NI Protocol

Telegraph
Rishi Sunak is set to scrap Boris Johnson’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill as part of his new deal with Brussels.
The Prime Minister believes he has secured fundamental legal changes that render the Bill – designed to give the Government power to rip up parts of the protocol – no longer necessary as a bargaining chip.
But in a sign of the growing rebellion against his deal, Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister and a leading Brexiteer, was understood on Saturday night to be on resignation watch after being frozen out of negotiations.
Allies said he has been unhappy for some time and was prepared to walk if he is not convinced by the deal, expected to be announced as soon as Monday.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) warned that Mr Sunak’s deal risked leaving Stormont in a permanent state of collapse if they refuse to re-enter power-sharing.
Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Sunak said that when the EU had previously refused to negotiate on the protocol, the Bill was “the only way forwards”.
But he added that the Bill, brought in while Mr Johnson was in office, was always a “last resort”. Mr Johnson has warned that ditching the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill in favour of a new Brexit deal would be a “great mistake”.
Mr Sunak wrote: “No British Prime Minister could ever sit back and just allow these problems to continue. That’s why my predecessors were right to create the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – and why I supported them in doing so.
“For as long as the European Union refused to reopen negotiations on the protocol itself, this Bill was the only way forwards. I have no doubt it helped to create the conditions where the EU have been prepared to engage constructively.

BBC News
Rishi Sunak says he is “giving it everything” this weekend to secure a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, and he wants “to get the job done”.
But the prime minister said no agreement had yet been made between the UK and the European Union.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the deal over trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was “inching towards a conclusion”.
A No 10 source has described the negotiations as positive.
The taoiseach said an agreement could come within days but this was “by no means guaranteed” as negotiators still had a gap to close.
He urged politicians from the UK, Brussels and Northern Ireland to “go the extra mile” to get it over the line.
The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed under former PM Boris Johnson after the UK left the European Union.
It sees Northern Ireland continue to follow some EU laws so that goods can flow freely over the border to the Republic of Ireland without checks.
Instead, goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales are checked when they arrive at Northern Irish ports.

ITV News
Rishi Sunak has said he and his government are “giving it everything we’ve got” as they try to get a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol over the line.
No 10 said “good progress” was made during a call between the prime minister and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, with a breakthrough seeming very close.
After “positive” discussions, Ms von der Leyen was expected to arrive in Britain on Saturday for more talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
But UK government sources confirmed she was no longer scheduled to make the journey to Britain over what it said were operational reasons.
ITV News understands she was scheduled to meet the King at Windsor Castle on Saturday for afternoon tea before the trip was cancelled.
It is understood the meeting could have been interpreted as Charles “endorsing the deal” that the prime minister is attempting to negotiate with the European Union to solve Brexit-related issues.

i on Sunday
Ireland’s premier Leo Varadkar has said that talks between the EU and the UK on new trading arrangements for Northern Ireland are “inching towards a conclusion”.
The UK and EU have reportedly been on the brink of an agreement on changes to the Northern Ireland protocol for several days, with speculation that a deal could be sealed over the weekend. Negotiators are believed to be thrashing out the final details despite blowing past the planned end to the talks on Friday.
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the media on Saturday afternoon: “I think the talks are inching towards a conclusion. Certainly the deal isn’t done yet, but I do think we’re inching towards a conclusion.
“I really want to thank the UK Government, the European Commission and the Northern Ireland parties for the level of engagement they’ve done to get us to this point.
“We’d just encourage everyone to go the extra mile to come to an agreement, because the benefits are huge if it allows us to have the Northern Ireland Assembly back up and running and the Good Friday Agreement working properly again. It also allows us to put relations between the UK and Ireland and the EU on a much more positive footing.”
The leader, who heads EU member state the Republic of Ireland, said previously he is being continuously updated by the European Commission as it hashes out changes to the Northern Ireland protocol.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly earlier on said negotiations were “tough and complicated”.

Brexit

Express
Rishi Sunak hopes to persuade the DUP to share power with Sinn Fein in order to get Brexit business done.
Rishi Sunak has declared it is time to complete the “unfinished business” of Brexit. The Prime Minister is in the final stages of nailing down a deal with the EU which he hopes will persuade the DUP to share power with Sinn Fein.
“There’s unfinished business on Brexit and I want to get the job done,” he said.
With tensions running high, he was accused of “dragging the King into a hugely controversial political issue” over a planned meeting between the monarch and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
She was reportedly due to meet King Charles at Windsor Castle.
It was even suggested any agreement brokered on Northern Ireland could be called the Windsor Deal.
Her visit was called off, apparently for operational reasons unconnected to the Northern Ireland negotiations.
But Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP, accused the PM of “dragging the King into a hugely controversial political issue”.
And former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “If there were a plan to bring the King in before there is domestic political agreement, it would border on constitutional impropriety.”
The DUP says it will not share power in Northern Ireland unless post-Brexit trading arrangements are overhauled.
The Northern Ireland Protocol was intended to avoid customs checks with the Irish Republic.

