Brexit
Express
BRUSSELS was warned Britain will walk away from Brexit talks rather than hang on for an “11th hour” deal. Penny Mordaunt said there would be “no point” in striking a last minute agreement because it would leave businesses scrambling to prepare for the changes. The paymaster general said the UK is pushing for negotiations on future relations to be speeded up. Eurocrats will be told on Friday that Britain will not agree to extend the transition period. Ms Mordaunt told MPs progress has stalled but she remains “confident” a deal can be struck. She said: “There is no point in us arriving at an agreement at the 11th hour. We have to arrive at agreement to enable it to be implemented, ratified, but also for our citizens and businesses to prepare.
Evening Standard
The UK “cannot keep negotiating forever” with the EU over Brexit, a minister has insisted. Trade talks with Brussels are at a “key stage” and they need to be escalated in the coming weeks, Cabinet Office minister Penny Mordaunt said on Tuesday. The former International Development secretary repeatedly ruled out extending the transition period beyond December this year and pressed the need for the UK to be treated as a “sovereign equal”. Tory colleague Jerome Mayhew asked Ms Mordaunt if an extension of the transition period would “serve no useful purpose” other than to cost the UK money, prolong business uncertainty, “delay effective control of our borders” and hamper the response to the coronavirus crisis. Ms Mordaunt replied: “The honourable gentleman is damn right.”
Guardian
The UK government will tell the EU on Friday it is not going to seek an extension to the Brexit transition period, the paymaster general, Penny Mordaunt, has said. She told the House of Commons in an update on Brexit talks that she and Michael Gove would “emphasise that we will not be extending the transition period” when they meet EU counterparts at a Brexit joint committee meeting on Friday. It led to an immediate accusation of the government behaving recklessly, with the Scottish National party MP Pete Wishart accusing the Conservatives of trying to “heap misery upon misery” with Covid-19 and Brexit “the twin horsemen of the economic apocalypse” denying any prospect of recovery.
Huffington Post
The UK has started planning for leaving the Brexit transition without a trade deal at the end of the year, Penny Mordaunt has said. The Cabinet Office minister said it is “prudent and wise” to prepare for trade negotiations to fail and for the UK to default to World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms for business with the EU from January. A Whitehall source later told HuffPost UK that the government was “of course planning” through the cabinet exit operations (XO) committee chaired by Michael Gove for the UK to leave the single market and customs union, with or without a deal on new trade relations.
Express
REMAINERS faced a fiery backlash after issuing a call for the Brexit transition period to be extended, warning the UK is fast approaching the extension deadline with no signs of a trade deal in sight. The staunchly anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats said the country is “dangerously close” to the extension deadline and warned of a “no deal crash out” if action is not taken. The party sought to whip up support for their campaign on social media, urging people to get on board with the “urgent” bid. Their plea for more negotiating time comes after the fourth round of trade talks with the EU wrapped up last week without a breakthrough. The Lib Dems tweeted a picture which read: “Urgent: We must extend the Brexit transition period and avoid a no deal crash out.”
Race riots
Independent
Boris Johnson has been told he must apologise for his past “racist” comments before his support for Black Lives Matter will be taken seriously. The prime minister has issued a video message, recognising the death of George Floyd had awakened “a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice” among black people. But playwright and campaigner Bonnie Greer said the support would carry more weight if Mr Johnson acknowledged the hurt caused by his notorious newspaper articles. One described African people as having “watermelon smiles”, another said women in burqas looked like “bank robbers”, and Mr Johnson also wrote that seeing “a bunch of black kids” scared him.
Mail
Police fear far-Right thugs could descend on the capital this weekend to take on anti-racism protesters. Football hooligans are planning counter-protests to ‘defend’ memorials and statues. Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson called for opposition protests in a two-minute video in which he accused police of being ‘soft-handed’ at Black Lives Matters marches. He accused officers of failing to act because there were ‘too many people who aren’t white’.
