Find the usual front page round up here
Brexit
Telegraph
The DUP is preparing to vote against Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal with the EU in Wednesday’s crunch House of Commons vote, The Telegraph understands.
The decision by the Unionist party is likely to embolden Tory Eurosceptics who are also gearing up to oppose the Prime Minister’s deal.
On Wednesday, MPs will debate the “Stormont Brake” – a key measure in the Windsor Framework that Mr Sunak struck with the EU to improve the functioning of the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
Under the brake, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly would be able to block EU regulations, but only in specific circumstances and with the EU able to take remedial action in response.
Wednesday’s vote will be on a statutory instrument to implement the mechanism, but the Government has said it will be interpreted as the defining verdict on the overall agreement.
Ministers had harboured hopes that the DUP would not actively oppose the deal, paving the way for the party to return to the Stormont Assembly, which it has been boycotting for more than a year in protest at the protocol.
However, a senior DUP source told The Telegraph: “I would fully expect that we will be voting against that statutory instrument.”
The source said there were “fundamental problems still outstanding” with the Windsor Framework, pointing to comments from the DUP’s leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who last week said there were “key areas of concern” requiring “further clarification, re-working and change”.
Express
Rishi Sunak will this week seek to face down opponents of his landmark deal with Brussels and secure his reputation as the man who finally got Brexit done. MPs will vote on a centrepiece of the PM’s “Windsor Framework”, designed to give the UK the power to veto new EU rules on goods in Northern Ireland when requested by Stormont.
It is hoped it will persuade the DUP to share power with Sinn Fein and comes ahead of visits by US President Joe Biden and former president Bill Clinton to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
But Brexiteers in the DUP have warned it does not address problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol.
It is understood the legislation will explicitly require the Government to trigger the so-called “Stormont Brake” if it receives a valid request from the Assembly.
However, DUP MP Sammy Wilson doubted any UK government would be prepared to “risk a trade war with the EU” by vetoing Brussels rules.
Rwanda flights
Express
Suella Braverman is optimistic the first flight carrying migrants from the UK to Rwanda will take off by summer. The Home Secretary on Saturday witnessed preparations first-hand as the African nation gears up to take in thousands who enter Britain in small boats. She said she was optimistic that legal loopholes will be sealed off, bringing a halt to endless courtroom battles over deportation orders.
Mrs Braverman vowed: “We are working to make this happen as soon as possible and there is every possibility that we can move quickly.”
The first flights will take off within days of an Appeal Court ruling over the Rwanda policy, which could come as early as May.
A Government source said its new Bill on illegal immigration, currently going through Parliament, would “seal off all the loopholes”, bringing a stop to endless legal fights over deporting those who enter the UK in small boats.
The confident prediction of a summer take-off for the plan came during a flying visit to Rwandan capital Kigali yesterday.
Telegraph
Migrants who arrive in the UK illegally face deportation to Rwanda this summer after Suella Braverman said the country is “clearly ready” to start receiving asylum seekers.
Those claiming to be victims of modern slavery will face deportation after the Home Secretary signed a revised deal with the African state’s foreign minister closing loopholes that could have prevented removals.
On a two-day visit to Kigali, Mrs Braverman expressed her determination to “move quickly” with deportation flights.
She also indicated that the UK could be prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if European judges block the legislation.
It comes as Tory backbenchers are preparing a series of amendments to strengthen the legislation, including setting out new powers to ignore Strasbourg judgments.
The revised agreement signed on Saturday night with Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s foreign minister, means any migrant arriving in the UK illegally can now be swiftly detained and deported to Rwanda irrespective of whether their claim was through asylum, the Human Rights Act including modern slavery laws or no claim at all.
ITV News
Suella Braverman is making plans to deport migrants to Rwanda by the summer as she expands the widely-criticised deportation policy to include all illegal migrants.
A Home Office source said “we are certainly working towards getting the flights off before the summer”, adding that the home secretary acknowledged it was dependent on the pending legal battles.
“We’re working to make this happen as soon as possible, and there is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour,” she told reporters.
No migrants have been relocated to the country so far after the deal was signed last April by Ms Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel.
Sun
HOME Secretary Suella Braverman was all smiles yesterday as she told of her hopes that the first Channel migrants will be flown to Rwanda by this summer.