Fisheries

Express
The UK and EU were involved in furious rows over fishing access and rights in the lead up to the post-Brexit trade deal being signed in December 2020.
UK fishermen have launched a scathing attack on massive European trawlers for “bullying our trawlers off traditional fishing grounds” while raging at an “exclusive red line” that has been broken. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had promised UK fishermen they would be fully protected in the event of any post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union, which was signed on December 30, 2020. The trade deal stated there would be a five-year transition period during which little would change that would see EU boats continue to gain access to UK waters until 2026.
Alistair Carmichael, Vice Chair of the House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fisheries, has claimed UK fishermen are being bullied out of traditional catch areas by massive EU trawlers.
The Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland told Express.co.uk: “There are European trawlers that fish using gillnets to the west of Shetland
“These gillnets are sometimes kilometres long and left to sit in the water It is the most unsustainable fishing practice imaginable.
“They are sitting in the water, so it excludes local fishermen from getting access to grounds that they have fished in for generations.
“If they try and fish in those waters where the gillnets are, the gillnet trawlers are really aggressive.

Migrants

Express
Figures show 9,483 migrants are currently living in hotels or similar accommodation, adding to the £1.5billion annual cost of the UK’s asylum system.
Activist lawyers suspected of “stringing out” asylum claims to pocket millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are facing a Government crackdown. Ministers believe some have turned the migrant crisis into a “gravy train” by cooking up ludicrous reasons for their clients to stay in the UK to maximise their own earnings.
Several firms are being monitored for creating work for themselves by helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation.
Anyone deliberately undermining the system will be red-flagged and referred to regulators who can impose fines, or in the most serious cases strike them off the so they can no longer practice law.
Almost £40million was paid out in legal aid for immigration cases last year, which is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the cost to taxpayers.
Legal appeals rack up the costs for Government lawyers and deportation delays mean claimants have to be housed and fed.
Home Office figures show 9,483 migrants are currently living in hotels or similar accommodation, adding to the £1.5billion annual cost of the UK’s asylum system.
A Government source said: “The abuse of the system is widespread and systematic.
“These lawyers know what they’re doing – it’s a gravy train and the aim of the game is to string it out as long as possible and put in the least amount of work so they can maximise the money they take from the taxpayer.”

Express
Tensions are rising outside a migrant hotel in Cornwall, as anti-immigration protesters are taking aim at police.
Clashes between anti-immigration protesters and police have erupted outside Cornwall’s Beresford Hotel, which houses 200 asylum seekers. One protester was spotted trying to cross the road but a police officer stopped him. On the other side of the road, counter-protesters from Cornwall Resists are outside the hotel facing off against two anti-migrant groups who have turned violent against the police. Hundreds of people are reportedly on opposite sides of the road as tensions soar in Cornwall.
Supporters of the asylum seekers are outnumbering protesters against them being housed in a hotel in Cornwall, with about 300 to 100, according to Cornwall Live.
Dozens of police officers present at the scene have had to stop anti-migrant protesters from crossing the road.
The pro-migrant group was seen holding signs reading: “Compassion and care. Not fascism and fear” and “refugees welcome” while the anti-migrant group held signs reading: “Illegal immigrants are criminals” and “You are anti-white racists.”
A group of 200 refugees were temporarily placed in the hotel by the Home Office last November but has since remained there.

Breitbart
Brexit’s Nigel Farage has warned that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s reported plan to effectively grant amnesty to thousands of illegal migrants in order to clear the asylum backlog will endanger British communities and national security.
On Thursday, reports emerged that the government is planning on allowing migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Yemen, and Libya to skirt the normal asylum procedures, including an in-person review of their application, and merely fill out a ten-page form before being granted legal status in the United Kingdom.
The scheme, which is supposedly intended to help clear the record-high backlog of asylum seekers — which has hit 166,000 people after 89,000 applied last year — is expected to allow some 12,000 migrants an easy path into staying in the country permanently.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage lambasted the “sell out” plan, warning that, for many of the migrants, the government has “no idea who they are” due to the fact that some 98 per cent of boat migrants land in Britain without a passport.
Often before travelling illegally across the English Channel, migrants are encouraged to deliberately destroy or discard any identity documents in order to hide any past criminality and their nationality, making it more difficult to identify them, determine their true age, and deport them to their country of origin.

