Brexit
Express
A new analysis of UK trade has exploded the myth that a post-pandemic downturn in exports can be blamed on Brexit.
Pro-remain commentators have used lower export figures to argue the UK would be better off in the EU.
But experts at the Centre for Brexit Policy say this ignores global problems such as a shortage of computer chips following the pandemic.
In a paper to be published this week they also warn the UK is failing to make the most of its natural resources, following a fall in North Sea oil and gas production.
Report author Phil Radford said the nature of the UK economy meant it was harder hit than others by disruption caused by Covid.
He said: “In 2019, the motor vehicle and aerospace sectors were easily our biggest goods-export industries.
They delivered a combined 20 percent of all UK goods exports in 2019.
“Yet this sectoral study shows that in the UK, these two sectors were easily the hardest hit by recent global events, including the pandemic, microchip shortages and the temporary collapse of civilian aviation. In G7 terms, this made UK trade uniquely vulnerable to global events.”
He added: “UK exports missed out on recent surges in global demand. Declining long-term investment in the North Sea meant our trade did not benefit from the energy crisis, as happened in the US and Canada.
“Meanwhile, offshoring in our pharmaceutical industry meant we failed to gain from the spike in demand for vaccines, like Germany and the US.”
Strikes
Express
The Transport Secretary insists he had tried to bring the unions and employers together and warns that striking on the Eurovision date would inflict ‘misery’ on Ukrainians who fled their homes
Striking rail workers will be guilty of “cultural vandalism” if they stop people getting to Eurovision and major sporting events, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has warned.
RMT members plan to strike on May 13 when the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Liverpool. Train drivers’ union Aslef is due to strike on June 3 – the day when Manchester United and Manchester City will meet in the FA Cup Final.
Mr Harper warned that striking on the Eurovision date would inflict “misery” on Ukrainians who fled their homes and described the unions’ plans as “indefensible”.
He said: “Like many Sunday Express readers, I was incredibly disappointed at Thursday’s decisions by Aslef, the train drivers’ union, whose members earn an average of £60,000 a year, and the RMT to call yet more disruptive strike action.
BBC News
Nurses in half of England’s hospitals, mental health and community services will go on strike later with NHS chiefs warning care is at risk.
The walkout by Royal College of Nursing members will start at 20:00 BST and run until the end of Monday.
Services including intensive care will be affected for the first time, after the RCN refused to issue any national exemptions as they have done before.
But some local exemptions have been given to maintain life-preserving care.
Around one in six NHS trusts facing industrial action are being allowed to call some nurses off the picket line to staff areas such as A&E, intensive care and children’s services.
In these areas strikes will still continue, but a small number of RCN members will be asked to work to provide a minimum standard of cover and meet the legal requirement on trade unions for life-and-limb cover to be provided.
Sky News
NHS services across England are bracing for more disruption, as nurses get ready to stage a 28-hour walkout over pay.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will begin their latest strike action at 8pm today, and will end it at 11.59pm on Monday evening, after voting to reject the government’s latest pay offer.
The union had earlier refused to agree to derogations (a level of essential care during industrial action), but later said it would grant some exemptions.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has called the latest walkout “disappointing” and accused the RCN of risking patient safety.
He said: “It is hugely disappointing some unions are escalating strike action this week – including the RCN, despite only a third of its members rejecting the government’s fair and reasonable offer on pay, which other unions accepted.
ITV News
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is working with health leaders to provide some staff during its bank holiday strike, as hospitals including Great Ormond Street issued warnings over patient safety.
The RCN, which is holding a strike from 8pm on Sunday until 11.59pm on Monday evening, previously said it will not agree to derogations – broad areas of care where unions agree to provide staffing during industrial action.
Consequently, nurses in intensive care, A&E and cancer care will be on strike.
However, in a new development, it has agreed with NHS England that “safety critical mitigations may be required for a period to maintain safe patient care”.
NHS workers in GMB union accept government pay offer
It comes as Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, warned that it had “serious concerns over safely staffing the hospital” during the strike.
The world-renowned children’s hospital said it has declared a business continuity incident, adding that wards will not be able to be staffed to usual levels.
General election
Express
Rishi Sunak must focus on the economy if he is going to win another term in power, polling suggests. A third of those questioned said it was the main issue that would determine how they would vote in the general election.
In second place was health, named by nearly one in four. Other issues came far lower, such as immigration (9 percent) and education (8 percent).
The Redfield & Wilton Strategies polling comes just days before Thursday’s local elections, seen as the first key test of Mr Sunak’s premiership.
Voters will decide who fills more than 8,000 seats in 230 English councils, with senior Conservative insiders saying they could lose around 1,000 seats.
