Brexit
Express
TORY MPs have called for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal to be “urgently” looked at following months of red-tape chaos caused by exports.
Tory and Labour MPs on the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFEA) made the judgment in their Brexit Impact Report. The report examined the state of Seafood and meat exports to the EU following the end of the 2020 transition period.
Tory and Labour MPs on the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFEA) made the judgment in their Brexit Impact Report. The report examined the state of Seafood and meat exports to the EU following the end of the 2020 transition period.
The Brexit deal averted tariffs or quotas on almost all goods produced in the UK and EU.
But British exports must comply with EU health and safety standards and conformity rules, and there are strict rules governing products made with parts originating outside the EU or UK.
Fisheries
Express
BREXIT fishing disputes could get ugly as France threatened “retaliatory measures”.
The UK has secured a trade deal with the EU, resulting in changes to the fishing quotas enjoyed by European vessels in British waters. The deal ensures that 25.
He said there would be “retaliation measures” taken if the UK does not “deliver licenses [and] authorisation to access their waters for fishing”.
Mr Beaune, a key ally of President Emmanuel Macron, even said that the City of London could be targeted if the fishing dispute isn’t resolved, City AM reported.
He said: “We will give none – it is quid pro quo.
“The UK is expecting a number of authorisations from us on financial services. We will not give any until we have guarantees that, on fisheries and other issues, the UK respects its commitments.
Guardian
The failure of the UK government to seal a fishing quota deal with Norway – despite heralding a “historic” Brexit agreement with the country last year – is a disaster that will have serious consequences, say fishery leaders.
“This is actually a loss of real fishing opportunities,” said Barrie Deas, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fisherman’s Organisations, “and in that sense we’ve gone backwards”.
The North Atlantic is key to UK fishing interests because it provides a large stock of cod and haddock for the nation’s fish and chip shops.
Andrew Crook, the president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, warned that it could increase the price of fish and chips.
Environment
Guardian
Restrictions on the sale of coal, wet wood and manufactured solid fuels that can be burned in the home have come into force in England as the government attempts to cut air pollution.
Wood-burning stoves and open fires can still be used from 1 May but must be fuelled by cleaner alternatives, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.
They are a big source of the pollutant PM2.5, which can enter the bloodstream, lodge in lungs and other organs and has been identified by the World Health Organization as the most serious air pollutant for human health.
The particles have been linked to a wide range of health damage, particularly in younger and older people.
The restrictions, which form part of the government’s clean air strategy, mean bagged coal and wet wood of less than 2 cubic metres cannot be sold, and wet wood in larger volumes must be sold with advice on how to dry it before burning.
The changes also mean all manufactured solid fuels must now have a low sulphur content and only emit a small amount of smoke.
In addition, a new certification scheme will involve products being certified and labelled by suppliers to ensure they can be easily identified, and retail outlets will only be able to sell fuel with the correct label.
Masks
Mail
Company bosses can sack workers for refusing to wear a face mask, a tribunal has ruled.
An employment tribunal said a food firm in Kent was within its rights to dismiss a truck driver who refused to wear a mask while he was making a delivery to a client.
In one of the pandemic’s first employment disputes, Kent Foods was found to have acted fairly by sacking Deimantas Kubilius last June for failing to follow rules set out by the client, Tate & Lyle.
Mr Kubilius was making a delivery to Tate & Lyle, where workers were required to wear masks. Mr Kubilius refused, despite several requests from Tate & Lyle staff.
The tribunal heard that Mr Kubilius was willing to wear a mask outside his truck, but not in the cab, stating: ‘My cab is my home.’
But Tate & Lyle manager Jon Freeman was concerned about droplets coming from Mr Kubilius’s mouth when he spoke to people through the open window.
Covid
Sun
COVID modellers believe a third wave of the virus “may not happen” as the UK prepares to lift more lockdown restrictions.
Sage scientists had warned ministers that another wave of infections could kill up to 20,000 people this summer.
