Brexit
Express
DOWNING STREET last night renewed its threat to rip up the Brexit withdrawal agreement, accusing the EU of “eroding consent” for the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The remarks are the latest in a furious war of words between the two sides which shows no sign of cooling. In a serious escalation of rhetoric, No10 yesterday accused the EU of undermining the peace process by demanding bureaucratic checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea.
Officials lashed out at the way Brussels was enforcing the Protocol, blaming the Commission for heightening political tensions in the province.
It comes the day after Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, accused the UK of looking to deliberately stir up political tensions in Northern Ireland.
He said Britain wanted to “dismantle elements of the Protocol piece by piece” and was using the EU as a scapegoat.
Freedom Day
Mail
The return to normality could only last for weeks amid the surge in Delta variant cases, Government scientists warned as Boris Johnson told Britons not to get ‘demob happy’ amid a relaxation of restrictions.
The Prime Minister signalled a ‘big bang’ end to lockdown on July 19, saying it was now or never for a return to normality, as he acknowledged the pandemic was ‘far from over’ and that daily Covid cases could top 50,000 by ‘Freedom Day’ in a fortnight.
He claimed further delay would run the risk of trying to reopen in autumn or winter when ‘the virus has an edge’.
And in a downbeat assessment, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said that even if hospitalisations and deaths remained low, there were major risks in letting cases surge.
The group warned that should a ‘variant of concern’ arrive that threatened immunity, lockdown restrictions would need to reimposed for much longer.
In newly-released documents which advised on controlling the virus long-term, Sage warned that some ‘baseline measures’ may have to stay, with ‘sustained behavioural change’ necessary.
And at a sombre Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson warned against going ‘demob happy’ at the ending of most coronavirus restrictions on July 19.
And he toned down previous pledges that the path out of lockdown would be ‘irreversible’ – with restrictions potentially returning. A final decision on whether to press ahead on July 19 will be taken at the start of next week but seems almost certain to be approved.
Mr Johnson said the vaccine programme was continuing to be a success and retaining restrictions would ‘inevitably take their toll on people’s lives and livelihoods – on people’s health and mental health’.
Similar stories appear in the Mail, Times, Telegraph, ITV News, Guardian, Sun, Independent, Morning Star
EU
Mail
Chancellor Angela Merkel has performed a massive U-turn as Germany ditches its bid to ban British arrivals from entering the European Union as Berlin announces that double-vaccinated UK travellers can now enter the central European country without needing to quarantine.
Germany’s national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said late yesterday that Britain, Portugal, Russia, India and Nepal will be moved from the highest risk category of ‘virus variant areas’ into the second-highest category of ‘high-incidence areas’ from tomorrow.
The UK had been in the top risk category since May 23, and was joined last Tuesday by Russia and Portugal, one of Germany’s partners in the European Union.
Airlines and others are restricted largely to transporting German citizens and residents from ‘virus variant areas’, and those who arrive must spend 14 days in quarantine at home.
People arriving from ‘high incidence areas’ can avoid quarantine if they can prove they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19. Others can cut short a mandatory 10-day quarantine by testing negative after five days. Transport is no longer restricted.Officials have said the listings would be reviewed as the proportion of infections caused by the Delta variant in Germany rises. Although overall case numbers are very low, more than half of new cases are now believed to be caused by Delta.
Ms Merkel indicated during a visit to Britain on Friday that the restrictions on travel from the UK would soon be relaxed.
Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Sun, ITV News
Illegal Immigrants
Mail
Priti Patel will today unveil powers for UK Border Force to turn away migrant boats in a new bid to tackle the Channel crisis and shake up the asylum system.
The Home Secretary’s masterplan will slash asylum rights for migrants who arrive in Britain illegally, and target trafficking gangs.
Writing exclusively in today’s Daily Mail, Miss Patel reveals how gun-wielding people smugglers forced a migrant couple to separate from their daughters over the weekend.
The parents were made to travel in another boat to the UK, adding to fears that trafficking leaves children open to awful exploitation. The two girls, both under 12, had not been accounted for last night.
Publication of the Nationality and Borders Bill today is being heralded as the biggest shake-up of the asylum system for a generation.
Similar stories can be found in the Guardian, Express, Sun, Times,
Guardian
Ministers are to reveal proposals for a suite of new laws paving the way for offshore centres for asylum seekers and criminal charges for migrants “knowingly” arriving in the UK without permission.
The nationality and borders bill, formerly known as the sovereign borders bill, has been described by the Home Office as containing “the most radical changes to the broken asylum system in decades” making it harder for those who enter illegally to stay in the UK.
