Trade talks
Sun
MICHEL Barnier has rejected a key British trade demand – despite the EU having already given the same terms to Japan. He threw out a UK request to help smooth the way for companies that rely on global supply chains. The move is a major blow to both British and European businesses, including car makers and food producers. It set up another row with No10, which has accused the Frenchman of singling the UK out for unfair treatment. A senior EU official insisted: “This is an area where we do not in any way see any margin of compromise. We do not believe that it is in the EU interest.”
Evening Standard
Talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and Japan will start today, the Department for International Trade has said. Ministers said the negotiations will expand on the current EU-Japan arrangement and secure extra benefits in areas such as digital trade. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese minister for foreign affairs, Motegi Toshimitsu, are launching talks by video call later on Tuesday. Ms Truss said: “As we kick-start trade talks, we aim to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes further than the deal previously agreed with the EU, setting ambitious standards in areas such as digital trade and services.
iNews
The UK will begin talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal with Japan in a bid to strike a “more comprehensive” agreement than the one it holds with the EU, the Department for International Trade has said. Ministers say the negotiations will expand on the current EU-Japan arrangement and secure extra benefits in areas such as digital trade. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese minister for foreign affairs, Motegi Toshimitsu, are launching talks by video call. Ms Truss said: “As we kick-start trade talks, we aim to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes further than the deal previously agreed with the EU, setting ambitious standards in areas such as digital trade and services.
Mail
Negotiations on a post-Brexit trade agreement between Britain and Japan will open tomorrow, just seven months before the end of the UK’s transition period with the European Union (EU). Japan is currently the UK’s 11th largest trading partner, and the fourth largest outside the EU. Ministers say the new deal could help the UK as it recovers from the economic shock created by the coronavirus crisis. But the talks will open as the government comes under increasing pressure to help the economy by extending the transition period, a move Boris Johnson has categorically ruled out.
Express
THE UK will begin talks with Japan on Tuesday with the aim of striking a comprehensive free trade deal that “goes further” than the agreement in place between the EU and Tokyo. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the virtual meetings will focus on areas such as digital trade and services. She said both sides would work to an “ambitious timeline” with the goal of signing a deal by the end of the year.
Express
BRITAIN’S chances of striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union before the end of the year are looking slim to none, according to a new poll. As the fourth round of negotiations came to a close on Friday, both sides remain locked in a dispute over fishing, which has emerged as one of the main sticking points in talks. Hardline EU member states have demanded unfettered access to the UK’s fishing waters as part of any deal.
Foreign aid
Mail
MPs have sounded the alarm about how Britain’s foreign aid budget is increasingly going to countries such as China and India rather than the world’s poorest nations. They called on ministers to review the spending after concerns it is not being adequately targeted at alleviating poverty. While the majority of the UK’s direct aid goes to the poorest countries, the proportion spent on ‘middle income’ countries increased from 36 per cent to 45 per cent between 2014 and 2018. The Commons international development committee warned in a report that this had been a growing trend as departments around Whitehall have been given an increasing share of the money to spend.
Race riots
Telegraph
The BBC has denied underplaying the level of violence during the Black Lives Matter protests after an image of a man threatening police officers was apparently cut out of the corporation’s coverage. Social media users pointed out yesterday that a picture taken during London’s demonstrations had been cropped to remove a man apparently brandishing a large piece of wood at a line of police. It came as the BBC came under criticism for an online story initially headlined: “27 police officers injured during largely peaceful protests anti-racism protests in London”. The story was later changed to: ‘George Floyd: London anti-racism protests leave 27 officers hurt’.
Sun
LAST night just outside Number 10 Downing Street anti-racism protests were turning violent for the third time in a week. Blood was pouring from the head of an un-armed police officer, bottles and other sharp objects were being pelted at cops, thugs were attempting to burn our flag on the Cenotaph, and the statue of our greatest ever Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been desecrated. If pro-Brexit campaigners had been responsible for such behaviour it would have been headline news. This newsworthy event developed in the hours before the BBC’s 10pm bulletin went live.
Breitbart
Tens of thousands of people have joined a campaign to defund the UK’s public-funded broadcaster as the backlash grows against the media outlet’s supposedly ‘impartial’ reporting. Over 40,000 people have joined the Twitter campaign #DefundTheBBC in the past week alone, following intense criticism and ridicule over the broadcaster’s coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests in London. The BBC unironically characterised the protests as “largely peaceful”, despite admitting that 14 police officers were injured during the demonstration.
Times
Priti Patel has told a police chief that he must uphold the law after his officers failed to stop anti-racism protesters from toppling the statue of a slave trader and throwing it into a harbour.The home secretary had a “firm” conversation yesterday with Andy Marsh, the chief constable of Avon and Somerset, and demanded an explanation for what had happened in Bristol on Sunday. She made clear that she expected those who pulled the statue down to face criminal prosecution. There have been no arrests so far.