However, Professor Adam Kucharski, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the effectiveness of the vaccine rollout had changed that.
He told the Telegraph: “There was considerable uncertainty about the impact of vaccines on infection and transmission earlier this year, but recent studies are landing at the more optimistic end of the scale – at least for the dominant B.1.1.7 variant.
“We could still see some increase in transmission as things reopen, but the resulting impact could be relatively low if the vaccine programme stays on track and we don’t end up with variants that can partially evade immunity.”
ITV News
Self-isolation requirements for individuals who have been in contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus could be relaxed as a result of a major new study utilising rapid testing.
Daily lateral flow tests will be given to as many as 40,000 people who have a positive Covid-19 contact in the government-backed research announced on Sunday.
Instead of the 10 days of quarantine currently required, the participants will be sent a week’s worth of tests and will be able to go about their lives as before, as long as the results are negative.
The trial across England may provide greater evidence to reduce the length of time contacts of positive cases need to isolate, under efforts to restart social lives and reopen the economy.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This new pilot could help shift the dial in our favour by offering a viable alternative to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive Covid-19 cases, and one that would allow people to carry on going to work and living their lives.”
Evening Standard
Self-isolation requirements for individuals who have been in contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus could be relaxed as a result of a major new study utilising rapid testing.
Daily lateral flow tests will be given to as many as 40,000 people who have a positive Covid-19 contact in the Government-backed research announced on Sunday.
Instead of the 10 days of quarantine currently required, the participants will be sent a week’s worth of tests and will be able to go about their lives as before, as long as the results are negative.
The trial across England may provide greater evidence to reduce the length of time contacts of positive cases need to isolate, under efforts to restart social lives and reopen the economy.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This new pilot could help shift the dial in our favour by offering a viable alternative to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive Covid-19 cases, and one that would allow people to carry on going to work and living their lives.”
BBC News
People may not need to self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone with Covid, if a new trial is successful.
The government-backed research will trial giving people daily lateral flow tests for seven days – instead of quarantining for 10 days.
So long as they test negative all week, they can carry on with their lives.
From 9 May, about 40,000 close contacts of people with Covid in England will be invited to take part in the study.
Self-isolating means staying at home and not leaving it – not even to buy food or medicines, or for exercise.
As part of this major new study, people will have to test themselves every morning for seven days and will be exempt from the legal requirement to quarantine at home every day they test negative, as long as they do not show any symptoms of Covid.
Guardian
A rule forcing care home residents who go on any sort of outside visit to then spend two weeks in their room is being scrapped, the government announced on Saturday. Campaigners have hailed the reversal, with one group saying the regulation had turned “care homes into prisons”.
Under new guidance to begin from Tuesday, people living in care homes in England will not have to self-isolate if they leave the home to be in the garden of a relative or friend, or to visit outdoor spaces such as parks and beaches.
They must be accompanied by either a care worker or a named visitor, and must socially distance when away from the home. They cannot meet in groups, as currently permitted for others outside, and can go indoors only to use toilets.
The full guidance has not yet been set out, and could vary for areas with high or fast-rising levels of coronavirus infection, or the presence of variants of the virus being monitored by the government.
Scotland
Breitbart
A Member of Parliament for the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) stoked controversy by saying it would “totally” accept dropping the pound for the euro and policing a hard border with England as the price of rejoining the European Union.
While notionally committed to leaving the United Kingdom in order to establish sovereign statehood for Scotland, few British political parties are more committed to reversing Brexit than the SNP, at least in their corner of Britain — even though this would entail giving up independence with respect to national fishing waters, agricultural policy, international trade deals, and a swathe of other policy areas which the European Union controls on behalf of its member-states.
One of the knottier issues for the party has been the fact that in seeking to rejoin the EU, a separate Scotland would not benefit from any of the opt-outs from the process of European integration which the United Kingdom had prior to Brexit, and would have to commit to joining the euro currency and enforcing a customs and regulatory border against England — by far Scotland’s largest trading partner, and crossed by thousands of Scots and Englishmen who live and work on either side of the frontier every day.