She spoke after signing a new deal with her counterpart in the African nation’s capital Kigali.
It “seals the loopholes” in the existing multi-million pound agreement to take deported illegal migrants from the UK and opens the way to flights by the summer.
It also means anyone — not just the small boats asylum seekers — arriving illegally can be sent to Rwanda, including those with human rights and modern slavery claims.
Ms Braverman vowed to “move quickly” if the plan survives left-wing court challenges.
And she put meddling Strasbourg judges on notice that the UK could quit the European Convention of Human Rights if they continued to “thwart” the plan — warning: “Nothing is off the table ultimately.”
Mail
Migrants could be deported to Rwanda within months after Suella Braverman sealed the Government’s hardline policy with a visit to the African country yesterday.
The Home Secretary pledged to act quickly to remove migrants who arrive in Britain illegally if the Court of Appeal upholds the Rwanda programme’s legality in the coming weeks.
Her defiant stance comes in the wake of the row over Gary Lineker likening the Government’s language over the small boats crisis in the Channel to that of 1930s Germany.
Yesterday the Match Of The Day presenter returned to BBC screens after winning a power battle with the Corporation.
Touring new accommodation being built for migrants outside the Rwandan capital Kigali, Ms Braverman said yesterday: ‘There is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour.’
It raises the prospect of removals flights beginning by the summer – even if the Home Office is facing another appeal in the Supreme Court. Officials had previously indicated that all domestic legal appeals would have to be concluded before flights could take off.
Strikes
Express
Britain is facing further strike chaos with an indefinite walkout by thousands of bus drivers beginning tonight and passport officials preparing for massive industrial action. Rail passengers also face further misery, with the RMT planning stoppages on March 30 and April 1 after action by 20,000 members crippled services across the country yesterday.
Industrial strife is continuing despite the Government averting further strikes in the NHS, where the RCN and Unison are recommending that their members accept a new pay offer.
Junior doctors’ leaders have also agreed to suspend industrial action in return for pay talks.
Writing in the Sunday Express, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said health workers could now focus on clearing waiting lists but warned action by junior doctors had led to the cancellation of tens of thousands of procedures and appointments.
He added: “I hope our offer for nurses, paramedics and physios demonstrates to unions representing junior doctors that the Government is willing to negotiate and find a reasonable way forward which fairly rewards NHS staff for their hard work amid the difficult economic challenges our country faces.”
Observer
Headteachers may soon be reballoted for strike action to escalate pressure on the government, as their union described the chances of talks over pay as a “false hope”.
All four education unions expressed disbelief and exasperation after education secretary Gillian Keegan turned down their request for negotiations mediated by the official conciliation service Acas to end the current impasse. In a letter last March 8, Keegan continued to insist no talks could happen unless the National Education Union (NEU) paused the national walk-outs scheduled for the following Wednesday and Thursday . While the NEU voted for strike action, in January the National Association for Headteachers’s vote fell just short of the threshold.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, told the Observer: “We are fast running out of tarmac before we have to go back to reballot. When do we decide talks are just a false hope? We aren’t there yet, but we are not very far away.” He described Keegan’s refusal to consider mediation as “extraordinary”. “I’ve never been turned down on using Acas to try and break a deadlock in any industry I’ve worked in,” he added. “Does this government have no experience of industrial relations?”
ITV News
Transport ministers must follow the example of their health department colleagues by offering “new money” in union negotiations, otherwise passengers will continue to face rail misery, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said.
Mr Lynch was speaking as he joined workers on a rainy picket line at central London’s Euston station on Saturday, as a walkout by 20,000 members across the country crippled services.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at 14 train operators will walk out.
The strikes will provide further disruption to train passengers as the dispute over jobs, pay and conditions rumbles on.
Several health service unions, including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), have agreed to suspend industrial action, after the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) made a new pay offer.
Mr Lynch said ministers in the health service negotiations had shown a small “change in attitude” and Department for Transport (DfT) ministers must follow suit to avoid strikes planned for the end of March.
“We need a change in attitude. We’ve seen a bit of that in the health service and maybe in the teachers’ unions,” he said.
BBC News
On cold, frosty mornings on nurses’ picket lines the rhetoric was fiery and noisy. Striking nurses condemned the government for failing to open pay talks. Ministers criticised walkouts affecting patients.
