News review – Wednesday 19 May 2012 

Northern Ireland 

Express
BREXIT mastermind Lord David Frost has poured cold water on hopes of a breakthrough with respect to the Northern Ireland Protocol – warning of a “significant” gap between the UK and the EU on the issue.
Meanwhile Cabinet ministers are locked in a row on a £20bn trade deal with Australia which is just weeks away from being finalised. Speaking to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee, the Cabinet Minister said it was unlikely that Britain and the European Union will reach a so-called equivalence arrangement for food to ease trade between Britain and Northern Ireland. He added: “I think the discussions are not over, I think there is a pretty significant difference between the two conceptions that may in the end make it difficult to reach agreement but we keep trying.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Eustice and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove were at loggerheads with International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Brexit minister Lord Frost over granting tariff-free access to Australian farmers under any proposed deal. 

Express
EDWIN POOTS, the new DUP leader, has called on the UK Government to “go it alone” if necessary to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol.
In his first interview since the leadership election, Mr Poots claimed that maintaining a Brexit border in the Irish Sea is “playing fast and loose with the peace process”. He also claimed that when the Protocol is fully implemented later this year, there would be 15,000 checks on goods weekly.
Mr Poots explained this would have “an impact on every home in Northern Ireland”.
The Protocol was part of the post-Brexit deal agreed between the UK and EU, which means the bloc’s rules governing trade in goods still apply in Northern Ireland.
This has created a trade border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Mr Poots said: “They are playing fast and loose with the peace process and that is hugely regrettable. 

EU 

Express
EU MEMBERS have been warned the UK is “closely monitoring” the treatment of British nationals amid concerns some countries are failing to live up to the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
Lord Forst has told a meeting of the House of Lords EU Committee that members of the bloc have been slow to roll out ID cards that would enable British nationals to prove entitlement to residency rights. Lord Frost argued the failure of the EU to fix the problem has meant some Brits living in Europe have been blocked from accessing health services and benefits. He argued some members states were saddling ex-pats with “overburdensome” amounts of paperwork following Brexit.
Lord Frost told peers that the UK government was “closely monitoring” the situation.
He said “If there are problems and there have been problems and they are reducing but problems do still exist in some countries.
“We obviously take that up with the government of that country and we will also raise them in the joint committee,” added Lord Frost.
The Brexit minister continued: “It must be understood that if an EU government does not fulfil its responsibilities under the Withdrawal Agreement then the EU collectively is not fully abiding by the conditions of that withdrawal agreement.” 

Evening Standard
British travellers are to be given the green light by the EU to use vaccine passports to enter Europe.
EU ambassadors will meet on Wednesday and are expected to sign off on a plan that will allow those who are fully vaccinated to fly to Europe from the UK without having to have a Covid test or quarantine, the Telegraph reports.
The UK is also expected to be included on an extended EU “green list”, which will permit holiday travel from non-EU countries with Covid infection rates below 100 cases per 100,000 of the population, rather than the current 25 per 100,000.
If the ambassadors reach an agreement, the decision will be formally adopted at the EU trade ministers council on Thursday, the paper states. 

Express
JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker has said he sent a stern warning to Switzerland during his tenure as president of the European Commission while London and Brussels were locked in intense talks to secure a deal.
The former EU boss revealed his message to the land-locked nation during an interview with Swiss channel SRF News. His comments come as Switzerland and the club of nations are deadlocked in talks centred on a framework agreement designed to bring the country closer to the bloc.
While not a member of the trading bloc, the landlocked nation is eager to expand its relations with the 27 member states.
Mr Juncker said while he led the Commission he reached out to the Swiss to tell them they would do better to take their eyes off the Brexit ball in the hope of gaining some small benefits for themselves. 