Previously, the SNP has sought to obscure these issues, suggesting Scotland would be able to keep the pound and even continue to have a say in monetary policy for the British currency — but Alyn Smith MP, the SNP spokesman on foreign affairs, has now told La Repubblica that the party is happy to be a “fully normal” member of the EU, enforcing all the rules required of it against England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and adopting the euro subject to yet another referendum.
Times
The Scottish National Party is heading for a fourth term in office in Thursday’s Holyrood election. But the SNP’s hopes of winning a majority, which could be central to its independence hopes, are on a knife edge, according to a new poll.
The latest Panelbase survey for The Sunday Times indicates that Nicola Sturgeon will win in Scotland, perhaps with a majority of only one. The Conservatives are set to remain as the official opposition in second place. The once dominant Scottish Labour, which was voted out of power in 2007, is further away than ever from returning to government. Despite high personal approval ratings for its new leader, Anas Sarwar, it is on course for its worst Holyrood election result.
India
Express
MIXED messages from the EU may have led to as many as a fifth of all Covid infections in India, sources close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in Delhi said last night.
But they acknowledged that India must take responsibility for a “pandemic complacency” which turned triumph to disaster in just three short months. More than 18 million people have now been infected in India, with 400,000 new cases recorded yesterday – the world’s highest single-day total. The number of deaths jumped by 3,523, taking the toll to 211,853. In Delhi alone, where 400 died on Thursday, some 600 bodies are now being cremated every day with authorities warning that facilities could no longer cope. Leading virologist Dr Shahid Jameel, director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, said: “Vaccine hesitancy is not an issue now but it was. In the first part of the vaccine drive because we were on a falling daily curve and so at that time there was also a lot of this blood clotting matters that were being raised in the EU. It “was playing on people’s minds.”
And this view was backed by official sources who estimated that vacillations over vaccine safety may have accounted for as much as 20 percent of Indian infections, around four million in total.
Breitbart
People arriving in Australia from coronavirus-ravaged India could face five years jail as the country strengthens an earlier travel ban, the government announced Saturday, in a bid to prevent the outbreak from spreading to its shores.
From Monday, any traveller into Australia who has been in India in the past 14 days could face fines and jail time, adding to a temporary ban announced earlier this week, which will remain in place until at least May 15.
The threat came after travellers on indirect flights from India exposed a loophole in the government’s attempt to temporarily block arrivals from the South Asian nation.
“The government does not make these decisions lightly,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement.
“However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected, and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level.”
Flagship
Telegraph
Boris Johnson will announce within weeks a new national flagship named after the Duke of Edinburgh that will be seen as a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The new ship is expected to be named HMS Prince Philip and will boost British trade and drive investment into the UK economy.
HMY Britannia was controversially decommissioned by Labour prime minister Tony Blair in 1997. That decision “signalled the end of an unbroken succession of royal yachts dating back to the reign of King Charles II”, the Duke wrote in Britannia’s official history in 2003.
The new ship would be crewed by the Royal Navy, senior sources said. It will be the first official government commemoration to Prince Philip.
The announcement – dubbed Project Leith, after the Edinburgh district where the original yacht is moored – had been held up by a wrangle over whether the new ship was to be paid for by the Ministry of Defence or the Cabinet Office.
Express
BORIS JOHNSON is set to announce a new national flagship, that will be named after the Duke of Edinburgh.
The new ship will cost around £200 million and will be seen as the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia. It is expected to be named HMS Prince Philip and will be used by the Government to promote British interests around the world. Plans are afoot to use the new Royal vessel as a venue for important trade negotiations as well as a place to host summits and diplomatic talks.
At the same time it will be used to host members of the Royal Family, when they are on oversees trips.