Racism

Telegraph
The University of Cambridge barred white working-class students from one of its postgraduate courses, The Telegraph can reveal.
The university’s School of Arts and Humanities internally promoted “an exciting new widening participation project” that will “give an opportunity for students from under-represented groups to experience postgraduate research at Cambridge”.
The school, one of six at Cambridge that oversees degrees across all the colleges, told lecturers it was “more reliant on Oxbridge applicants than most other schools”, at around 40 per cent per year compared to 25 to 30 per cent university-wide.
It said the new scheme was needed because the school “has had massive offer gaps between Oxbridge pathway and others – and most of our under-represented groups apply from outside Oxbridge”. This would “encourage more applications from candidates outside of its traditional recruitment pathways”, it added.
But in the “call for supervisors” on Feb 6, lecturers were told: “The programme will be advertised for second or third year UG [undergraduate] students from Black, British Black, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or British-Pakistani, British Bangladeshi students studying at traditional research-intensive universities, who are planning to continue their studies in 2024.”
One source described the requirement to be non-white, explained in an email seen by The Telegraph, as “race-based social engineering”.
After being contacted by The Telegraph on Wednesday, Cambridge confirmed it had reversed its position since the Feb 6 email as concerns had been raised. The course is now “open to a wider group defined by socio-economic factors instead, including white working-class”, the university said.

Potholes

Express
A total of 73,000 breakdowns have been caused by damaged roads so far this year, according to figures from the AA.
Potholes are costing motorists millions of pounds and claiming lives with 73,000 breakdowns caused by crumbling and cracked roads. This averages out to about 1,400 a day, according to AA figures.
An RAC estimate puts the cost to motorists of pothole repairs at more than £130million per year.
AA president Edmund King told MailOnline: “Drivers, and those on two wheels or indeed two feet, are totally fed up with the potholed state of local roads.
“For those on two wheels the consequences can be much more serious, with several coroners citing potholes as a cause of death for cyclists.”
Retired music teacher, Harry Colledge, who was 84, died when his front wheel got stuck in a nine-inch deep pothole and he fell from his bike at Winmarleigh, Lancashire, on January 2. He died in hospital of his injuries.
His widow, Valerie Colledge, said central and local governments need to do more to protect people riding bikes on damaged rural roads.
She told the Telegraph: “Potholes are a horrendous problem for cyclists. Harry’s front wheel got stuck in a nine inch deep pothole. A local farmer told me she had complained to the council about the pothole, but nothing was done.

Woke editing

Mail
James Bond novels including Casino Royale and Octopussy have been edited to suit modern sensibilities with a raft of racist and sexist terms removed ahead of the 70th anniversary of 007 this year.
The publishers of the books by Bond creator Ian Fleming commissioned a review by ‘sensitivity readers’ to modernise them, according to the Sunday Telegraph. It comes as children’s books by Roald Dahl have been stripped of potentially offensive language with the Oompa Loompas – the workers at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory – being made gender neutral.
In the new version of Bond novel Live And Let Die, a scene in which Bond visits a New York club is altered to remove reference to a striptease. In the 1954 original it says: ‘Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough.’
The revised version will now reportedly read: ‘Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.’
The N-word, which author Ian Fleming used to refer to black people when he was writing during the 1950s and 1960s, has been removed from the revised texts. However, outdated references to other ethnicities remain, as do phrases such as the ‘sweet tang of rape’, and the description of homosexuality as a ‘stubborn disability’.
Bond publisher Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed terms to those more accepted today while ensuring they are in keeping with the time the books were written.
The reissued spy novels will feature a disclaimer that says: ‘This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.
‘A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.’
Bond’s publishers, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, commissioned a review by ‘sensitivity readers’ of the classic texts under its control to modernise the works, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Breitbart
In a craven attempt to quell outrage from conservatives, the publisher of Roald Dahl’s children’s books has announced that it will continue to print copies of his original works – but they will print versions with woke edits to the texts as well.
Last week, it was revealed that hundreds of censorious changes were made to new editions of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, including celebrated classics such as James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and The Witches, among others, in order to supposedly “protect” youngsters from offensive language.
However, the edits, which clearly subscribed to modern woke dogma, such as unnecessarily gender-swapping characters, changing female characters from secretaries into scientists, and even changing “Cloud-Men” into “Cloud-People”, sparked widespread outrage as well as a run on old uncensored copies of his works.
Slightly backing down from its bowdlerisation of the books, the Penguin Random House Children’s publishing house announced on Friday that uncensored editions would continue to be published in addition to the woke copies.
It is unclear, however, how exactly the publisher will differentiate the two different versions of the books so that people do not inadvertently purchase the altered editions.

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