Mail
Boris Johnson has said activists who harm the police or property during Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd will face ‘the full force of the law’. The Prime Minister posted a video message to the nation from his Twitter account this evening following a weekend of mostly peaceful demonstrations in cities and towns throughout the country. Mr Johnson said the outrage provoked by the death of Mr Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis had awakened an ‘incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice’ and called for people to ‘work peacefully, lawfully, to defeat racism’.
Mirror
Members of a student Tory society could face police investigation after they suggested coronavirus spreading through Black Lives Matter protest was “natural selection.” One member of Essex University’s Conservative Society joked in a Facebook chat group: “Corona be like, Hell, about time”. Another said: “Let them protest, the virus will decide.” The same member said: “I think it would be irresponsible to wish Covid on them. But at this point I don’t need to, it’s natural selection.”
iNews
The toppling of a statue of a slave trader in Bristol has sparked a wave of demands across the UK for statues and road signs linked to those involved in slavery to be removed. Protesters at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Bristol tore down the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th Century slaver, on Sunday triggering calls for statues to be replaced in cities and towns such as Cardiff, Edinburgh, Oxford and Shrewsbury. The demands to remove such monuments appears to have the backing of the British public, with a YouGov poll of 4,300 adults showing 53 per cent of the public are in favour of the move.
Guardian
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sparked unease among some on the left of his party on Monday, as he condemned as “completely wrong” the tearing down of the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol at the weekend. Starmer and the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said they shared the sense of injustice that had brought more than 100,000 people out on to the streets of the UK to join Black Lives Matter protests in recent days. But in a clear shift in tone from Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude to civil disobedience, Starmer told LBC radio: “It shouldn’t have been done in that way, [it was] completely wrong to pull a statue down like that.”
ITV News
Boris Johnson has acknowledged that many of the anti-racism protesters’ concerns are “founded on a cold reality” but has threatened those who harm police or property with “the full force of the law”. The Prime Minister said the outrage provoked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis had awakened an “incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice” and called for people to “work peacefully, lawfully, to defeat racism”.
Sun
A DEFIANT Black Lives Matter protester bragged about vandalising a statue of Winston Churchill because the wartime Prime Minister was a “confirmed racist”. The masked activist, who is being hunted by cops, claimed Churchill only fought the Nazis to protect the empire – not for “people of colour”. He unashamedly claimed he daubed the phrase “was a racist” beneath the leader’s name – although this has not been confirmed. Another tag reading “f*** your agenda” was also added to the monument in Whitehall.
Schools
Times
Primary schools will no longer be expected to open up to all year groups a month before the summer holidays, ministers will say today. It had been the government’s “ambition” that all primary children would get a month of school before the holidays “if feasible”. The logistics in getting even Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, the priority year groups, back last week and this week has been so challenging that the government accepts it cannot be done safely.
ITV News
Health Secretary Matt Hancock conceded that secondary schools in England may not fully reopen until later than September, despite saying coronavirus is “in retreat” across the UK. Boris Johnson will speak with his Cabinet on Tuesday morning before Education Secretary Gavin Williamson delivers a statement to Parliament on the wider reopening of schools. Mr Hancock said at the Downing Street briefing that it was still “our current working plan” that secondary schools in England will not open until September “at the earliest”.
Telegraph
The Health Secretary on Monday became the first Government minister to concede that all schools may not be able to reopen fully even in September. Matt Hancock said that the “current working plan” was that September was now the “earliest” that secondary schools will be able to open. However, he said that the Government still needed to “work out” how this was going to be achieved saying that it was “going to require ingenuity”.
Mail
The Health Secretary last night conceded that secondary schools in England may not fully reopen in September – with ministers also expected to row back on their pledge to give primary children a month in classes before summer break. Matt Hancock said at the Downing Street briefing yesterday that it was still ‘our current working plan’ that secondary schools in England will not open until September ‘at the earliest’.
Sky News
Plans for all pupils in England to return to primary school this term before the summer holidays are to be shelved by the government. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to give an update on the situation to MPs in the Commons later. In England, some primary schoolchildren went back last week. Next week some secondary school children are returning.
Quarantine
Telegraph
Bosses of the travel and hospitality industry have been privately assured by the Government that “air bridges” will be introduced for foreign summer holidays from June 29 to replace blanket quarantine. The Quash Quarantine group of more than 500 of the biggest names in the industry said that as a result they would suspend their threatened legal action to overturn quarantine.