An electoral drubbing will heighten the pressure on the PM to deliver improvements in living standards before the next Westminster election.
He has made halving inflation, growing the economy and bringing down debt three of his top five priorities in Government.
Just two percent of voters said issues such as crime, housing, pensions or the environment would decide their vote.
The polling lays bare the impact of inflation on people’s lives. Just four percent of people said the cost-of-living crisis had not mattered to them in the past month, and 43 percent said they did not intend to travel for a holiday in the next three months.
Coronation
Mail
The two-hour Coronation service on May 6 will both honour the ancient tradition of anointing and crowning monarchs while also reflecting the ways the UK has changed since the last such celebration 70 years ago.
Its theme is ‘Called to Serve’ and the authorised liturgy – released last night by the Church of England – details how it will involve leaders of different religions, women clergy and prayers in Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
Below is everything that will happen during the historic day at Westminster Abbey.
As part of the King’s desire to represent all faiths, leaders from the Jewish, Sunni and Shia Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Bahai and Zoroastrian communities will be part of the procession into Westminster Abbey.
They are followed by members of the Christian church in the UK and a procession of the 15 Realms which recognise the King as head of state.
Express
Coronation lessons will be taught in schools across the country to ensure pupils understand the significance of the ceremony.
Pupils across the country will be taught about the Coronation to ensure they understand the significance of Saturday’s historic event.
The Department for Education has prepared lesson plans for primary and secondary schools along with a range of teaching materials.
They cover the history and symbolism of items children will see during the Coronation including crowns to be worn by the King and Queen, the Coronation Chair, and the monarch’s orb and sceptre.
Resources produced by history teachers also explain the importance of holy oil that will be poured onto a golden spoon and used to anoint the King during the ceremony.
ITV News
King Charles III and his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort, will be crowned in a matter of weeks in the first coronation ceremony the nation has seen in more than 70 years.
The last time the country celebrated a monarch’s coronation was in 1953, when the late Elizabeth II was crowned Queen.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to descend on the capital to celebrate the coronation weekend – but what is happening, where can you watch the coronation, and when is the bank holiday?
The King and the Queen Consort will be crowned at Westminster Abbey, London, on Saturday, May 6.
The service will begin at 11am.
Mail
Millions of people will be called upon to swear ‘true allegiance’ to King Charles at the Coronation, it can be revealed.
For the first time in history, every citizen of the UK and all the other nations of which the monarch is head of state will be asked to ‘make their homage in heart and voice to their undoubted King’. The trailblazing move will make the ceremony more of a ‘People’s Coronation’, as previously only members of the aristocracy were called upon to make such a pledge.
The ‘Homage of the People’ is just one of the significant updates to the ancient ritual, which will see other religious faiths, as well as the Church of England, playing key roles. Female members of the clergy will also be involved for the first time.
The influence of the late Queen will be clear throughout the two-hour ceremony and there will be a tribute to the King’s late father, Prince Philip.
Guardian
Members of the public watching the coronation on television, online and in parks and pubs will be invited to swear aloud their allegiance to the monarch in a “chorus of millions of voices” to be known as the Homage of the People.
People around the UK and abroad will be invited to say the words “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God”, in a declaration that replaces the traditional homage of peers.
Saturday’s service will also involve for the first time the active participation of representatives of faiths other than Christianity. Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, will give a reading from the Bible in his capacity as PM, despite Church of England law in effect barring other faiths from taking an active role in its services. “There is no issue about [Sunak’s] personal faith, we’re delighted that he is doing [this],” said a Lambeth Palace spokesperson.
Other new elements include the king voicing aloud a specially written prayer; a hymn sung in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish in an acknowledgment of the “rich heritage” of the UK; and the participation of female Anglican bishops.
Metro
King Charles will be crowned alongside the Queen Consort less than a week from now, on Saturday May 6.
The deeply religious affair will take place in Westminster Abbey, eight months after the monarch’s accession and the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.
Buckingham Palace said the ceremony will be ‘rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry’ but also ‘reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future’.
Charles III will be anointed with holy oil, receive the orb, coronation ring and sceptre, be crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown and blessed during the historic ceremony.
And allegiance. To the WEF maher
This is n reply to Jack Thomas 4.38pm
“Members of the public watching the coronation on television, online and in parks and pubs will be invited to swear aloud their allegiance to the monarch”
The only swearing from me will be the unprintable kind. All I can see from Charlie is absolute incompetence and green insanity.
I will not be swearing allegiance : regardless of my opinion of Charles which is not high, this is a departure from our centuries old custom . I’m always suspicious of change for change’s sake and tampering with tradition, as there is usually an agenda.