Voice of Europe
A massive demonstration has been planned for Saturday, the 13th of June, in response to the attacks on brave Met Police officers, the vandalism of UK landmarks, and rioting by Antifa Terrorists. The event is due to take place at 11am on Saturday June 13th on Whitehall – and intends to be a peacefull response to Antifa anarchy and welcomes and all colours, creeds and orientations. The protest hopes to give a balance to the biased coverage and reaction to the death of criminal thug George Floyd, who left-wing UK Antifa protesters have been using to further their own gains. If you’re tired of Black Lives Matter having the spotlight, tired of Antifa thugs ripping apart our historic Capital, then come on down to London on Saturday, wear a mask and stay 2 metres apart.
Mail
A monument celebrating an 18th Century slave dealer has been removed from the docks he helped to construct as pressure from the Black Lives Matter protests to remove racist statues has forced councils across the country into action. Workmen were today seen uprooting a statue of Robert Milligan from its spot on West India Quay in London’s docklands to cheers from spectators. Protesters had drawn up a hit list of 60 ‘racist’ monuments to be taken down, including Milligan’s. Amid growing pressure to act, the charity Canal and River Trust worked with the Museum of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to remove the bronze figure of the Scottish merchant who owned 526 slaves at his Jamaican sugar plantation.
Sun
A MONUMENT to a slave trader has been removed from London’s docklands after the Black Lives Matter protests – as cops shielded Winston Churchill’s statue from further damage. The figure of Robert Milligan was taken down by a JCB from its plinth in West India Quay following a petition by a Labour MP. Tower Hamlets Council authorised the removal of the figure by professionals this evening, meanwhile cops had to form a human shield to protect a monument to Winston Churchill in parliament Square. In a statement on Twitter, the council said: “Tonight, we have removed the statue of slave trader Robert Milligan that previously stood at West India Quay.
Guardian
All statues in Labour councils across England and Wales, and across London, will be examined for links to slavery and plantation owners, their leaders have said, as an east London authority took one down off its plinth on Tuesday evening. The statue of slave owner Robert Milligan at West India Quay in London’s Docklands was removed using a JCB, after the charity which owns the land where it stood promised to organise its “safe removal” following a petition launched by Ehtasham Haque. The local council, Tower Hamlets, said it had removed the statue and had “also announced a review into monuments and other sites in our borough to understand how we should represent the more troubling periods in our history”.
Telegraph
Black Lives Matter supporters have compiled a “hit list” of dozens of statues across the country, as the Mayor of London said controversial monuments should be removed to avoid causing offence. Statues of historical figures including Sir Francis Drake, Nancy Astor, Christopher Colombus and William Gladstone should be toppled “for celebrating slavery and racism”, campaigners said on Tuesday night. It came as councils and museums rushed to remove contentious statues after protesters threw a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, into a river in Bristol on Sunday.
Breitbart
Emboldened by the zero-resistance police response to the destruction of a statue on Sunday, a hard-left campaign group with a history of high-profile activism has published a list of dozens of other public memorials targeted for removal. Published by the Stop Trump Coalition, and by their own reckoning, a “project in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the topplers of Edward Colston”, the Topple The Racists list names dozens of statues and other memorials to figures from British and world history that have been judged unworthy by 21st century standards. Among the list are several perennial hate-figures for the left, including famed explorer and mariner Christopher Columbus, and Elizabethan privateer Sir Francis Drake.
Sky News
“Structural racism and social inequality” should be taken into account when looking at the impact of COVID-19 on Britain’s black, Asian and minority ethnic, according to an expert involved in a recent review. Professor Kevin Fenton was a major part of a Public Health England (PHE) report – ordered by the government – into why the BAME community has been disproportionately affected by coronavirus. It found people from BAME groups were up to twice as likely to die with COVID-19 than those from a white British background. The review was also meant to offer recommendations, but sources have told Sky News that these were “held back” by the government.
Scotland
Express
NICOLA STURGEON is seeking increased borrowing powers from the UK Government in a bid to fill a fiscal black hole amid the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland’s finance secretary has appealed for greater authority for Holyrood, arguing that the current arrangement in place is not fit to adequately tackle “an economic crisis of this scale”. Her plea comes after the Government’s chief economist last week warned Scotland’s economy may not bounce back to pre-epidemic levels until 2023. Kate Forbes, who serves as Scotland’s finance minister, said the Scottish Government would have no choice but to make “deep cuts” to public services if it was not handed more powers.