Social distancing 

Telegraph
Plans for easing social distancing rules were said to be in “disarray” on Tuesday amid concerns that pubs and restaurants may still have to serve at limited capacity after June 21.
Government insiders told The Telegraph that the public may have to wait until June 14 – almost four weeks away – to hear what will change after announcements due next week were delayed. 
Hospitality industry bosses now fear pubs and restaurants will be made to continue to follow the “one metre plus” rule, table service requirements and ban on standing at the bar into July.
Such a move could have a major financial impact on firms which, even with indoor dining open again, can only on average operate at just 60 per cent full capacity.
The new uncertainty comes after cases of the Indian variant of Covid, which are soaring in some parts of the country, forced ministers to reconsider reopening plans.
Boris Johnson offered words of reassurance on Tuesday, saying he had not yet seen anything “conclusive” in the Covid data to force back the final stage of England’s reopening on June 21. 

Indian variant 

Mirror
More than 100 flights have arrived in the UK directly from India since the country was placed on the red list, it has emerged.
The measure came into force on April 23, but was not accompanied by a ban on direct flights, with 110 touching down in the three-and-a-half weeks since, analysis by LBC found.
On top of this, 16 flights arrived in the gap between the move being announced and coming into force three days later.
India was placed on the red list following the emergence of the variant which is believed to be far more transmissible than the Kent strain.
Flights are also permitted from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, which are also red listed – meaning people arriving from these countries must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
This is despite direct flights being banned from other countries where new variants emerged, including Brazil and South Africa. 

Mail
More than 100 direct flights from India have landed in the UK since the covid-ravaged Asian country was placed on the Government’s banned list of countries last month, it has emerged.
This means that up to 8,000 travellers have flown in from the subcontinent despite concern over an Indian covid variant that threatens to undermine the easing of the national lockdown. 
Flights from India have continued to land in Britain at a rate of 4.5 per day in the three and a half weeks since the Asian country was added to the UK’s red list of destinations, according to an analysis of flight data by LBC.
Though the UK has banned direct flights from 11 other red list nations including Brazil and South Africa, it did not adopt a similar policy when India was placed on the list. Direct flights into the UK are also allowed from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, both red list countries. 
Scenes of arrivals from red list and amber list countries piling into Heathrow yesterday and all queueing with each other have sparked calls from Labour to toughen up the UK border, with Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth today branding the borders ‘about as secure as a sieve’ during the pandemic.
Ministers are being accused of sowing ‘mass confusion’ over global travel as the Government’s traffic light policy descended into farce – with Environment Secretary George Eustice suggesting trips to amber countries to see friends and family were acceptable, before being overruled by Boris Johnson just hours later.     

Evening Standard
The Indian Covid variant in Britain appears not to spread at the feared most alarming rate which could have sparked a huge third Covid-19 wave in Britain, a leading expert said today.
Professor Neil Ferguson said the B1.617.2 mutation is believed to have a “significant growth advantage” over other coronavirus variants, but this “magnitude seems to have dropped a little bit”.
Confirmed cases of this variant have soared in Bolton, Bedford, Blackburn and other communities.
Scientists warned that if it was 50 per cent more transmissable than the Kent variant it could trigger a very large third wave of infections in the UK, but if it was 20 or 30 per cent more it would be easier to contain given the high level of vaccinations.
Prof Ferguson, the Imperial College London expert whose work led to the first lockdown in March 2020, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s a glimmer of hope from the recent data that whilst this variant does still appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that advantage seems to have dropped a little bit with the most recent data. 