Saw this Polish blog comment – shewn below without any comment on my part, but I agree with the last line.
“With the scale of the Ukrainian presence as large as it is now, Poland is in danger of becoming a country of fractured identity and constant factional fighting along ethnic and cultural dividing lines, as is happening both in countries where historical minorities are numerous, and in countries of mass immigration adopting the model of multiculturalism.:
Sounds just like another country I know.
The following will probably be by now fully understood by many ordinary Ukranians;
“To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”? Henry Kissinger.
Poles may learn this at great cost much later.
Uncle Sam is a global menace.
Thank you Debbie. That first item – The Express, about Brexit, actually speaks the truth.
Further to Viv’s post on Saturday that I missed until it was too late. I’ll post this Neil McCoy_Ward video about Sudan, apparently the trouble and violence is all about gold, oil and weapons. The most pertinent point to me though is this.
“North Sudan is Muslim, while South Sudan is Christian, there is little chance of any peace there then.”
What does the above say about Britain then with its rapidly expanding Muslim population in a once Christian country? I’ll let you decide but I think it won’t be anything good. I don’t know if Neil McCoy-Ward realises exactly what he said but it speaks volumes.
“The Media Don’t Want You To Know This About SUDAN… ”
“What does the above say about Britain then with its rapidly expanding Muslim population?”
As you probably know flyer; an absolute disaster.
What an curious statement from Transport Minister Mark Harper.
Striking rail workers will be guilty of “cultural vandalism” if they stop people getting to Eurovision and major sporting events, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has warned.
‘Cultural vandalism’ is what the fake Tory Party is studiously wreaking on Britain’s culture.
Jake – what the fake Tory party are wreaking on Britain is not cultural vandalism, it is cultural genocide.
Jake……….and didn’t you say the other day that you will vote for any right of centre challenger party who might be standing in the local elections in your area including Reform UK who sided with the government’s stance on Andrew Bridgen who has been permanently expelled from the Conservative Party. No chance therefore that he will ever become Reform UK’s first MP. I read somewhere that he had sounded out the Reclaim Party however. If true this could be the biggest mistake Reform UK has made to date. And with Reform UK registering less than 6% in the opinion polls none of their candidates will make any headway on Thursday. It will be an all round damp squib……
Colin. I said I would vote for any centre Right candidate that may be standing in the GE. We don’t have any centre Right for local elections so I will spoil my paper. ReformUK will not get Bridgen you are right. They sided with the jabbers. – huge mistake. Am now a member of three centre Right parties. We have a Reform UK candidate in our constituency so it looks like I will have to throw my lot in with them. I have to do something I can’t just stand by and be a spectator. Not ideal by any means Colin, wish it was UKIP but there isn’t any UKIP activism in our constituency to speak of. Like you though, I am still very suspicious of Tice and Farage.
Jake………Tice is a hopeless case and I doubt whether he he know what time of day it is politically, and as for Farage, he has proved to be a major disappointment and has let a lot of people down, to the point where I just cannot be bothered to tune into his rather pointless GB News programme any longer. And I suspect that is the case with many former supporters of his. On the other hand, I have received four email circular concerning policy this week from the UK independence Party about one issue or another, so perhaps at last the party is upping its game, as it needs to regain lost ground which has in recent times ebbed away to useless Reform UK. I too will be spoiling my ballot paper as in my ward there is a straight choice between the New Green Party (also known as the Conservative Party) and the Green Party. What a choice (not).
About 40% of Bangladeshi women in the UK have little or no English and around 30% of Pakistani women. How many will be watching and listening to the coronation? How many young people will even be out of bed by the the time of the coronation after partying on the bank holiday Friday night? How many of the rest have been left cynical after the manipulation of covid lockdowns?
The Homage of the People appears to be an attempt at manufacturing a common feeling of nationhood among peoples who either have no such feeling toward the UK, their ethnic and cultural loyalties lying overseas, or who are disaffected by the snobbery of the ‘new elite’ and its recent history of manipulation. It is a form of establishment nudge akin to clapping for the NHS.
Those of us old enough to remember England before mass immigration do not need a nudge. Those too young to remember will be immune to it.
Well heres one who will not be sitting on any sofa Saturday, my golf is far more important than Charlie the Woke.
I also would never make any pledge to the moron, he is a tool of the WEF trash.
Ps . Norman, I do not have, need or use a passport, I am white born in this country and will not be leaving.
Judging by the comments in the DM/T and much of the MSM much of the country has no intention of sitting on a sofa swearing allegience to anyone during the coronation, it would seem that for many allegience is not a popular concept even though by accepting a British Passport they presumably understood ( if they read it ) what it means .