The French attitude towards Britain has not changed for hundreds of years. It’s always been antagonistic and probably always will be. Unless they get their own way they will simply become the awkward squad again! They will be the losers in the long term. They have problems of their own at home anyway. Sentiment is building against the Islamist influences in quite a big way I believe!
So Scotland wants to join the Euro! The SNP acknowledge that they have too much debt at present to be able to do so. I wonder how they plan to clear that debt! With English money no doubt! Anyway good luck to them with the Euro (not!). It broke the Greeks so I hope it does the same to the Scottish Pixie’s vision of grandeur for herself at the top of the European tree of life! There are a lot of nice Scottish people about. How on earth did they come to fall for the SNP nonsense?
Probably right back to the 100 years war Frederica. Where admittedly England was at fault, trying to grab bits of France. Rather a lot of water under the bridge since then! ‘Mon sewer Macron it ain’t us threatening you now!’
And were you thinking of the age long Scottish/France ‘connection’ re the SNP?
I think Scotland will eventually sell its soul to the Chinese.
Will the fuming wood burners of the shires still vote Tory on May 6th?
Well I wouldn’t have voted Tory anyway but I hope that this further intrusion into our personal and private lives will produce some white hot anger amongst those of us who hate central heating and love our wood burning/multifuel stoves. Any fool who has ever tried to use a wood burner soon finds out that you cannot burn ‘wet wood’ and expect to feel any heat! Similarly, you need to source decent hard woods and have them properly split and seasoned before use! I shall continue to use our multi fuel stove in pure defiance!
I had a leaflet from our coal merchant as well this week saying that they can still deliver my smokeless fuel in plastic bags (that they will collect and recycle next year) but when they deliver, they have to open the bags first!!!!!!!! Thus when I store it I will have to be very careful so that the coal does not a) get wet while being stored and b) move it to my coal bin when needed without spilling it first!!…………..Idiocy!
Yes I agree with you there Frederica. It’s a long time since I used solid fuel of any sort, though I have friends still who do and wondered how they would cope. But yes isn’t it obvious that none of it can be burned wet. As for voting, I hope they will vote Independent if they can.
Debbie again sincere greetings I notice you`ve done another lovely piece on Scotland after that of yesterday.
You may have noticed I added a comment which I think is just as supportive and appropriate to you today
So I hope you don`t mind my copying it and pasting it here.
Roger Turner on May 2, 2021 at 1:13 pm
Please add me to the welcome back cavalcade Debbie.
You’ve certainly arrived back in full form.
I liked all your pieces, but will only comment on the Scotland bit, in that the Scottish edition of the DT yesterday had the headline
Sturgeon is ‘ unlikely to get majority’ at Holyrood
Followed up by
“Leading pollster says SNP has less than one in three chance of the win it wants on May 6”
Reading all the Scottish soothsayers including DT commentator Alan Cochrane, they give many reasons for this possible turn around, the re-appearance of Salmond with his Alba party, and the confusion of messages in SNP’s manifesto for the new parliament, which apparently makes no reference to holding another referendum.
But nowhere have I found mention of what I consider a major event, which was the shambles of the whole Scottish government which was revealed by national and international press and TV in the open war between Sturgeon and Salmond. Sturgeon escaped resignation, but did not escape criticism and condemnation by the Scottish Parliamentary investigation committee.
In the “trials by TV not only did Sturgeon, by her demeanour show herself to be thoroughly untrustworthy. , but she also exposed the increasing shambles and incompetence of her government (the perils of hubris, cronyism and blindness to the actual needs of the Scottish nation and their failure to take on board that the whole UK had an urgent need to escape the clutches of an increasingly toxic EU??????)
I know you were unable to comment on this aspect of the Scottish situation Debbie, for good reason, it is not in the wider interests of the MSM to draw attention of the peasants to the wholesale neglect by the pseudo ‘elite’
Could it be this is another instance of critical comment being CANCELLED?