Two-metre rule
Times
The two-metre rule is to be relaxed once coronavirus infections fall sufficiently to open up the hospitality sector. Pubs, restaurants and cafés are waiting for detailed guidance from the business department on how they can open securely from July 4, the date set in the “road map” after which elements of the sector can start to reopen as long as the virus remains under control. Senior officials said that the guidance could retain the two-metre rule initially, but alternative guidance on smaller distances was being prepared for when the rule was relaxed. A cabinet minister said the government faced a choice of whether to delay publication of the guidance until the rule was relaxed or press on with the earliest possible reopening.
Guardian
The business secretary, Alok Sharma, has said the 2 metre distancing rule remains under review in England, despite the prime minister’s hope that his scientific advisers would give the green light to relax it imminently. Boris Johnson has made clear that he is keen to ease the rule, as the government battles to prevent thousands of hospitality businesses collapsing in the coming months. No 10 is understood to have told senior figures in the sector that the idea of reducing physical distancing to 1 metre would be discussed at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
Independent
Rules requiring customers in shops, pubs and restaurants to remain two metres apart from one another are to remain in place, as Boris Johnson breached a commitment to publish the results of a scientific review into the issue. The hospitality industry has been lobbying ministers hard to relax the rule, and one representative of bars and restaurants around the country today said that its retention will render almost every business in the sector “completely unviable”.
Face masks
ITV News
The widespread use of face masks keeps the coronavirus reproduction number below 1.0, and prevents further waves when combined with lockdowns, new research suggests. A modelling study from the universities of Cambridge and Greenwich indicates that lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of Covid-19. Researchers say even homemade masks with limited effectiveness can dramatically reduce transmission rates if worn by enough people, regardless of whether they show symptoms.
NHS
Telegraph
NHS waiting lists are likely to more than double to 10 million people by the end of the year, health bosses have warned. Continuing pressure from coronavirus, plus reduced patient flow due to infection control measures, means the health service faces an “uphill battle” to restart normal services such as those for stroke and heart disease, according to a report from the NHS Confederation, which represents leaders from across the health sector. The backlog of treatments and staffing shortages is expected to exacerbate the waiting lists, currently standing at 4.2 million. However, this scenario does not account for a second wave of coronavirus and assumes some access to new treatments such as a vaccine.
Schools
Telegraph
School children under the age of 15 are more likely to be hit by lightning than die from coronavirus, new figures suggest, amid mounting pressure for the government to get more to get pupils back into classrooms as quickly as possible. Scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford have called for “rational debate” based on the “tiny” risk to children and have suggested that if no vaccine is found in the future then it may be better for younger people to continue with their lives, while shielding the more vulnerable. It comes as the government was accused of “losing the plot” after Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, scrapped the Government’s target of getting all primary school pupils back in the classroom before the summer holidays.
Guardian
Boris Johnson needs an urgent national plan to get all pupils back to school in England from September, with an army of support staff, the requisitioning of public buildings and extra help for disadvantaged students, unions and cross-party MPs have said. As the government admitted that most primary pupils in England would not get back to the classroom before summer, ministers were urged to set out a comprehensive strategy or risk an “epidemic of educational poverty”. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, had hoped all primary schools in the country would reopen four weeks before the summer holidays but was forced to admit on Tuesday that this would be missed because of the difficulty of keeping children apart and in bubbles of 15.
Sun
STUDENTS will sit their GCSEs and A-Levels next year as planned, Gavin Williamson said today. The Education Secretary confirmed that exams will go back to normal by summer 2021. Exams have been cancelled for millions of young people this year thanks to coronavirus. Instead teachers will decide on what grades to give to each student based on their work over the year – which will then be sent to examiners to double check. Coursework, essays, assignments and mock exams will also be used to determine the marks. But Mr Williamson said today that exams for all students will be back to normal by next year.