But behind the scenes it was a very different story. Secret contacts were being made between the two sides.
From early January there were confidential approaches from an unofficial source to the Royal College of Nurses (RCN), the nurses’ union, about the possibility of talks beginning in England. This involved putting out feelers to see what might bring the nurses’ union to the table.
Strikes by nurses and other health unions – representing paramedics, midwives and other NHS staff – had been triggered when ministers insisted on sticking to the recommendations of the independent pay review body (PRB). It had proposed average increases of 4%.
The RCN’s original demand for a wage rise of 5% above inflation – equivalent at one point to 19% – was unaffordable, ministers said.
Fisheries
Express
The EU and Norway reached an agreement on fishing quotas after months of negotiations over EU waters aside from Ireland and North Sea waters in the Norwegian economic zone.
Announcing the deal, Norwegian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bjørnar Skjæran said: “I am satisfied that we have finally reached an agreement.
“It is of course important for us to get these agreements in place, and ideally I would have liked to have seen that we managed to reach the goal many weeks ago.
“At the same time, it has been important from the Norwegian side to ensure a balanced agreement, which safeguards Norwegian core interests in the long term.
“We have managed this with this agreement, and I am satisfied with the result for this year’s fishing.
“The negotiations with the EU have been ongoing since October last year, and countless hours have been spent in negotiation meetings in Oslo, Brussels and in video calls both at political and official level. Among the questions on which we stood far apart for a long time was Norwegian vessels’ access to fishing for cod in EU waters outside Ireland, and EU vessels’ access to fish in the Norwegian economic zone in the North Sea.
“There have been periods of hard work, but I am happy that the negotiations finally led to a good result.
“With the quota swap in place, Norwegian fishermen can start fishing on the quotas we have swapped for us such as prawns, blue halibut and redfish off Greenland, and pollock in the EU zone.
“In the exchange agreement, the EU has received a cod quota in the Barents Sea of 9,150 tonnes, says the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.”
Alarm
Mail
An emergency warning system to alert people to life-threatening events like flooding and wildfires will be tested next month, ministers said.
The siren-like alarm will sound for ten seconds to warn people of danger to life on Sunday, April 23.
The system – modelled on similar schemes in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan – is intended to be used to warn people of risks to life.
Phone users will be unable to use other features on their devices unless they acknowledge the alert.
The alarm – due to be sent on St George’s Day – will appear on the home screens of people’s phones, accompanied by a loud warning sound and vibration.
The scheme will initially focus on the most serious severe weather-related events. It will be able to reach 90per cent of mobile users within the relevant area in an emergency.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said: ‘We are strengthening our national resilience with a new emergency alerts system, to deal with a wide range of threats – from flooding to wildfires.
‘It will revolutionise our ability to warn and inform people who are in immediate danger, and help us keep people safe.
‘As we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere, the buzz of a phone can save a life.’
Telegraph
Every mobile phone in the country will receive emergency siren alerts from the Government to warn the public of disasters such as floods, fires and terrorist attacks under a new system being launched today.
The alerts will be sent if there is judged to be a “risk to life”, with a UK-wide test of the system to take place next month.
Under the Emergency Alerts system, the Government and emergency services will be able to send urgent messages to nearly 90 per cent of phones in a defined area.
Alerts sent via mobile broadcasting technology will appear on device home screens accompanied by a “loud siren-like sound” for up to 10 seconds. Users must acknowledge the alert before they can start using their phones again.
People who do not want to receive the alerts can opt out of them in their device settings, but the Government is urging people to remain opted in because of their “life saving potential”.
Ministers have assured that it will not reveal an individual’s location or collect personal data.
The system will be used “very rarely”, the Government has said, and only in situations posing an “immediate risk” to people’s lives, with the alerts always including details on the area affected and providing instructions about how best to respond.
BBC News
A siren-like alert will be sent to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new government public warning system.
It allows the government and emergency services to send urgent messages warning the public of life-threatening situations like flooding or wildfires.
The test is expected to take place in the early evening of 23 April.
Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.
A message will appear on the home screens of people’s devices during the test, with vibration and a loud warning sound that will ring for about 10 seconds, even if the phone is set to silent.
