Brexit
Express
A BREXIT spat erupted last night after the EU said it would press ahead with a solution the UK downplayed earlier this summer to resolve a tense border row.
The European Commission is currently preparing a plan to ensure the continued long-term supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland from next year under the Northern Ireland Protocol. But despite the UK Government’s objections to the suggestion, Eurocrats are working on a legislative proposal for the European Council and the European Parliament to consider.
The plan would involve regulatory compliance functions, such as quality control tests for new medicines destined solely for the Northern Ireland market to be permanently conducted in the UK.
This would be instead of requiring companies to set up these procedures in Northern Ireland or the EU after existing grace periods expire in December 2021.
But Brussels says the UK Government would have to put specific safeguards in place to ensure those products did not go beyond Northern Ireland into the EU’s internal market.
UK ministers would also have to fully apply EU medicines legislation on quality, safety, and batch testing and release when approving goods for use in Northern Ireland.
EU
Express
THE EU’S move to block Britain from re-entering the Lugano Agreement is a bitter punishment plot as a result of Brexit, according to an expert who branded the move a “political reaction” to the UK’s exit.
The Lugano Convention provides for the recognition and enforcement of a wide range of civil and commercial judgements between the EU and EFTA states. It is an international agreement and other states may join subject to approval of the present parties to the agreement.
It allows citizens and companies to rely on uniform framework conditions for cross-border legal protection and makes it possible to obtain security from the competent court in the event of a dispute.
But following Britain’s departure from the EU, the Convention no longer applies and cross-border legal transactions are based on the domestic regulations of the states involved.
Therefore, prosecution in British-linked cases is now burdened with uncertainties and additional costs.
In a bid to avoid this, discussions were held on whether Britain could join the Convention as an independent contracting party.
See Breitbart for additional information.
Trade
Independent
No 10 and the trade department are blocking trade unions from sensitive trade talks despite unions’ offers to sign confidentiality agreements, according to leading labour representatives.
Business groups are allowed to scrutinise key details and some draft text of trade deals, but for more than a year, trade unions have been prevented from offering meaningful input on employment law and workers’ rights within secretive groups set up by the Department for International Trade (DIT).
For the past four months, the decision on membership has been with No 10 after the trade department held off on including trade unions in these groups, The Independent understands.
On 26 August 2020, the government scrapped its previous trade advisory groups and created new ones, which exclude trade unions from sensitive details. Instead, it hived them off into a separate group, which is not allowed detailed information on trade negotiations, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Labour Party
iNews
Labour party staff have said they would be prepared to take strike action if plans for compulsory redundancies are not scrapped.
In what could be an embarrassing incident for Sir Keir Starmer ahead of his first party conference, union members backed proposed industrial action in the event staff are let go against their will.
Labour is seeking at last 90 redundancies as part of crucial cost-saving measures and the period for voluntary redundancies closed on Tuesday.
In a ballot, members of Unite and the GMB supported industrial action in principle although another ballot would have to be held before any industrial action is taken.
Union representatives will be meeting with Labour officials on Friday as they attempt to find a compromise.
Unite regional officer Matt Smith said: “Labour will be meeting with Unite and the GMB on Friday and both unions are hopeful that a way forward can be found that avoids any compulsory redundancies or resultant industrial action.”
GMB official Vaughan West said: “Labour Party workers have shown the strength of their anger at this ballot result. We hope party bosses will now sit up, take notice and talk with unions so we can avoid compulsory redundancies.”
Labour general secretary David Evans revealed a new party structure earlier in August as he set out plans to cut employees and streamline costs.
The party invited people to put themselves forward for redundancy packages and said it would only consider compulsory redundancies as a last resort.
Nuclear weapons
Express
TOP-SECRET plans are being drawn up to move Britain’s nuclear weapons to America or France if Scotland leaves the Union, according to reports.
The UK’s nuclear arsenal is currently sited at HMNB Clyde, Faslane, on the Gare Loch. Nicola Sturgeon is demanding a second referendum on Scottish independence, having just agreed an SNP-Green Party coalition.