Times
A national effort on the scale of the vast furlough scheme for jobs is needed to get children back into schools, former education secretaries and experts say. They spoke out after the government confirmed that most primary pupils would not come back to school until September, meaning they will have been out of the classroom for six months. Boris Johnson had said he wanted all primary years back for a month before the summer holidays, but this has not proved possible under the logistics of social-distancing rules. Justine Greening, the former education secretary, said Britain faced an education crisis without drastic action. The disadvantaged may not catch up and the hundreds of thousands leaving education this summer could end up unemployed, she said.
Morning Star
PLANS for all primary school children to return before summer were abandoned by the government today in a victory for teachers warning against the risk to public safety. The government had aimed to bring all pupils in England back four weeks before the end of term, despite some schools warning that they were already short of space due to the socially distanced reopening for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils, and could not accommodate more children. Teachers and teaching unions have been at loggerheads with the government over the full reopening of schools, warning that many were in no position to implement social distancing and the policy could spark a “second spike” in Covid-19 cases.
Shops
Times
The lockdown will ease significantly from Monday with all shops and zoos allowed to reopen as the government steps up efforts to repair the economic damage caused by the pandemic. At the daily Downing Street press conference yesterday, Alok Sharma, the business secretary, confirmed that from June 15 non-essential retailers, such as clothes stores and bookshops, would be able to welcome customers for the first time since March 23 — but only if they had made their premises “Covid-secure”.
Mirror
Non-essential shops in England will be allowed to reopen from Monday, Business Secretary Alok Sharma has confirmed. The Government announced last month that most retailers would be allowed to reopen from June 15 if certain conditions were met. And today, speaking at the Downing Street daily press conference, Mr Sharma confirmed that in Minster’s opinion it was safe to reopen shops. The Prime Minister announced on Monday 25 May that all non-essential retailers in England will be allowed to open with social distancing in place from 15 June.
Russia
Times
Moscow swung abruptly back to life today after the mayor surprised the Russian capital by lifting the vast majority of coronavirus curbs overnight. All limits on movement were immediately scrapped, while courts and even hairdressers were allowed to reopen. Cafés and restaurants will welcome visitors this month. Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor and the head of Russia’s Covid-19 taskforce, had previously warned that normal life would not return until a vaccine had been found. Instead, he congratulated Muscovites “on another shared victory” — even as the city registered more than 3,500 new cases and 110 deaths in the past 48 hours.
Dear BLM, – Perhaps a little check upon British history could be useful to you. – By the end of the 1700s there was a group in Parliament who doggedly kept at the abolition of slavery, until they won the day. – Slavery became illegal, and our Navy was instructed to stop and search any ship, to find slaves being transported. – Our Navy took the job very seriously, and the Americans were not going to accept this situation. – The 1812 war followed against the Americans, which included the burning of The White House !
Now the American Police action, which was totally wrong, was in the USA. – Why then are you taking action against our Police and war memorials ? – Are you certain that BLM is not being used by others in this country, and you are all being used for their purposes ? ….. Reading history can be a bit of a chore, but a very good film was made (DVD), which covered this Nation’s actions in the abolition of slavery. – I recommend you watch it !
Mike – thanks for your interesting post – however, BLM are not even remotely interested in any facts. They are simply a renegade, disreputable, anti-democratic mob of opportunists who should be opposed in everything they do, and the full force of the Law must be visited upon them.
No self-respecting Brit would even bother to listen to their nonsense and we need to physically defend every INCH of our lands and our freedom.
But for that we need men and women who are determined to resist this madness which THE AUTHORITIES are allowing to continue.
Arrests, arrests and more arrests are what the prescription should be – without fear or favour. Our Laws must be upheld otherwise we are destined to become a Lawless and bastard country – a situation which is fast approaching. The only thing these animals understand is power and we must apply that power which we still possess to wipe them off the face of our countryside. THAT Is the ‘language’ they understand.
If THE AUTHORITIES do not act decisively and quickly – then these mobs will undoubtedly be met by the force of Nationalist Groups who will not hesitate to give back exactly what is being visited upon our ordinary peaceful population and attempt to do what the police and the Givernment ought rightly to be doing themselves – which to date they are failing to do. Lex Talionis……..plus VAT!
‘He congratulated Muscovites on another shared victory’. Now what was it Orwell said about double think, rewriting history, no such thing as objective facts and the difference between Totalitarianism and Liberal (ok bourgeois) Democracy.