The system – which became operational on Sunday – is being modelled on similar schemes used in the US, Canada, Japan and The Netherlands.
Messages would only ever come from the government or emergency services and will initially focus on the most serious weather-related events, with the ability to get a message to 90% of mobile users within the relevant area.
ITV News
A siren-like emergency warning message will be sent by the government to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new public alert system.
Phone users will be unable to use other features on their devices unless they acknowledge the alert, due to be sent on Sunday April 23.
The system, which is modelled on similar schemes in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan, is intended to be used in life-threatening situations, including flooding and wildfires.
On St George’s Day, alerts will appear on the home screens of people’s phones, accompanied by a loud warning sound and vibration.
Sun
BRITS will from today get “Armageddon alerts” on their mobile phones.
The Mayday system has been set up to warn of disasters, such as floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.
It is due to be tested across the UK on Sunday April 23 — St George’s Day — when no action will be required.
Ministers decided to set up the system in the wake of Covid because it cost a small fortune to send texts to people’s phones warning about the pandemic.
The alerts will be used very rarely — when there is an immediate risk to people’s lives.
A loud siren will sound for up to ten seconds and your phone will vibrate.
The emergency message will appear on your home screen detailing the alert and may include telephone numbers or website links containing further information.
Conservative Woman have an excellent template of a letter to send to your MP in the long campaign period before the next GE. They won’t give you a straight answer of course but it doesn’t cost you anything if done via They Work For You website and for me if it irks the the Tory low-life MP we have then its worth it. If you don’t get any answer then politely get back to them and demand one. They Work For You do send an email about 10 days after using their facility asking if the MP replied. No MP likes the bad publicity on They Work For You of not replying.
If you send a private mailed letter it both costs 70p for a stamp and the MP is unlikely to fear not answering.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/ten-questions-for-your-mp-dont-hold-your-breath-for-the-answers/.
Just had an email from the Reform Party saying they are making an important announcement tomorrow. Let’s hope it has some substance!!!!!
The EU, also known as the Fourth Reich.
It’s purpose, to achieve by subterfuge what it failed to do militarily on numerous occasions in the past.
Sorry Debbie for breaking in to your excellently presented “News roundup”, but as I told Viv, I had for a long time had a bee in my bonnet about the bland statement that “the EU had kept the peace in Europe” and felt it was a big lie, so when I got that letter from my “well meaning, but obviously blind friends in Canada” and then I saw the piece by Tombs in the DT, I felt at last we could put two and two together.
So I sent it off to Viv, but unfortunately she couldn`t accept it for her to print as it contained too much of Tombs original article.
I do think there may still be a few on here who have always felt at the back of their minds that we were being fed unsupported preposterous nonsense, so I`m afraid I have “borrowed” your pitch and in so doing apologise profusely, but hope some others may be prepared to comment on what are my conclusions!
No problem Roger, especially as it was Viv who approved your last post, not me. It was a bit long so I asked her to adjudicate on it.
RT- At the time of Brexit (twenty years ago . . . ) there was talk of a peaceful you’rope since 1945.
At the time, someone like yourself, posted four close typed pages of you’ropeeing conflicts (disproving the nonsense).
I cast about on my network to see if I can find it. But don’t expect results.
The Big Lie EU has kept the peace in Europo since the war.
I recently received a letter from a friend who had settled in Canada many years ago.
This friend and I have been poles apart on politics, particularly my participation in the Brexit referendum
This phrase caught my eye
“the EU being the biggest single entity that has kept the peace in Europe since the war”
I had been aware of this mantra put about by crazed EU diehards for many years and while I knew it was a load of rubbish I had never really seen it effectively repudiated and finally put to bed. So my friend`s mention had come somewhat as a surprise.
However, today I spotted this article in the centre editorial page of the Daily Telegraph written by Robert Tombs.
“The EU`s moral claim to exist has collapsed”
Underwritted by the following,
“The War in Ukraine has revealed it to be little more than a tool for promoting French national interests”
Tombs writes
“Politicians are prone to think that a “reset” of relations can be achieved by a warm handshake and a hug for the cameras. But sometimes the mask slips and then they would do well to recall the dictum of that old bruiser Palmerston
:no permanent allies, no permanent enemies only permanent interests:
Our French friends have never forgotton this and
indeed they often quote Palmerston, thinking it reflects British attitudes. If only.”
