Brexit
Express
The EU appears to be readying a final ultimatum to the UK as the bloc’s patience is “wearing thin” over a command paper to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol, a senior MEP has said.
Lord Frost has demanded significant changes be made to the Northern Ireland Protocol, an element of the deal he negotiated, as he said “we cannot go on as we are”. Negotiations are ongoing to resolve the post-Brexit trading issues with the Brexit minister setting out the proposals in the House of Lords last month.
But the Fine Gael Irish MEP claims the UK’s plans would amount to a renegotiation of around half of the Protocol, which he branded as “not acceptable” due to the removal of certain EU authority in Northern Ireland.
Mr Kelly added: “This clearly is not acceptable, especially as it includes known EU red lines such as the removal of the European Court of Justice jurisdiction from single market matters in Northern Ireland, a reason many member states signed up to the protocol in the first place.
“However, it is cruelly ironic that the British proposals necessitate a high level of trust among parties while they act in a way to denigrate it.”
The Protocol, part of the Brexit divorce deal agreed by the UK and Brussels, effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods.
EU
Express
EU-LOVING Britons could be barred from living in their cherished bloc after Michel Barnier suggested freedom of movement “does not work”.
Brussels’ former chief Brexit negotiator insisted that lessons need to be learned after a failed asylum seeker was accused of murdering the Catholic priest who was sheltering him. Mr Barnier went on to suggest that the bloc could “suspend immigration” for between three and five years to address the issue.
If realised, the rules would affect UK citizens wishing to move to continental Europe after the UK was freed from Brussels’ shackles in January.
While the temporary ban would be unlikely to affect the vast majority of UK residents – rampant europhiles who have vowed to leave “racist” Brexit Britain may now be left spitting feathers.
Mr Barnier, who is preparing to take on French President Emmanuel Macron in next year’s election, said: “I think we have to take the time for three or five years to suspend immigration.”
He added: “Overall, immigration policy does not work in Europe as it does not work in France. That’s why I’m making this moratorium proposal.
Trade
Express
LIZ TRUSS is heading into the “final stages” of securing a bumper trade deal with India as negotiations are set to ramp up.
Express.co.uk understands the International Trade Secretary is eager to secure an interim agreement as soon as possible as Britain looks to bolster its trading relationships across the globe. New Delhi is also keen on closing a deal after figures released by the Indian Trade Ministry showed the country exported goods worth a record £25.2billion in July, signalling the rapid economic recovery in key Western markets is increasing demand for its products.
Whitehall sources say an interim agreement is likely to be finalised by the end of the year.
A UK Government source added: “We are certainly getting to the final stages of putting this deal into action.”
Ministers say the agreement could double the value of trade between the two countries by 2030 to £46 billion, an increase from £23billion in 2019.
Whitehall
Times
Ministers are drawing up plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs and reduce the size of Whitehall as part of a three-year review of government spending.
The Treasury has told departments to identify cuts in day-to-day budgets before the comprehensive spending review this autumn.
Ministers and officials have been told that they need to reverse headcount increases as a result of Brexit and the coronavirus. Civil service numbers have significantly increased every year since the EU referendum in June 2016.
“Cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries have been told by the Treasury that the headcount is unsustainable and needs to be significantly reduced,” a senior government source said.
Global warming
Telegraph
A Government-backed push to heat millions of homes using hydrogen boilers risks increasing carbon emissions and speeding up global warming, a new academic paper suggests, in a blow for Boris Johnson’s green agenda.
Ministers are scrambling to shore up a key part of the country’s net zero carbon strategy after the findings in a peer-reviewed study suggested that even hydrogen produced using allegedly low-emission methods can be more polluting than gas or coal.
The research threatens to further jeopardise plans for a block on the sale of new natural gas boilers in the UK from the mid-2030s. It came as the Financial Times reported that the Government is backing away from this ban due to concerns over what it will cost householders.
