Article 16
Telegraph
Lord Frost will on Monday issue a threat to the EU that the UK is prepared to trigger Article 16 unless the bloc agrees to replace the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Brexit minister has drawn up proposals to permanently replace the protocol and will tell the Tory party conference that the UK “cannot wait forever” for Brussels and unless it moves “soon” the UK will trigger the so-called nuclear option allowing it to unilaterally suspend parts of the protocol.
In his keynote speech in Manchester, Lord Frost will say that he is increasingly concerned that the EU’s proposals to fix the protocol will not provide the “significant change we need”, it is understood.
Urging the bloc to be “ambitious”, he will go on to warn that “tinkering around the edges” is not enough and that a substantial renegotiation is the only way to help the two sides restore “friendly relations… based on free trade”.
However, he will add: “But we cannot wait for ever. Without an agreed solution soon, we will need to act, using the Article 16 safeguard mechanism, to address the impact the protocol is having on Northern Ireland.”
The legal texts, which will be shared with Brussels in the coming days, are intended to set out a clear blueprint for cutting EU red tape in Northern Ireland and resolving the significant disruption to trade from Britain that has occurred since it came into force in January.
Lord Frost is expected to argue that the texts are compatible with the protocol agreed with the EU, which under article 13 (8) of the agreement states that it can be superseded with superior arrangements.
The Times also has the story.
Fisheries
Express
FRANCE has more licences to fish in UK waters than every other continental member of the European Union put together, a startling new analysis has indicated, despite President Emmanuel Macron’s comments regarding access to British waters.
The total tonnage of French fishing vessels cleared to operate in UK seas massively exceeds that of all of the Royal Navy’s fleet of frigates combined, Facts4EU has pointed out. Meanwhile, report author Leigh Evans has accused Mr Macron of attempting to “bully” Britain – while dismissing French objections as “absurd”.
The pro-Brexit think tank used figures published by the Government’s Marine Management Organisation last week to suggest despite the vehement objections, France did not have quite such a raw deal as has been suggested.
The Express also reports a different angle on the fisheries question.
Tax
Telegraph
Boris Johnson was given a public warning on Sunday from senior Tories not to hike taxes at the Budget later this month after he repeatedly failed to rule out an increase.
Cabinet ministers and senior Tory backbenchers urged the Prime Minister to live up to his claims to be a low-tax Conservative amid fears the party’s reputation was being eroded.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the House of Commons leader and Cabinet member, argued that raising taxes was counterproductive and would actually result in “less” tax revenue for the Treasury.
Sir Graham Brady, who as chairman of the 1922 Committee is the most senior Tory backbencher, said that the Tories’ “credible reputation” as a low tax party was under threat.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, called for a “lower base of tax”, warning that tax hikes and cutbacks in investment could create a “perfect storm”.
Media also covering the question of tax include Mail, Times, Sun, iNews, Evening Standard.
Covid
Mail
The first test to detect ‘active’ Covid from a saliva swab rather than ‘harmless viral fragments’ is to be rolled out across the UK.
The KnowNow antigen test mimics the surface of a human cell to identify the virus and only recognises ‘infectious’ or ‘active’ Covid.
By comparison, PCR and lateral flows are susceptible to picking up ‘harmless viral fragments’ – meaning some people test positive and have to isolate despite not having the virus.
The test is designed to mimic the experience of brushing your teeth rather than sticking a swab up the nose and swiping the back of the throat, and is more accurate than its predecessors.
A spokesman said: ‘KnowNow enables testing to keep people safe, whilst minimising disruption, increasing trust and keeping society and the economy open.’
While currently registered in Britain and the EU and undergoing clinical trials, it is yet to be screened across the US.
Fuel
Telegraph
Thousands of army veterans are ready to help tackle the HGV crisis but are being ignored by the Government, a logistic expert has said.
Service leavers and veterans with requisite skills that have no civilian equivalent are being hampered as they try to move into the road haulage sector.
Former soldier Darren Wright, of Veterans into Logistics (ViL), a non-profit organisation, says with government support it would take only four weeks to train new truck drivers.
The Government says 200 military personnel are due to start helping ease the fuel crisis on Monday.
Mr Wright said the UK needs a drivers’ “bootcamp” to fast-track people. “To get out of this mess and speed things up we all need to work together,” he said.
“We’ve been lobbying hard. Companies are screaming out for drivers, but the idea fell on deaf ears.