But campaigners say the new laws could see thousands of refugees turned away and vulnerable migrants criminalised for seeking a better life.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, said it was part of her mission to crack down on “vile criminals” who run a flourishing smuggling operation across the channel. If the laws are passed, people-smuggling will attract tougher sentencing, up to life imprisonment.
Patel said she is also going to make it easier to remove migrants who have arrived in the country unlawfully and to punish countries that refuse to take back their own citizens with a new “power to control visa availability” for legal entrants to the UK,
Education
Morning Star
THE average Year 10 pupil has missed a quarter of face-to-face teaching days this academic year, Labour analysis of attendance data shows.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green called on ministers yesterday to provide clarity on plans for next year’s GCSE and BTec exams before the end of the summer holidays, following months of disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Her opposite number Gavin Williamson has already confirmed changes will be made to assessments but is yet to provide any detail.
Labour urged the government not to repeat mistakes after muddled guidance has seen “striking inconsistencies” in the process that schools and colleges have used to assess pupils’ grades.
Ministers must work with exam boards and schools urgently to develop a comprehensive recovery plan that will help to level the playing field for the worst-affected children, the party stressed.
Ms Green said: “The Conservatives’ poor planning and preparation has created a second year of exam chaos.
“Ministers need to learn from their mistakes and set out a plan by the time pupils return to school in September.”
Evening Standard
Parents and teachers will on Tuesday afternoon find out how the government plans to relax bubble rules that have led to large numbers of pupils being sent home if a single child tests positive.
Last week more than 375,000 children were sent home under the bubble system.
It comes as experts have warned over Boris Johnson’s plan to do away with most of England’s Covid restrictions, likely from July 19.
British Medical Association council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said it was “incredibly concerning” for Mr Johnson to “decide to go full steam” despite warnings over rising hospitalisations and deaths. He urged ministers to ensure the wearing of masks is compulsory “until the rampant spread of infection has been brought under control and more of the population are fully vaccinated”.
A similar story appears on BBC News
Policing Bill
Express
RELENTLESS Rejoiner Steve Bray’s nuisance protests outside Parliament could soon be banned after the Policing Bill sailed through the Commons.
Home Secretary Priti Patel’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was backed by MPs at its final stage in the Commons by 365 votes to 265. It will now be considered by the House of Lords.
The legislation looks to make a range of sweeping changes to existing legislation including introducing longer sentences for child killers and those who cause death on the road, stricter jail terms for serious violent and sexual offenders, and an expansion of child sex abuse laws.
If it comes into law the Bill will also allow time and noise limits to be imposed on protests.
Those breaching orders could face a fine or even a jail sentence.
It means Mr Bray’s one-man anti-Brexit campaign, which has taken place outside Parliament on an almost daily basis for the past five years, could soon be forced to stop.
MPs and Parliamentary staff have complained Mr Bray’s loud music and chants through a megaphone have made working in Westminster almost unbearable.
The fierce campaigner was once again today protesting outside the Commons while MPs inside voted on legislation that will likely put a stop to his antics.
Those in the Parliament buildings were treated to the disco song Macarena and popular socialist anthem Solidarity Forever blasting from the campaigner’s speakers this afternoon.
Ahead of today’s vote the Rejoiner and 2019 Liberal Democrat election candidate said the Bill risked undermining the right to free speech.
“Whatever your views are the right to protest is not for a government to take away,” he wrote on social media on Sunday night.
Opposition MPs and some backbench Conservatives said the Bill “went too far”.
Relentless Remainer Steve Bray’s noisy protests! If only THAT was the only protester targeted it would be a good thing.
‘Thousands of refugees turned away’. Sorry ‘campaigners’ for some reason my heart is not bleeding for them.
In the immortal words……..”I don’t believe it!” Looks like the Telegraph isn’t all that convinced about the “unlocking” either!
https://apple.news/AhNvm05LhSKu3xzIEKwONJQ
We need somebody of Nigel Farage’s calibre and commitment to be leading a political party that desires proper change where the indigenous population of this country are put fair and squarely before those who are not, and where this country is not subservient to the European Union, which apparently we have left although you wouldn’t know it. And I don’t mean Nigel re-establishing a link with Richard Tice who is utterly clueless and who leads a party that is going nowhere. Making videos for You Tube and Facebook is all well and good but they only reach out to a relatively small portion of the population. No, what we need is a brand new political party that has people at the top who want to see genuine change in this country, rather than men in grey suits just seeking to reform the worse than useless Conservative Party. No better qualified person in my book than Nigel Farage……….