After being contacted about the concerns, which will be published on Thursday in the journal Energy Science and Engineering, the Government pledged to consult on new rules to ensure low-carbon processes are used to produce hydrogen. This potentially creates hurdles for oil and gas majors such as Shell and BP, which have put production of the gas at the heart of their plans to go green.
Similar stories can be read in the Guardian, Independent
Covid
Express
BORIS JOHNSON is set to announce double-jabbed adults and all children will no longer need to self-isolate from Monday.
The rule change will finally bring to an end the so-called pingdemic, which has forced millions of workers to stay at home and prevented children from going to school, even if they are free of Covid infection. Those who have received both Covid jabs and are subsequently contacted by NHS Test and Trace – or through the COVID-19 app – will no longer have to go into quarantine. Instead, they will be advised to get a PCR test as soon as possible and will be allowed to continue their normal lives while awaiting the results.
Ministers are still cautioning those pinged to wear masks in enclosed spaces and avoid other people, particularly the vulnerable and elderly.
Anyone testing positive after their PCR test will still be legally obliged to isolate irrespective of their jab status or age.
The new rules should see an end to the chaos caused by the pingdemic which led to empty supermarket shelves and the closure of restaurants and pubs, as staff were forced in their droves to go into isolation.
Similar stories can be read in the Mail, Telegraph, Evening Standard, Guardian, Sun, Mirror, Times, ITV News, iNews
WFH
Mail
Fewer than one in five workers have returned to their offices since ‘Freedom Day’ last month, according to research.
However, the same data suggests Britons are keener to venture back into town centres to socialise – though overall footfall still remains half that of pre-pandemic levels.
The research is more evidence of the reluctance of many to get back to the office after well over a year of working from home.
Restrictions were eased on July 19 but the Centre for Cities think-tank found only 18 per cent of staff in the 31 largest cities had returned to their city centre workplace a week later. In London, only 15 per cent of workers were back in the week starting July 26.
Yet Brighton saw a six percentage point increase – with almost half of workers (49 per cent) back in the office at the end of last month, compared with the pre-pandemic figure.
The findings, based on anonymised mobile phone data, suggest Britons are keener to return to city centres at night – with average footfall now back at 59 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Similar stories can be read in the Guardian, Times,
Extinction Rebellion
Mail
Extinction Rebellion has vowed to return to the streets as protesters who were found guilty of obstructing roads in Whitehall and Parliament Square had their convictions overturned.
The environmental campaign group has won a slew of victories after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the cases.
The group says that 2,500 people have been prosecuted since April 2019 and that ‘potentially hundreds if not thousands of the resulting convictions could be unsafe’.
Four more Extinction Rebellion activists had their convictions overturned at the Old Bailey today.
Andrew James, 70, Lou Ferns, 30, and Neil Traynor, 38, were previously found guilty of wilful obstruction of highways in central London.
Charles Hey, 33, was found guilty of unlawful public assembly in Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament.
But Bill McGivern, for the prosecution, said the Crown would not resist the appeals made by the defendants.
The Supreme Court overturned the convictions of four demonstrators at an arms fare in June after it found they had ‘lawful excuse’ for the offence.
A similar story can be read in the GB News
Lithium
Telegraph
A geothermal energy company plans to extract lithium alongside power plants in Cornwall after finding record concentrations of the metal.
Geothermal Engineering said tests had found concentrations of lithium higher than 250mg per litre in waters deep underneath the county – higher than in geothermal waters anywhere else in the world.
It already planned to use the waters to generate electricity and heat local homes from four planned power plants, and now also intends to install lithium extraction devices at the plants.
The company believes it could be able to produce 4,000 tonnes of lithium a year by 2026.
That would make a potentially significant contribution to the UK’s potential annual demand of about 59,000 tonnes by 2035.
Demand for lithium is expected to grow due to its use in electric car batteries, particularly as sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2030, prompting a surge of interest in Cornwall’s lithium deposits.