Tombs goes on
“The latest slipping of the mask is the report that France is holding up the procurement of ammunition for Ukraine, because it wants only EU firms to be considered – does that ring a bell? For me that`s exactly what happened over the Covid vaccine, the French were determined to have a European (read French )vaccine
Unfortunately the French ( Pasteure institute etc.) made a mess of it and Oxford University and Astra Zeneca nipped in with the goodies ahead of them
“Macron complained that the Astra Zeneca vaccine was dangerous and ineffective……..More important than hastening mass vaccinations were the prestige of France and the interests of EU drug companies”
“not dissimilar was Macrons`s reaction to the Aukus pact in which Australia chose to buy Anglo American nuclear submarines rather than French diesel powered boats
(in an aside I heard Nigel Farage point out that a diesel sub had to surface every 48hrs to “breath”(?) whereas a nuke could stay under undetected for up to 4 months)
“again less than the security of the Pacific were the prestige and interests of France”
“Now we have possible limitations on ammunition supply for the Ukraine……..the EU has no effective will apart from that of its leading members…they France and Germany have been pushed into grudging support by British and American action in supplying arms and encouraging Ukrainian resistance……..this breaks with earlier Franco-German policy enshrined in the Minsk Accords brokered in 2014 to appease Putin.
“At a deeper level, Paris is pursuing a long held consistent policy,………..most of it goes back to the brooding influence of Charles de Gaulle…….the purpose of “Europe” for France is to protect French interests and magnify its global influence…..part of this was Macron`s diplomatic game with Putin.
A broader aspect is France`s determination to create a “European” diplomatic and military capacity……which it assumes would be French led and would ideally have Britain as an obedient auxiliary…….France`s formidable defence industry is a major part of Global power and influence …it wants to make ammunition for Ukraine, even if this slows down the supply…it is determined to keep capacity within the EU as the foundation of the European great power status that it has consistently pursued for a good 60 years………….Macron has said he does not want Russia humiliated and would doubtless like the Ukrainians to compromise.
“Where does this leave the EU, as an empty shell, its great MORAL (my emphasis) as the guarantor of European Peace, has collapsed.”!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe that last sentence reinforces my argument that the EU has kept the peace in Europe as a big lie, manufactured by the French and German axis who all along wanted to use every device to bring about a “United States of Europe” where they ruled the roost to the exclusion of the UK as an entity on the world stage.
Remember Palmerston “Only permanent intersts”, moral turpitude has always been the French base
Roger T at 12.26pm. Yes of course that is a Big lie. The EU has nothing to do with ‘keeping the peace in Europe since WW2’. However, here is another ‘Big Lie’, probably even bigger! Europeans Nations (including the Uk) need the support of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), to protect them from war.
More news not in the MSM.
Braverman starts to talk up prospect of sending migrants to Rwanda . Is there an election soon?
Government testing new warning signal on mobile phones on St George’s Day. ( The technocrats use symbolism as selectively as the 33 rd degree Masons)
What comes next I wonder?
Well, Hayek set it all out in the Road To Serfdom 80 years ago.
https://youtu.be/0QD75lUm51s. 4 mins
Time people woke up, joined centre Right parties today and started fighting the real dragons in Westminster and Whitehall rather than the states imaginary ones.
Brexit is not done, nobody will be sent to Rwanda, mobile phone notifications will be abused.
The next wave of care home murders starts next month.
I worry that you are right Lisa. Too many in government are truly the enemy within.
They certainly are Jack. And all those from leafy, verdant Tory rural and suburban constituencies who will be returning Tory candidates in the council elections in May may arguably be included on my list of enemies within too
Smart phone alarms…Oh happy days.
I don’t see nuclear attack by Putin mentioned as a possible warning.
Not mentioned is the other smart phone “app”.
The ability to report 21 motoring offences such as speeding to the police. Will this still happen if the phone is turned off?
HA………..Putin is not that stupid. Come on, one has to have a sense of perspective on this. And of course he looks at the eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union as a threat to his country. Can you not see that?
Colin at 7.18pm. Precisely so and I don’t blame him. In fact that expansion of NATO and EU is designed to abolish Russia as a sovereign, independent, nation. In the same way that they have almost succeeded in abolishing the UK.