Rejoin

Express
BORIS JOHNSON is set to face a huge Rejoiner protest at next week’s Conservative Party annual conference.
Lobby group Grassroots for Europe has consistently campaigned to overturn the Brexit referendum’s result since its creation in 2018. Its latest action will see members hold a protest at the opening day of the conference in Manchester on Sunday.
Rejoiners opposed to the withdrawal agreement from across the country will descend on the event to “put Brexit at the front and centre of the agenda”, it said on its website.
Its demands include a “better deal with the EU” and a “better deal for EU citizens in the UK”.
The news comes as Mr Johnson’s Government fights to tackle huge fuel shortages across the country – something that has been blamed on Brexit by some.
In a statement on its website, it added: “Brexit is not going away, it’s the elephant in the room.

Fuel

Telegraph
As he was tailed through the streets by motorists desperate for fuel, one tanker driver compared the situation to the “end of days”.
It was just one of the chaotic scenes across the country as panic buying led to brawls on the forecourt and complaints that thousands of people including NHS staff and care workers were unable to fill their cars to get to work.
On Monday it was reported that around 90 per cent of petrol stations had run out of fuel in some areas, as people were seen taking desperate measures including filling up plastic water bottles.
Football matches and bin collections were cancelled and workers only just returning to the office after lockdown were forced to work from home again.
A fire engine was only allowed to fill up a quarter of its tank near Dumfries, Scotland
Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, described it as the “Wild West” after queuing all morning for petrol only to be told that the station had sold out.

Most of the other media also report the fuel problems.  See Express, Sun, Times, Mirror, Guardian, BBC News, ITV News, Sky News, Independent

Trade

Express
NEGOTIATIONS for Britain to join a £9trillion global trade bloc officially get under way today.
Britain will hold its first round of negotiations with the 11 members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The UK officially submitted an application to join the group earlier this year, with members agreeing to proceed with accession talks.
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam all make up the CPTPP, which accounts for 15 percent of global trade.
If the UK joins the group it will be the second-largest economy involved behind Japan and will make it easier for British exporters to do business abroad.
Joining the partnership could mean tariff-free trade for 99.9 percent of all exports.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “This is a big milestone on our path to joining CPTPP, which will allow us to forge stronger links both with old friends and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Vaccine passports

Telegraph
The prospect of vaccine passports being used at indoor and outdoor venues in England this winter has been raised again by the Government.
The plans seemed to have been put on the backburner but on Monday night the Government launched a consultation, asking the public for views on the use of vaccine passports this autumn and winter if Covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm the NHS.
The Plan B proposals also open the door to the number of venues being widened beyond nightclubs, music venues, outdoor festivals, concerts and sports events.
The consultation asks whether the public thinks the list of settings is too narrow, raising the prospect that other entertainment venues where people mingle and mix could be included.
They will face fierce criticism from Tory MPs, who have claimed the plans are “totally unacceptable”, discriminatory and a route to a “two-tier society”.
But ministers last night insisted the Government needed to be prepared to “act swiftly” and adopt measures such as vaccine passports “at short notice” if there were “unsustainable pressures” on the NHS as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Illegal immigrants

Mail
The number of people who have crossed the English Channel in 2021 so far is double compared to 2020, with three months still left in the year.
At least 17,085 people had made the dangerous journey so far this year in small boats, according to available official Home Office data.
Last year’s total was more than 8,400, meaning this year’s figure to date double the 2020 total.
This comes despite repeated vows from the Government to make such crossings ‘unviable’ and tens of millions of pounds promised to France to help tackle the issue.
Amnesty International UK criticised ‘inhumane policies like pushbacks and the criminalisation of refugees’ and called for urgent action.
Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine channel threat commander, said: ‘The Government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings using every tool at our disposal, at every stage in the journey.
‘But this is a complicated issue requiring changes to our laws. The Government’s New Plan for Immigration provides the only long term solution to fix the broken system and deliver the change required to tackle criminal gangs and prevent further loss of life.’

Vaccine

Sun
THREE times as many unvaccinated people are catching Covid as those who have been double-jabbed, official figures show.
Someone who had their second Pfizer dose in May is 66 per cent less likely than an unprotected person to test positive.
For AstraZeneca the risk is 54 per cent lower and for Moderna it is 76 per cent. The figures, which are based on random swab tests, are the first of their kind from the Office for National Statistics.
Experts say they offer proof that jabs are cutting transmission — with cases also halved after a single dose.
The ONS also reported that infections were 55 per cent lower for people who had already had Covid. However, they were 59 per cent higher in people who do not wear masks. The report came as the UK yesterday confirmed another 37,960 Covid cases — a rise of five per cent in a week.
Numbers have only barely crept up since mid-September.
Deaths dropped by almost a fifth to 40 yesterday.
The number of patients in hospital continued to decline over the weekend, falling to 6,865. It was the first time below 7,000 in a month.
Only 38,971 vaccines were dished out on Sunday. Some 89.7 per cent of over-16s are now vaccinated, while 82.4 per cent have been double-jabbed.
The ONS report was based on tests sent to 167,288 people between August 29 and September 11.

Social distancing

Telegraph
Hospitals have been told they can axe the two-metre social distancing rule in measures designed to help the NHS treat more patients.
Infection experts have now been asked to look at other areas – including GP surgeries – amid concern that such constraints are limiting access to face-to-face appointments.
New guidance on infection control relaxes such limits for hospitals and removes the requirement for all patients to isolate and undergo tests before planned surgery.
Hospital chiefs have said that such protocols introduced in the wake of Covid have constrained the running of services, equal to the loss of around one in 10 beds.
They said the changes would “increase efficiency and capacity” at a time when it was most needed, with a record 5.5 million people on NHS waiting lists.
The UK Health Security Agency said its review of the evidence suggested some “pragmatic” changes could be safely made.
These include reducing physical distancing requirements from two metres to one metre in areas where patient access can be controlled, with the two metre rule remaining in place in A&E departments. Requirements for “enhanced cleaning” in hospitals will be scaled back and no longer required in low-risk areas.

The Times also has the story.

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