Telegraph
Britain on Monday welcomed a new generation of aviation pioneers: travellers forced to queue for quarantine. Thousands of passengers travelled to Britain, the first under new Home Office laws, compelled to self-isolate for the next fortnight, or face a £1,000 fine or worse. Perfectly OK perhaps if home is a country estate (or converted barn on the family farm in County Durham) but less appealing if what you were planning was a 10-day whistle stop tour of London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Lake Windermere and the Scottish Highlands. Passengers told the Telegraph how the new quarantine rules had created a whole new airport queue.
Sun
BRITS could be handed Covid-19 “immunity passports” to jet off around the world quarantine free, the Home Secretary revealed. Priti Patel confirmed that the certificate was one of a number of policies being explored to end the 14 day quarantine which came into force today. Home Officials are examining plans to give those with coronavirus immunity special travel documents which are already handed out to those who have had vaccines for diseases like Yellow Fever. Speaking to MPs in the Commons, Ms Patel said she was “working across government” to introduce new measures that could replace quarantine.
Times
Rising numbers of Britons are planning summer holidays abroad despite the threat of quarantine on their return as multiple legal challenges are launched against the “irrational” policy. Ryanair, Europe’s busiest airline, said yesterday that it had seen a doubling in the number of UK bookings to destinations in the Mediterranean compared with seven days earlier. Analysis by Travelsupermarket, the price comparison website, showed that the average price of a package holiday from the UK to the Algarve over the summer months had dropped by 48 per cent between late March and early June.
Vaccine
Sun
A SECOND major coronavirus vaccine trial is set to kick off in UK – raising hopes of getting a Covid jab. Human trials of a potential vaccine for Covid-19 by scientists at Imperial College London will begin next week. The team, led by Professor Robin Shattock, have developed an RNA vaccine, which delivers genetic instructions to muscle cells to make the “spike” protein on the surface of coronavirus. The presence of this protein provokes an immune response, offering protection against Covid-19. The vaccine is now due to enter phase one and two human clinical trials on June 15 with 300 people.
Hospitality
Times
Pubs are in a race against time to open their beer gardens by June 22 amid frustration among landlords at the two-metre social-distancing rule. The British Beer and Pub Association called for urgent clarity yesterday following reports that ministers have identified June 22 as the date they hope pubs can start opening again. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is understood to be one of half a dozen ministers calling themselves the “save summer six” who want to speed up reopening the economy and allowing pubs and restaurants with outside space to start trading nearly two weeks earlier than originally planned.
Mail
Boris Johnson has earmarked June 22 as the date when pubs and restaurants across the nation could be allowed to reopen, it was claimed today. The Prime Minister is believed to be keen to accelerate the easing of lockdown after he was warned prolonging the shutdown of the hospitality sector could cost more than three million jobs. It is thought that pubs and restaurants may be permitted to welcome back patrons in just two weeks’ time, although they will only be allowed to serve customers outdoors.
Dentists
Times
Dentists have written to the government demanding urgent support to keep the service afloat and ensure equal treatment for patients as clinics start to reopen. The British Dental Association (BDA) warned that access to dental care across England would be drastically reduced. The union warned there was no possibility of the service carrying out anything more than a fraction of the 39.72 million courses of treatment that were provided by NHS dentists in England in 2018-19. Social-distancing policies mean that most practices will be able to treat only a quarter of previous patient numbers, according to a poll.
Mirror
Brits face a dramatically different experience at the dentists as surgeries reopen today – with no waiting rooms and temperature checks for patients. Practices across the country closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, leading to a spike in ‘DIY dentistry’ as people took matters into their own hands. Since the start of the lockdown, dentists have been calling for their businesses to reopen with strict measures to prevent the spread of the disease, StokeOnTrentLive reports.
Contact tracing
Times
The NHS smartphone app designed to track and reduce the spread of Covid-19 will be ready for launch in time for the next lifting of lockdown restrictions at the start of next month. Whitehall sources suggested that an upgrade on the one used on the Isle of Wight was nearly done and would be finished in time to be rolled out nationally within a fortnight. They stressed that a decision on when to launch rested with ministers and that no final decision on timings had been taken.
China
Telegraph
Coronavirus may have broken out in the Chinese city of Wuhan much earlier than previously thought, according to a new US study looking at satellite imagery and internet searches. The Harvard Medical School research found that the number of cars parked at major Wuhan hospitals at points last autumn was much higher than the preceding year. It also found that searches from the Wuhan region for information on “cough” and “diarrhea”, known Covid-19 symptoms, on the Chinese search engine Baidu spiked around the same time.
Times
Big increases in traffic at Wuhan hospitals last autumn suggest that the coronavirus was spreading in the Chinese city weeks earlier than previously admitted, according to a study by Harvard Medical School. “Something was happening in October. . . clearly there was some level of social disruption taking place well before what was previously identified as the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic,” John Brownstein, the Harvard medical professor who led the research, told ABC News.