“We need all the organisations working together. We need the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) onside and we need access to ex-military instructors and examiners.
Other media running the story include Mail, ITV News, Evening Standard, Sky News.
Energy
Mail
Boris Johnson is set to announce all of Britain’s electricity will come from green sources by 2035, it emerged last night.
The Prime Minister will reportedly reveal the new policy this week as he seeks to reduce the country’s dependence on gas and other fossil fuels.
He will use his conference speech to commit the Conservatives to plans to invest significantly in renewable and nuclear energy, The Times reported.
Mr Johnson is expected to say that sourcing all electricity from renewables would be a clear step towards the Government’s ambition to hit net zero emissions by 2050.
It would also reduce the country’s dependence on gas, the surging price of which has left Britons facing an energy crisis and soaring bills.
Green sources generated 43 per cent of Britain’s electricity last year, while gas, oil and coal produced around 40 per cent. The rest of the country’s needs were filled by nuclear sources.
The new 2035 target will mean a significant growth in offshore wind generation as well as in nuclear capacity to provide a ‘baseload’ of electricity which will met variable supply and demand.
Another green story is in the Times.
Police
Telegraph
A serving Metropolitan Police officer, in the same unit as Wayne Couzens, has been charged with rape.
Dame Cressida Dick said she found the charge “deeply concerning” and that the public “will be very concerned too”.
Police constable David Carrick, 46, who is a member of the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, was charged by Hertfordshire Constabulary on Sunday.
He has been charged with one count of rape followed an alleged incident on September 4.
Scotland Yard said the officer had been off duty at the time of the alleged incident but the force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
PC Carrick is due to appear before Hatfield Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning via video link.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “PC David Carrick, 46, who is based within the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, was charged by Hertfordshire Constabulary on October 3 with rape. The officer was off-duty in Hertfordshire at the time.
“He was arrested on 2 October by Hertfordshire Constabulary and suspended the same day by the Metropolitan Police. We await the outcome of criminal proceedings.”
The Mail, Express, Times, Mirror, Guardian, BBC News, ITV News, City AM, iNews, Sky News, Independent, also have the story.
Mail
Nearly a thousand police officers and staff have been probed for posting offensive social media content.
Hundreds were accused of posting disturbing material on sites such as Facebook and Twitter – yet only a tiny fraction have left their jobs.
The figures came after it emerged that PC Wayne Couzens had exchanged degrading material with colleagues on WhatsApp before he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
A Mail investigation found a worrying number of officers and staff have been investigated over misogynistic, sexist, racist and homophobic communications.
Others are alleged to have sent explicit photos to colleagues or even sexual content to underage and vulnerable victims.
Yet despite the gravity of the offences, the majority – including several senior staff – escaped with only disciplinary action.
The serving police officers, including three from the Metropolitan Police, who shared messages with Couzens are now under criminal investigation.
At least 999 police officers and staff have been reported by either members of the public or colleagues for misusing social media since 2015.
However, the total is likely to be far higher as only 32 out of the 44 police forces in England, Wales and Scotland responded to freedom of information requests.
Mirror
A damning probe into the Met Police today reveals 26 colleagues of murderer Wayne Couzens have committed sex crimes since 2016.
Offences included rape and possessing indecent images of children. Two officers were jailed in April, a month after Couzens raped and killed Sarah Everard.
The alarming figures uncovered by the Sunday Mirror come as pressure mounts on Met Commissioner Cressida Dick to stand down – and for the force to be given a radical overhaul to end a sexist culture.
Labour’s Harriet Harman said: “Women’s confidence in the police has been shattered.”
A staggering 27 Met Police officers were convicted of sex crimes in the past five years, a Sunday Mirror probe has found.
Midwives
Mail
The UK is facing an ‘exodus’ of midwives, with a survey showing more than half are considering leaving the NHS.
Among midwives who have left their job, or are planning to do so, most said it was because they were not able to give women the level of care they would like.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said staff were at ‘breaking point’, with high levels of burnout in a staffing crisis made worse by higher sickness rates during the pandemic.
The RCM surveyed 1,588 midwives and maternity support workers, and found 57 per cent were considering leaving.
College chief executive Gill Walton said: ‘Every midwife and maternity support worker goes to work to provide safe, quality care.
‘That so many feel that understaffing means they are unable to do so is deeply worrying. What these numbers suggest is a midwife exodus, which will leave already struggling services on their knees.’