If anyone is interested Ken Follett will be publishing ‘Never’ in November. It’s about present times.
‘Fiction’ of course but I’ve found his work well researched and pretty much ‘true to life’.
Pauline thanks for the nudge. I shall look out for it! I have enjoyed his books in the past. Pillars of the Earth was a particular favourite.
The Pillars of the Earth sequence is excellent indeed, plus the one he’s written about the time before the Norman Conquest. I also very much like the trilogy beginning with ‘Fall of Giants’. I wanted him to write one bringing that sequence up to date. Looks like he may have done so.
I confess that I find it easier to mug up on history via good historical fiction, than trying to wade through non fiction tomes.
Brexit
It looks as if the European Union is using bureaucratic procedure to hinder agricultural imports from the United Kingdom. But the UK buys far more agricultural produce from the EU than it sells there. Just as in manufacturing, the EU sells far more to the UK than it buys from the UK. The EU has far more to lose from a trade war if UK customs start to hinder agricultural imports from the EU.
Yes Ralph but personally I’ve no faith in this government or it’s blooming trade deal.
It is concerning. However , The Civil service is the executive. Nearly all these hitches including fish look to me like being our own civil servants being b****y minded and gold plating remainers again..
I’ll buy that in spades, TGS, the Civil serpents have and always remain the enemy within, they should be termed ( I nearly said Christened) ” The Civil Conspiracy, ” they certainly terrify me, and worse unlike the government, they are not elected.
A dangerous bunch of not so loose canons.
That criticism, of course excludes all (the many) good ones amongst them, but I’m afraid “line of duty” does have a basis of truth
T.G.S. You are almost certainly right about the ‘Remain/Rejoin’ civil service. But the executive is in theory controlled by Government Ministers. That is where ‘the buck stops’.
” the pollutant PM2.5, which can enter the bloodstream, lodge in lungs and other organs and has been identified by the World Health Organization as the most serious air pollutant for human health.
The particles have been linked to a wide range of health damage, particularly in younger and older people.”
You can always trust the Guardian*.
The biggest source of particulates (and NOX) is traffic. Larger vehicles contribute most. Using compressed natural gas (CNG) for those, boats and railway engines would be a quick and environmentally friendly way to tackle this, much more effective than fiddling around while logs burn. The Guardian, of course, will not consider this because CNG is a fossil fuel.
CNG is a mix of hydrogen (good!!!) and carbon (evil!!!). It’s a halfway house to zero carbon and doesn’t lead to us all starving in the dark.
In the run up to COP26 we are going to see a lot of this chicken little guff.
JF
*To get it wrong.
BTW, where is the magic line between ‘younger and older’? Do you have a few minutes at that line when PM2.5 has no effect?
Use of compressed natural gas would not be quick or easy. Any more than hydrogen would be.
Silly assertion. Yes it would – – it has been demonstrated.
JF
Yes Julian, well, what I want to know is where these ‘restrictions’ actually originated. Who bl**dy thought them up and imposed them here.
Presumably it is no longer the EU directly running our country with it’s regulations.
Give is my bet. He has a thing about wood burners.
JF
Oops. Gove.
JF
Oh him Julian. Another one should go to the Tower.
I thought you’d all like to see this footage of London during the Second World War. London was still and English city then and in spite of the fact that the country was at war, it looks a far nicer place to live than the knife crime ridden, overpopulated dump that it is now with its Quisling Mayor.
“Extremely rare, spectacular film about London during WW-II in color [A.I. enhanced & colorized]”
https://youtu.be/QLbPYQcUcgM
Thanks flyer. I was born just after the war but what struck me was that the the style of clothes worn hung on for many years. Also, many, many, years later, I remember Waterloo station looking very much like that.
Wonderful film Flyer. I’ve come over all nostalgic and sentimental. Oh to be living in that far off and almost forgotten land where people largely went about their lives without doing harm to others or causing chaos and mayhem on the streets!