Collin – Nigel would be good but consider this; it takes years to build a political party and we have no good options amongst the current political contenders. By the time a new political party was formed and promoted to a stage that it could make a difference, our country as we know it will be just a memory.
It was a very sad and depressing moment in my life when, a few years ago now, I realised that we had run out of political options, that is a ship that has sailed. My prognosis is rather grim, we either surrender or take action, we the people but unfortunately then we’ll have to face the fact that if we don’t defend our borders, we fight our battles on our own soil just like any other invaded country.
I hate to say this but it is what it is, I realise it but feel that too many are still burying their heads in the sand. The other reason I hesitate to say these things is because I am certain that a race war is exactly what the globalists would like; population reduction and all that.
Flyer, I know it takes years having been with UKIP for many years before falling in with The Brexit Party, but something needs to be done and just cannot see any current national party that is prepared to do what is necessary to put this country back on the right footing regarding Immigration, Northern Ireland protocol, Fishing and Territorial Waters, restoration of our Civil Liberties and Freedoms and Covid 19 laws. I am however seriously thinking about returning to the UKIP fold, because the rest are just faffing about around the edges and doing sweet FA.
Colin Hussey. REJOIN UKIP! Go for it. The things you have just listed are precisely the things that DO need doing and which Ukip should be standing for.
Don’t just rejoin that Party, manoeuvre yourself into a position within it where you are steering it. I say that because from what you say on here I’ve a feeling you may have the energy and drive needed.
Pauline, very nice of you to say so, but yesterday you described ME as being ‘hypo’. And yes at one time I was steering it on a branch level at least. The trouble with UKIP at the moment is that it lacks funds, an HQ and staff, and the party infrastructure (branch network) is shattered. At least the basics are still there and they have a decent leader in place who is knowledgeable and able to stand his ground, unlike Reform UK.
Colin. That Tice led Party has just put out a particularly meaningless questionnaire about Covid restrictions. O.K., obviously the loss of our freedoms via them are an appropriate target for Reform U.K. but there are other matters outstanding that they should also be targeting.
Tice is a business man isn’t he? Does he have links to those who benefit from Immigration? Or Globalism? Or Greenery or anything else designed to destroy Independent Nation States.
Just asking as you may be better equipped than me for looking into it. I seem to remember some links to the legal profession and/or the civil service.
Reform UK lost me and many others I know by its abject failure to grab the nettle when it had the opportunity to do so, and Farage’s resignation as leader was the final straw that broke the camels back. Yes, I was selected to stand as a local authority candidate for Reform UK, but stood down with somebody else in exasperation and started an Independent Party in the town where I live and stood as a candidate under that banner and cornered 9% of the vote. Although still a subscriber to Reform UK, I don’t seem to have received that questionnaire that you have been sent. I want their leaders to start formulating some workable policies that the people can get behind rather than sending out pointless questionnaires which wont be acted upon. Recently however I along with many others were invited to stand as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate with the promise of letting me off the candidate selection fee. Big deal I thought, but why are they charging potential election candidates a fee in the first place as it doesn’t happen in other parties. I don’t know what Tice does for a living and nor do I care to be honest, and have given up hope. It is a party that is going nowhere…
Wonder how many suckers will be taken in with Patel’s latest tough talking on migrant control? The Tories are as committed to ‘changing the face of Britain’ as Labour. Yet, even as the bulldozers start rolling into the Tory shires to house the migrant led population growth their support for the Tories is unwavering at elections.
Well Jake, they can’t vote for Nigel Farage can they.
Pauline, my point exactly. We need another Nigel Farage led political party to get behind and vote for. There is a void at the moment which needs to be filled. Without doubt his videos are excellent and he says what most agree with, but we can’t vote for his videos….
Pauline On seven occasions he stood in Tory constituencies and they rejected him. Although I was very dissapointed indeed when he stepped down from UKIP I do have some sympathy for the chap if he thought that seven rejections is enough,sod ’em, lets call it a day.
Nigel Farage has a few words to say about the latest BS to flow from Priti Patel’s mouth in his latest video.
“Don’t believe a word Priti Patel says.”
https://youtu.be/y1zFbBILstM
It’s worth watching this video at around 11 mins long. Some of the figures that Nigel mentions are very disturbing and as he says the government are on board with the corporates that want as much cheap labour as possible. I would say that they are still in bed with the globalist supranational organisations that want to cancel our race and culture, destroying our once beautiful country as well.
These illegal immigrants may be seeking a better life but we don’t owe them a better life and it is costing us eye watering amounts of money.