Would anybody notice if half the civil service disappeared? Unfortunately the knock-on affect is going to be mega compensation packages and a swift return somewhere else. The magic roundabout. Two cases in point. An old school friend left with no qualifications but landed a job in the local Council offices as a filing clerk/copy typist (very slow). Her only attribute was the ability to speak welsh which she rarely needed but was paid extra for. I went to college and trained as a Court Shorthand/Typist Writer. She earned more than me! Another friend went back to work for the local Council as a general clerk when her two kids were in their teens knowing she had health problems and was often off sick. After two years she was given permanent sick leave and never worked again but got most of her pay until retirement. I worked for over 35 years including raising a family of three children and cared for my father in law until his death. The gravy train knows no bounds.
Brexit:
The only way is to bin the NI protocol and re-establish our sovereignty over Northern Ireland. Anything less will result in years of the EU trying to re-establish full control. Government ministers should realise by now that negotiating an acceptable outcome with the EU is an impossible dream.
As an ex Ulster man I totally agree. We cannot allow our enemies any hope of winning. WTO please!
Can we really believe that bit about reducing the number of civil servants? It sounds too good to be true.
I’ve just mailed the P.M.’s private office telling him to end test and trace because it has disrupted my food and medicines supply.
I accused him of being signed up to the great reset plan to reduce world population.
Now I read he is easing off on the pingdemic but only for the fully jabbed. I wonder why.
Civil Service… “…Before the 1850s, employment in the civil service was “eagerly sought after” by “the unambitious, and the indolent or incapable… the provision of sick pay and pensions made the service an attractive employer for sickly individuals, while the lazy sought refuge in a job “where their success depends upon their simply avoiding any flagrant misdeed and attending with moderate regularity to routine duties.”.
Sound Familiar?
Quote from:- https://www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/article/testing-times-a-history-of-civil-service-exams
It is an interesting article. It seems to me that we have gone full circle. One major problem is that it takes a Civil Servant to sack a Civil Servant and they ain’t going to harm one of their own, are they.
There must be quite an annual turnover… just stop recruiting.
The IRA clearly thinks that the ECJ and ECHR hold power in N I.So that answers one ofmy questions. Obviously in this case the EAW will have been used . So!
We are in BRINO
Yes T. G. Spokes. I noticed that.
Given tht the IRA supported H in WWII that is hardly surprising.
Something interesting that is just not going to be in the mainstream news at least is Mike Lyndell’s Cyber Symposium going on at the moment in the US.
Over the last couple of days some quite remarkable evidence has been produced on the 2020 election fraud. I think that this is just the beginning and it will not stop now, you can find some videos and live streams here, although there are many hours of this.
https://rumble.com/search/video?q=mike%20lyndell%20%27s%20cyber%20symposium
This has got to lead to some fireworks very soon.
Yes, take a look in particular at the presentation by Seth Keshel from yesterday:
https://rumble.com/vl12q1-mike-lindell-cyber-symposium-behind-the-election-integrity-curtain-seth-kes.html
flyer – other things not mentioned in the presentation –
many of the pcs used for voting were running Win XP. Not Win 7, not Win 8.0, not Win 8.1, not Win 10. Yes, unsupported by micr$oft for more than ten years, Win XP. No doubt the pcs will all be updated to Win 11 now that has been available for a couple of months.
These voting pcs were connected to a Democrat funding company and Democrat owned set of servers in ‘the united states of’ Spain’. These data in turn ware passed on to another similar server array for massaging, in the ‘united states of’ Germany’. It has to be done electronically as there are no paper copy when voting electronically.
And yes a hacker given access to one of the voting machines hacked into it in just over two minutes. He found a setting to activate the change percentages facility. (of 100 votes for xxx, say 20 will be diverted to the opposition aaa party. Hard to believe, but actuallly built in to the operating system).
If ever there was a case for open source software, that all parties could see what the programme was doing, this would be it.
And then there is the paper voting cheats, after hours and not open to scrutiny during the counting process. Might has well have been, and in some cases was actually, behind closed doors.
And on it goes . . .