The survey found that 67 per cent of midwives and maternity care workers who had left their profession or planned to do so were unhappy with the quality of care they were able to deliver.
Some 84 per cent were not happy with staffing levels.
Mrs Walton said: ‘Not a day goes by that we don’t hear of a maternity service having to close temporarily, suspend services or divert women to other units just because there simply aren’t enough midwives.
‘This can’t continue because we know it compromises safety and means women don’t always get the safe positive pregnancy and birth experience that they should.’
The Morning Star and the Independent have further details.
Now this sounds the most unlikely story of the day.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10055293/Devons-Alverdiscott-linked-2-360-mile-cable-solar-wind-farm-Morocco.html
Energy: The only green item here is Boris himself; becoming a serious candidate for the worst PM ever.
I think he’s already won that dubious accolade. I thought Theresa May was a hard act to follow, but Boris has trashed this country in ways even Tony Blair didn’t contemplate.
Good point Xantilor.
By the way, I’ve just been looking at Animal Farm again. The book did end as you say with pigs and men being indistinguishable.
But there was a film made of it in which the farm is taken over by benevolent humans and the animals that remained lived happily ever after.
Americans, saying that U.S.S.R. would collapse and how much better capitalism is!
Imagine booking a couple of nights at the wonderful sounding Britannia Grand Hotel in Scarborough, only to find out whilst checking in that the top 2 floors are being used for Afghan refugees. This is what the guests have reported on Trip Advisor in the last few days.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g190744-d284171-Reviews-Grand_Hotel_Scarborough-Scarborough_Scarborough_District_North_Yorkshire_England.html
Presume they will be engaged in community singing something along the lines of ‘Oh, we do love to be beside the seaside’ in Pashto.
Jake. Latest news from Scarborough. You can almost hear the crash of the residential property market there.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10057303/Scarboroughs-Grand-Hotel-Travelodge-evacuated-bomb-threat.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goodwill
One of Cameron’s intake of wishy washy liberals.
A career politician who, during the referendum posted on his constituency website that he was a staunch Eurosceptic yet he campaigned as a Remainer. He also backed Hunt in the leadership challenge.
His secondary income comes as managing director of an Environmentally friendly burials company on the North Yorks moors. If his constituents had any sense they would take action to make this his principle occupation by deselecting him.
More details on Grand Hotel.
This little glimmer of sanity cheered me earlier this morning… even if it is from the USA. Not much chance of hearing something like this from the Tory conference is there.
A North Carolina school board has adopted a policy that would discipline or dismiss teachers if they incorporate critical race theory (CRT) into their teaching of the history of the United States.:-
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/north-carolina-county-to-discipline-fire-teachers-who-say-america-and-founders-are-racist_4029554.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email2&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-10-03-3&mktids=99f76b6380930450e4464f7a77d0e165&est=GFUAK383IsSOI%2F7kDcNL5kTZih1AfSRl7A5bs6ciRRey5MdfPg9gvNm09wT4oqgOEA%3D%3D
B.J. getting some public warnings at the Conference !! Good.
He’s still spouting Green nonsense though. Bad.
Well, at least he has now heard of nuclear energy.
The so called fuel crisis is a perfect example of the economcs of the big players in any economy. and the incentives ( GREED.and SURVIVAL ) . This is a manufactured situation for bigger business wars.. Monopoly is the perfect situation for these people. and control of all the players is desirable to that end. Whereas thereafter,.Chaos is the best end for consumers.And Oil is perhaps the best example of this in UK and Globally at all levels. But it should be noted that Britain is watched carefully by all players.
Privatise gains and socialise losses is the watchword of the corporation.
Well summarised Jake.
Midwives.
So how is leaving the job going to improve the standard of care that patients get?
Either barking mad or a feeble excuse!
Integrity Harry.
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
Not pretending to do a good job when being prevented from doing so.
Leaving a well paid job because they can not practice hypocrisy.
Ring any bells?
Job or “calling”?
Recipe for low paid unconsidered work generally carried out by women, fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you are looking at it, long gone.
To be honest I do’t believe Harry deserves to be chewed up on that one, although eminently suitable as a general run of things.
Well O.K. Roger. I see your point.
On the other hand, I’m expecting many people in caring and health to leave their ‘calling’ because of mandatory jabs.
This government just do one stupid thing after another.
I couldn’t resist chewing him up.