Should Scotland become an independent state, the SNP have pledged to ban all nuclear weapons from the country.
Speaking to the Financial Times senior officials said Trident may have to be based outside the UK if Scotland leaves the union.
Suggested new bases are Kings Bay, Georgia, where the US keeps its nuclear fleet, or Île Longue in Brittany, France.
Any move outside the UK would likely be highly controversial, and raise questions about the independence of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
There are more reports about this in the Mail, Telegraph, Independent, Mirror, Times
Energy
Guardian
Household energy bills are to rise after prices on the UK’s wholesale electricity market soared to a record high last month, furthering concerns about more families being pushed into fuel poverty this winter.
The electricity market price passed the £100 a megawatt-hour mark last month for the first time since the market was formed in 1990, according to analysis by Imperial College London.
The average market price reached £107.50/MWh, up 14% on July, and well above the previous record of £96/MWh recorded in the run-up to the 2008 global financial crisis.
Dr Iain Staffell, a senior lecturer at Imperial, and the author of the report, said the electricity market surge would suggest another increase to home energy bills if these prices were sustained.
Last month the industry regulator Ofgem announced it would lift the maximum cap on default energy deals for the coming winter by more than 12%, after a sharp rise in the market price for gas and electricity.
As a result, 11m households with direct debit bills will be asked to pay an average of £1,138 for a dual-fuel energy bill, an increase of £139. For another 4m households that use prepayment meters, the average bill will climb from £1,156 to £1,309.
Covid
Express
BEING double-jabbed doesn’t provide good enough protection for thousands of people, according to the latest announcement shared by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
On Wednesday, September 1, the JCVI said: “Some individuals… may not mount a full immune response to COVID-19 vaccination.” Around half a million people who have a severely weakened immune system are to be offered another Covid jab. The extra third dose will be offered to anyone over the age of 12 who has been classified as severely immunosuppressed. So who does this include? This includes having conditions such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, those who have received stem cell transplants in the past two years, and those with advanced HIV.
For the full list of people who qualify for a third Covid booster jab, the Department of Health and Social Care have the full details here.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Today I have accepted the expert recommendations from the independent JCVI to offer a third vaccine dose to people aged 12 and over with severely weakened immune systems.”
This follows on from eye-opening data collected via clinical trials involving people who are immunosuppressed.
Sajid Javid added: “We know people with specific conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 may have received less protection against the virus from two vaccine doses.”
Similar stories may be read in Mail, Sun, Independent, BBC News, Mail, Mirror, Sun, Times, Evening Standard, ITV News, Order-Order, GB News
Working from home
Telegraph
Treasury civil servants will be allowed to permanently work from home for most of the week in a shift that threatens to undermine Rishi Sunak as he attempts to revive cities by pushing for office workers to return.
Job adverts reveal that most of the department’s staff will never have to come back to their desks full time, and will be free to stay at home for two or three weekdays.
The disclosure threatens to undermine Mr Sunak’s efforts to position himself as a champion of the traditional office. It also raises questions over the economic benefit of the Treasury’s much-touted plan for a northern hub in Darlington, if most workers nominally based there are able to stay away for days at a time.
Like most of Whitehall, the Treasury has refused to confirm its long-term plans for office workers after Covid. But the job adverts say that “most Treasury employees will be working a hybrid pattern” despite the lifting of Covid restrictions.
Official work from home guidance for office staff was removed on July 19, but there has not been a rush back to workplaces by white collar workers.
Education
Mail
British universities have excelled in this year’s world rankings thanks to breakthrough Covid research which led the fight against the pandemic.
The annual World University Rankings, published today, show Oxford has managed to retain its top spot for the sixth consecutive year.
Oxford, where the AstraZeneca vaccine was developed under Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, is well-known for its contribution to fighting Covid.
In May, it announced a new Pandemic Sciences Centre, which will investigate how to reduce death tolls in any future pandemics.
Meanwhile Cambridge, which jumped from sixth place to fifth this year, pumped out weekly research during the pandemic to inform government scientists.
But lesser-known institutions have also been credited for their pandemic effort in the rankings, including Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancashire, and Derby University.
