Rejoin
Express
A REMAIN-BACKING Labour frontbencher has suggested to a fringe meeting at the party’s conference in Brighton that the UK should rejoin the European Union.
Alex Sobel, 46, appeared to go further than Sir Keir Starmer’s commitment to “build on” Boris’ Brexit deal when he suggested to attendees of a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference that the UK should rejoin the EU. Mr Sobel, who became an MP in 2017, told members at the event hosted by the Labour Movement for Europe and Labour for a European Future: “There are new battles to fight.
“The battle isn’t over.
“The battle is just beginning.
“This is a battle for our children’s future and the future of our continent.”
Mr Sobel joined the Labour Party frontbench as the Shadow Minister for Tourism shortly after Starmer was elected as party leader in April 2020.
The Express has a couple of stories on this subject. The other is at Express.
EU
Express
EMMANUEL MACRON gloated over his achievements in the past four years of his presidency and his pursuit for more “EU sovereignty”.
In a tweet shared this morning, the French President reminded his followers of his pledges, four years ago, for a stronger EU. Sharing his government’s manifesto plan for more integration in the Brussels bloc, he wrote: “An initiative for a sovereign, united and democratic Europe. This is what we launched at the Sorbonne four years ago.
“We have come a long way.”
The manifesto called for a “real European sovereignty” alongside a project for a united defence and military power for the bloc.
It called for the “creation of the first common military budget for defence, endowed with 8 billion euros” and “a common strategic culture”.
Four years after he was elected, Macron is still fighting for the creation of an EU army.
Illegal immigrants
Mail
The number of people who have crossed the English Channel in 2021 so far is almost double compared to 2020, with three months still left in the year.
More than 16,400 people had made the dangerous journey so far this year in small boats, according to available official Home Office data.
Last year’s total was more than 8,400, meaning this year’s figure to date is closing in on doubling the 2020 total.
Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine channel threat commander, said: ‘The Government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings using every tool at our disposal, at every stage in the journey.
‘But this is a complicated issue requiring changes to our laws. The Government’s New Plan for Immigration provides the only long term solution to fix the broken system and deliver the change required to tackle criminal gangs and prevent further loss of life.’
There were even more crossings over the weekend.
On Sunday, a Border Force coastal patrol vessel was seen arriving in Dover full of people as well as a lifeboat with around 40 or 50 people, including families and young children, on board.
From 8am to 12.30pm, it was estimated around 150 people had arrived.
Breitbart also has a story about the immigrants.
Gibraltar
Express
SPAIN and the UK have piled the pressure on the European Union to agree on a post-Brexit agreement over Gibraltar.
The British Overseas Territory is not covered by the UK’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement and separate negotiations with the EU are set to take place to agree on a post-Brexit treaty. But the European Commission is yet to agree on its negotiating mandate with the 27 member states.
A draft version was published by the Commission earlier this year.
Spain Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said that he considers the matter “a priority” and held talks with his Slovenian counterpart who currently holds the six-month Council presidency.
Mr Albares told Anže Logar to resolve the internal talks as quickly as possible as negotiations cannot commence until they do.
He added: “I have expressed to my colleague my wish that the presidency press for the approval of the mandate.”
Energy
Mail
More than half a million customers of a collapsed energy supplier face price rises after a rival firm agreed to take over providing their gas and electricity.
Octopus had been chosen to take on Avro Energy’s clients after a ‘competitive process’, energy watchdog Ofgem announced yesterday.
Avro, which had 580,000 customers, was the largest of several companies to go bust this month after the wholesale price of gas soared. A total of 1.5million households have seen their supplier collapse.
Under the ‘supplier of last resort’ system, outstanding credit balances owed to existing and former Avro customers will be paid and householders transferred to Octopus will be protected by the energy price cap.
But customers who were on cheaper fixed price deals, signed before the gas price rise, could see bills jump by hundreds of pounds. The annual price cap is set to rise to £1,277 from October for a typical household.
Customers are able to change supplier or tariff without exit fees after the switch-over, which took effect yesterday, but may struggle to find equivalent deals.
Octopus, which had 2.5million customers before the takeover, has also emerged as a potential buyer for Bulb Energy, which supplies 1.7million homes.
There are fears the system is leading to higher prices for consumers as Octopus will be able to recoup all costs incurred, including buying energy for Avro customers at inflated prices, which is paid for with a levy that falls on consumers.
Fuel
Telegraph
Sometimes, when sensitive details of a government meeting are leaked to the media, it can take months and a full-scale inquiry to identify the mole.
No such inquiry has been launched into the leak that prompted the fuel crisis on Thursday, because the shortlist of suspects, according to Whitehall insiders, has only ever consisted of one name.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA), which attended a Zoom call hosted by the Cabinet Office to discuss driver shortages, has been accused of prompting the weekend’s panic-buying in order to further its own political agenda.
The RHA has been campaigning for months for cheap foreign labour to be allowed back into the country to make up a shortfall of lorry drivers which it has “massively exaggerated”, sources say.
One senior Government source said that the RHA “owes an apology to the British people” for the weekend chaos.: 19 sec
However, the RHA has hit back by denying leaking and suggesting the Government is trying to “divert attention away” from its own handling of driver shortages.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the row has exposed bitter divisions between the Government and one of the bodies with which it needs to be working in order to solve the driver crisis that is causing not only fuel shortages, but also empty shelves in shops.
What else is happening in the fuel crisis can be read in the Order-order, Mail, Sun, Telegraph, Express, Independent, Mirror, Times, ITV News, BBC News
Education
Times
Students could start paying back their student loans far sooner under plans being considered by the government.
Ministers are said to be planning to cut the earnings threshold at which graduates begin repaying student loans to save the Treasury money. This was recommended in the Augar post-18 review of education funding, to which a government response is imminent.
At present students pay nothing until they are earning at least £27,000. The loans are written off after 30 years and taxpayers are projected to foot almost half the bill. If the threshold were reduced it would drag millions into making repayments earlier in their careers.
Rishi Sunak wants to overhaul student financing in his spending review before next month’s budget, the Financial Times reported last night.
Covid
Times
The World Health Organisation is to restart its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak and will appoint a new team of experts with a mission to look for further evidence of how the virus emerged in China.
The new panel will include experts in laboratory safety, biosecurity and geneticists, as well as animal disease specialists who are experts in how viruses spread to humans, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The team will redouble efforts to establish whether the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan towards the end of 2019 before going on to kill more than 4.7 million people across the globe. China denies the allegation and is demanding that the WHO investigates whether the virus originated in other countries.
We need a restored and updated Treason and Sedition Law to deal with the rejoiners and others who would give up our country to the control of others. Those “others” could well include certain persons in No. 10…
This shortage of HGV drivers has not suddenly appeared, it’s taken many moths, even years to get to this position.
One is forced to conclude the present crisis has been deliberately engineered, but for what purpose?
Clearly someone is trying to force someone else’s hand.
Could it be the rejoiners?
If the Road Hauliers Association is anything like the CBI then its agenda will be controlled by huge haulage companies rather than small family companies with say 10-50 trucks. Small is beautiful!
Similar thoughts in my mind Jake Bennett.
I’m with Octopus Energy and my local fuel station is probably supplied by a small family company.