsh government.
But the BMA, which represents doctors, said whilst the latest pay offer represented an increase on the government’s “paltry” 1% offer, it was still “well below” the 5% minimum pay rise its consultants’ committee had been calling for.
Covid
Sun
COVID cases have dipped below 30,000 for the first time in two weeks.
There were 29,173 new cases recorded in what is the fifth day cases have fallen in a row.
A further 28 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, government figures show.
Yesterday, 86 new deaths were reported in the UK.
It is the first time cases have fallen below 30,000 since July 11, when there were 29,985.
And it is the lowest number since July 10 at 27,843.
Some 46,563,452 people have had their first vaccinations and 37,160,659 have had their second.
Yesterday, Covid cases fell for a fourth day with 31,795 new infections in 24 hours.
The UK’s Covid cases yesterday were down 41.8 per cent on last Saturday’s 54,674.
Despite the fall in cases, daily deaths continued to rise.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has apologised after saying people should no longer “cower” from Covid.
Similar stories can be read in the Times, Mail, Sun, ITV News, Evening Standard
Independent
Sajid Javid has apologised “for his poor choice of words” and deleted a tweet in which he claimed the public should not “cower” from coronavirus, after the health secretary’s “deeply insensitive” remark sparked outrage, particularly among bereaved families and the clinically vulnerable.
It came as an NHS executive said hospitals are experiencing a “perfect storm”, as rising Covid hospitalisations and record-breaking demand for A&E collide with holiday season, amid warnings of a summer of venue closures, travel disruption and food supply woes as a result of worker shortages caused by the so-called “pingdemic”. The British Medical Association blamed the government for allowing cases to “skyrocket”.
And MPs cautioning that taxpayers will be spending money on the pandemic for decades to come have warned that the government is still spending millions on unusable personal protective equipment (PPE), with some 7 per cent of items failing quality checks – totalling more than 2.1 billion wasted purchases.
Meanwhile, Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said that “there are younger people really getting seriously ill at the moment”, citing the nearly 200 people recently admitted to hospital in Bristol, who he said have a mean age of 40.
Illegal Immigration
“Channel migrants make up nearly half of asylum claims”. Surely, by having come from a safe country, not one of those migrants is eligible for asylum. So why is government not returning them as soon as they make a claim?
Precisely Jack Thomas. There MUST be some way to simply dump them back in France. Isn’t it frustrating.
So the doctors are thinking about ‘industrial action. We we even notice as they have been hiding behind fortress doors for months- god knows what they have found to amuse themselves over this long period.
That was my first thought.
Having had a bust up last week with surgery, trying to get to see someone, I went round there. I explained I was not going anywhere until I had seen / spoken to a fizzishun.
You cant do that, we dont work like that.
Well I do. I’ll be in the waiting room.
In I went. What I saw was a surprise even for me. Three chairs, one person waiting.
‘at full stretch’, ‘not paid enough’, ‘words fail . . . ‘
And saw a pompous ars* that afternoon.
11 pct employee national insurance, plus 12 pct employers nat insurance. Time to wrap it up.
So far as I’m concerned the G.P.s and nurses in my Medical Centre can have a pay rise WHEN THEY GO BACK TO WORKING EXACTLY AS IT WAS BEFORE COVID! and not before!
No masks, no social distancing, face to face if patient wishes or needs. The car park back in use as it was, not used for patients queuing to be attended to/let in.
They can continue delivering my repeat prescriptions. They must take down the ‘No Vaping’ signs that went up right at the start as well.
When they’ve done all that, I’ll let them know that if nurse Spray prints out her stupid breathing questionnaire, I’ll collect it fill it out and return it!
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/26/nanny-state-boris-johnson-to-introduce-junk-food-credit-score-app
The photo at the top shows a certain obese politician ogling an ice-cream cone. You know the fellow, described by Katie Hopkins as “the \Potato with a Wig”.
The supposedly Conservative government will launch an app by the end of the year to monitor the supermarket spending habits of families in the UK. Those who choose “healthier” options such as fruits and vegetables or engage in exercise will be rewarded with “loyalty points” in the app, which will translate into discounts and other incentives.
“There is a whole team in Downing Street working on this, and the Prime Minister thinks that we simply cannot go on as before and that we must now tackle it head-on,” a White Hall source told The Telegraph.
So which supermarkets are in the scheme? (we want to know which ones to boycot)
How much will it cost and who picks up the tab?
Is this the first step to a China Style” surveillance system?
The article continues:-
“…He has been on a very rigorous diet and exercise programme and it is likely he will play a leading role in fronting this whole campaign.”
Oh Yeah!
Slim back better. New slogan for Billy Bunter?
dickatbarn, something that may appeal to you – Sebastian Rushworth M.D. (Swedish G.P.) did a blog not long ago, recommending a High Protein, Low Carbohydrate diet for losing weight.
Basically it was very much the same as one I used many years ago when I did gain a lot of weight.
Eat plenty of meat. Don’t worry about meat fat, fry the food if you like. Cut down on fruit and vegetables and cut out other carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, biscuits, cakes. Only 70grams of carbohydrates for a normal sized adult.
The reason it works is that meat protein and fat take far longer to digest than carbohydrate foods, so you don’t feel hungry.
Things I remember – a good old fashioned pork loin chop with a kidney in it and loads of fat round the edge, apple source and a small portion of garden peas. Mixed grill. A tot of whiskey instead of a half of beer. Yum!
Oh, there’s quite a lot of carbohydrate in milk too so it’s better to put cream in your coffee! No sugar, of course. It works !!
Pauline. It definitely appeals to me.
I look across the vally into a field where my butcher fattens his bullocks, mainly galloways.
When he has one in the shop it is always well signed.
Forget your pork chop… How about a generously thick Galloway rib-eye steak, carefully grilled and served with onions, mushrooms (and of course some garlic) all sauteed togrther in butter and their own juices.
I would suggest a glass of a robust Shiraz to wash it down and the whiskey IN the coffee. It has to be Irish, for some reason Scotch doesn’t work… cream optional.
The Scotch is for my nightcap.
Is your mouth watering…