Judges said those two universities’ ranking improvement was a ‘direct result of citations from their Covid-19 focused research’.
Edge Hill, a former college which became a university in 2006, is rated ‘gold’ for teaching by the government watchdog but has always ranked low in international league tables.
Although still low this year, it has jumped from being in the 1,000+ category to 801-1,000.
More details in the Independent
Nuclear weapons:
Has Boris entered a new phase of madness? Why on earth would we move our nuclear weapons to the territory of our traditional enemy across the Channel?
In any event his reaction to the Sturgeon’s bit for independence should be treated the same as Catalonia was by the Spanish government. This is the United Kingdom and needs to be preserved using military force as necessary.
Madness is NOT the word, but this man is a danger to the future integrity of this country. Somehow in the not too distant he is going to have to be removed from office. The not very conservative Conservative Party management seem to be oblivious to what is going on, and it will be left to the people of this country to restore some sanity to government. He is most definitely an awful awful prime minister, and I bitterly regret that I voted for him in December 2019, but did so just to get Brexit done. However since then it has been downhill all the way Johnson out and out now……..
Nuclear Base – Milford Haven in West Wales would be perfect a it has a deep water channel and there is military accommodation already set up nearby. The nimbys can be dispensed with. This would be a massive boost to the economy and most sensible people would welcome it.
And from Breitbart:- https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/09/02/swedish-party-leader-calls-for-change-in-constitution-in-case-populists-win-election/
Swedish Centre Party leader Annie Lööf wants to change the country’s constitution in case of an election victory for the populist Sweden Democrats (SD),to prevent the Sweden Democrats from changing the country.
I’m confused. It seems that in order to defend “Democracy” (Leftist Swedish style) she is quite prepared to suffocate democracy (the will of the people) in order to protect the status quo (The Centre Party)
She’s not alone. In France there is talk about changing their election time-tables to keep out Le Pen.
… And no need for the expense of Dominion voting machines.
I thought the nuclear fleet was to be moved to Plymouth or Dartmouth in the event of the Jocks leaving.??
Why can’t we have our nuclear deterrent somewhere in England?
Also, how can the Express know about TOP SECRET plans?
Does any one understand the pros and cons of the Lugano Convention for our businesses? I don’t and couldn’t find it on Breitbart. Would it help small businesses to be in it, or only large?
Bin the N.I. protocol.
Why should Trade Unions be involved in Trade Talks? Trade Unions do not represent the electorate. The government are supposed to do that.
Price rises – electricity, petrol, etc. etc. Nothing new or unexpected there!
I believe a new series of The Muppet Show is centred at 10, Downing Street, and that they are not using many puppets any longer but using members of the the present government. Come to think of it I think Kermit the Frog would make a better fist of being prime minister than the incumbent court jester, failing that Jemima Puddleduck who lives on the lake inside the nearby St. James Park. Move over Johnson and let either Kermit or Ms. Puddleduck take over it couldn’t be any worse and both might even have more of a backbone than he.
Trident location. Someone once told me it was to do with the depth of water in the Clyde i.e the submarines are able to submerse quickly from Faslane in emergencies.
I have the co-ordinates for the eu Head Quarters has anybody got a spare Trident? That would allow Britain to solve the problem of the EU
What a great idea. Three suggested targets:
EU parliament in Brussels
EU parliament in Strasbourg
ECJ building.
The same thought has crossed my mind more than once Jack.
It just goes to prove this government are clueless in just about every sphere, when discussions are taking place in the event of Scotland voting to become an independent state, that our Nuclear Submarine base as a consequence of the closure of Rosyth should either be based in France or the USA. Why in heavens name would they have to be based abroad, and why cannot a base be developed at somewhere like Barrow-in-Furness which has deep water facilities. Besides which, has Johnson and his useless cohorts forgotten that we have supposedly left the European Union which France is part of, and that the USA was jointly responsible for a farcical withdrawal from Afghanistan where thousands of military assets and weaponry have been left behind to be used by the Taliban. I am getting so sick and tired of this inept government as each day passes. Johnson out and out now….