All I hear from Brussels is, Barmier demands this, and has said that ! ….. Can’t we just say that we don’t negotiate with fools, and just leave before the end of this year ? – Is my common sense too simplistic on this ? – The wide world awaits with WTO, and let the EU lose a big market !
Tory Students commenting about the Darwin Principle on Facebook for the terrorists louts that are rampaging through our cities. My immediate thought was “natural selection” but they beat me to it. There is more to this than meets the eye, they are too co-ordinated and this was definitely triggered by more than so-called ‘covididiots’.
The police bosses in London and Bristol look like political activists not police from what they’ve been saying.
Political Correctness speaks again Mike.
“Foreign aid” is actually used to bribe key individuals in countries that have something we want or to follow a policy that suits us.
Thus making these already corrupt countries even worse.
Khan having a review of monuments for ‘racism’. Nelson to be pulled down?? Gilbert and Sullivan due to Mikado cultural appropriation?
The new BLM Taliban are emboldened by the lack of law enforcement and going full steam ahead to destroy English monuments. What’s next? Our history as taught in schools is being Blackwashed, culture and religion have been under threat for years. Not long now before we become an oppressed minority in our own land.
Yes well KHAN would wouldn’t he.
Wasn’t there an Abbott woman spouting about it too?
In my day in the police, the Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset wouldn’t have cut the mustard as a Police Constable, let alone Chief Constable. An absolute disgrace to the position that he holds. The police are there to protect Life and PROPERTY. What part of it does he not understand. If I were writing his Personal Performance Report, he would be marked up as not up to standard. He is in urgent need of retraining.
Do all the senior police have Common Purpose training?
Foreign aid: Surely we can no longer afford it any more. Most of it seems to benefit corrupt individuals anyway. Let us make our own choices on whether to give or not.
Jack you are right there. We can not afford it. At least it’s being looked at. Probably it was part of EU membership and still applied this year. Definitely something we should take into our own control.
Some days ago I watched an Amazing Polly video posted by Flyer about the unfortunate George Floyd. The information it contained made me think there could be more to his untimely demise than meets the eye. As did the rapidity with which the world-wide protests ensued. So, I began to wonder why a smokescreen might be required.
Well, on June 4th in 1989 in Tiananmen Square tanks and soldiers opened fire on a million protesters. An untold number of protesters were killed.
This is usually commemorated. On June 4th. Every year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4woMuFZAx88
Then, in Hong Kong, there are ongoing protests against the Communist Chinese government as they continue to strip away the remaining rights and freedoms of HK citizens who in theory are still protected by the agreement signed in the Orwellian year of 1984 by the CONSERVATIVE prime minister Margaret Thatcher who, instead of granting the Hong Kongers their independence, signed them over to Communist China. The Chinese Communist virus has been helpful in suppressing these protests.
Then, of course, there is the virus itself and the job losses it will cause which here in the UK are now starting to be felt.
We know that Communist China has been less than open about the origins of their virus. Strange occurrences like flights of infectious people being allowed from Wu Hann to the outside world but not to places in China. Possible medical interventions like HCQ and Vitamin D not being investigated and promoted but instead ignored or even actively supressed forcing us into the lockdown which was perhaps avoidable.
It matters not if, to achieve all of what we’ve been seeing in the last few days, there has been some giant, well-coordinated, Machiavellian communist plot or if all we’ve been seeing is the result of a few phone calls to like-minded groups of individuals who, having had their brains completely washed at university, are now spontaneously doing their own thing to help the cause as devout disciples of Karl Marx’ satanic religion.
Yes Michael there was something about 4 stages, of which crises was the 3rd. If I remember right Police State was the 4th and final stage. The Goal.
FGS Boris look at the empirical data and ditch the models. 1m SD (or just bin the whole concept) and get the schools open by Sept at the latest no excuses. If no rioters or terrorists clog the National Covid Service in the next couple of weeks then the virus is gone for at least the summer and you can open EVERYTHING.
Are teachers on full pay during all of this ?
Give you three guesses George! No wonder they and their unions are not keen on starting the new school term in August so their pupils can try and catch up.
Quite. Can anything be done about that?
That would be up to the government Pauline. Depends how strong they are. I always think the more letters received by No.10 the better.
MWT I quite agree. Never mind about him getting leg over instead of self isolating, the point is Neil Ferguson’s models have been totally discredited at least twice before. SARS and Foot and Mouth. Just because he is an eminent virologist does not mean he can choose the best ‘models’ which are obviously not part of his speciality. It’s a bit like the global warming alarmists – even if they were meteorologists they are still choosing someone else’s models.
Handcock is a prime example of our wonderful Ministers lacking basic common sense. Bin the whole concept.
Hint to Boris – if you sack Handcock then publicise some anti lock down ‘facts’ it would help you save face.