Obvious isn’t it. If we take all the racist statues down that is bound to protect the BAME community from the racist virus!
Funny that. I thought even they had outlived superstitious practices.
Hooray !! We are going to CRASH OUT with the twin horsemen of the apocalypse behind us.
The BBC goes from bad to worse. Today on its so called online news website they have an article titled Churchill:Hero or Villain? An absolute insult to anyone who has a smidgen of common sense and intelligence and indeed an interest in the modern history of this country. Sir Winston Churchill wasn’t just any person or any prime minister, and I agree most of our past prime ministers are instantly forgettable, but he was of few people in the House of Commons who during the 1930’s recognised the Nazi threat whilst the others promoted appeasement. More importantly he led this once great country and its commonwealth which stood alone in the world against against Adolph Hitler and his murderous regime until the Americans joined the fray with the Russians. I am now finished with the BBC. I don’t have a TV set, so I am now going to cancel my licence direct debit. If sufficient people did this, it would bring this disgusting organisation to its knees.
And it is no longer a criminal offense Colin. ASAP go out and buy a TV and watch every other channel. Mind you they are not worth watching either.
Well at last we have established one of the best ways to conquer the overpopulation problem – at least in the U.K.
Start a riot; carry a banner; bombard Westminster with placards, banners, paint-pots, bricks and spittal; be sure and bring the kids together with a back-pack filled with offal and/or faeces; then…jump up and down embracing the nearest black or ethnic ‘fellow-traveller’…………and Bingo – we potentially rid ourselves of a considerable portion of the population who have, thankfully, sacrificed themselves on the bonfire of rabid ‘political incorrectness’. Perhaps statues can be erected (then torn down again as fancy takes us!) to these brave, courageous but insane pests who batter our Police men and women into unconsciousness and metaphorically trample on the graves of our ‘cowardly’ military men and women Colonialist supporters, in their khaki uniforms – who died it seems for NOTHING other than to affirm their descendants ‘rights’ to sully their memory.
At last I have SOMETHING to celebrate. Hopefully I am now witnessing the age of the ‘Suicide of The Mobs’
Are they, these Antifa-Cannon-Fodder, perhaps plain suicidal, or gallantly sacrificing themselves in honour of a black career criminal (who perhaps is even now, an icon of blackness?) – Yes! a beacon to which black people can gather and genuflect before in a leering-like tide of mutual self-destruction and self-pity; until all of the financial structures and edifices which support them and have done since the halcyon days of ‘Operation Windrush’, with their ‘deserved’ Welfare and Social Security payments, disappear into the well of ingratitude and ACTUAL poverty.
Biting the hand that feeds you comes to mind.
So easy to order Lockdown – So many unintended consequencies such as how do you end it and if it really turns out to be no worse than a bad flu outbreak how do you shrug off your costly error and particularly awkward in this regard is the Sweden model which will haunt Lockdown politicos for a long time – There is a benefit to the wonton destrucion of our icons who had the cheek to live in the past where they outrageously did things differently (wonder what our retrospective moral or cultural crimes will be?) in that it has diverted Remain types effort away from the hoped for and oh so close Brexit.
Yes very true Lindsay. Look on the bright side. Don’t forget a nice cup of tea from poor enslaved downtrodden India
The Virus
With all the disinformation, misinformation and downright nonsense coming our way regarding the Chinese Communist Party virus one thing is clear. Yes the disease is very real and dangerous but there very definitely is an agenda.
And if we think that agenda may be aimed at keeping the lockdown going and doing maximum economic damage we’d probably be right. The discussion will soon be not be on how many people you know that died, but how many you know that lost their jobs.
That’s why we should all take notice when they let something slip.
Nothing shows our politicians lack of everything than their abition to get back to where we were before CV.
I know we have Brexit.
Tomake a real ( and potentially huge benefit. Only the politicians really push the button.
As I keep repeating TAX IS 75 % OF EVERYTHING…. And REGULATIONS 15 %
The incessant greed of Politics must be curtailed to bring British stuff compeitive again instead of fraudulent.