Mail
The Indian Covid variant has already overtaken the Kent strain in 23 English local authorities and has spread to 40 per cent of the country, positive test data revealed today as Boris Johnson desperately tried to play down fears that the June 21 ‘freedom day’ could be ditched because of the strain. 
Analysis of samples from people infected with Covid has revealed that by the week ending May 8, the variant accounted for eight in 10 cases in hotspots Bolton, Blackburn with Darwen, Sefton and Bedford, as well as in Chelmsford in Essex and Croydon in London.
Data suggests it is also dominant – accounting for more than half of all positive tests – in Nottingham, West Lancashire, Stevenage, Oadby and Wigston, South Northamptonshire, Broxbourne, Hillingdon, Brent, Camden, Hounslow, Greenwich, Bromley, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Canterbury, Rushmoor and Hart.  
Despite the worrying development, the Prime Minister stressed that the roadmap out of  lockdown is currently unchanged with the government sifting through emerging data about the fast-spreading strain.
But he appeared to shift his language slightly by saying there is not yet ‘conclusive’ evidence that the roadmap will need to be altered and said things would be clearer in a ‘few days’. 
‘We are looking at the epidemiology the whole time as it comes in and, at the moment, partly because we have built up such a wall of defences with the vaccination programme, I don’t see anything conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the road map,’ he said.
‘But we’ve got to be cautious and we are keeping everything under very close observation. We’ll know a lot more in a few days’ time.’  

Telegraph
A member of Independent Sage who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications. 
Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group, specialises in racial equality and has been involved with various government-commissioned reports on welfare issues.
In an interview with Good Morning Britain, she said the Government should have stalled the latest stage of the roadmap out of lockdown. 
“We didn’t pass test four – test four of the Government’s roadmap said that if we think that there’s any further risk from new variants of concern, we should stall – they completely ignored that and have gone ahead,” she said. 
She went on to criticise Matt Hancock for his recent comments indicating vaccine hesitancy may be behind the rise in Covid-19 hospitalisations in Bolton, one of the Indian variant hotspots. 
“This whole notion that, that at the moment, everyone’s freedom is threatened because of vaccine hesitancy groups is absolute nonsense,” Dr Haque said.
It was one of Dr Haque’s many TV interviews and newspaper columns since the pandemic began, ranging in scope from vaccine passports and the reopening of schools to financial support for low-paid workers needing to self-isolate. 

Eurostar 

Telegraph
Emmanuel Macron has bowed to Boris Johnson by stumping up French taxpayer cash to lead a bailout for Eurostar.
The French government and Eurostar’s other shareholders will stump up £200m to rescue the Channel Tunnel rail operator, with Britain not paying a penny or providing any loan guarantees, The Telegraph can reveal.
Shareholders, led by the French state-backed rail operator SNCF, injected £50m of new equity into the business; £150m of shareholder loans; and restructured a £50m loan from lenders including NatWest. 
Jacques Damas, chief executive, said: “The refinancing agreement is the key factor enabling us to increase our services as the situation with the pandemic starts to improve.”
Eurostar was on the brink of collapse earlier this year after passenger numbers slumped 95pc following travel restrictions introduced during the pandemic. 
French ministers and Eurostar bosses appealed for the UK Government to step in and inject tens of millions of pounds into the business amid concerns it was running out of cash.  

Farming 

BBC News
Older farmers will be paid to retire under a UK government scheme to bring new blood into the trade.
The average farmer could receive a lump sum payment of £50,000 – capped at £100,000 for farmers with most land.
It is part of a massive overhaul of farm grants, incentivising farmers to protect the environment.
Older farmers are often most resistant to new “green” methods, and Environment Secretary George Eustice wants them to move on.
Currently, under the old EU system, farmers receive grants based largely on the amount of land they farm.
The average farmer currently receives about £21,000 in grants – although large landowners, such as the Queen, have been receiving more than half a million pounds each year. 

Express
A FARMERS’ union warned of a “car crash in the countryside” if the UK pushed ahead with a wide zero-tariff trade deal with Australia which could mean the end of many farmers who can not compete.
National Farmers’ Union President Minette Batters said she was given “personal” assurance that the Government would put in place checks and balances on the planned trade deal with Australia to protect British farmers. There are concerns that British farmers, especially those who sell meat, will not be able to compete with cheaper Australian agriculture which could potentially sign a death sentence for British farming. Ms Batters said Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would do his best to avoid that from happening as ministers are reportedly locked into a “ferocious” battle behind the scenes over the pivotal post-Brexit deal.
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Ms Batters discussed the concerns that she and her fellow farmers have about the Australian trade deal. 
Ms Batters revealed: “I’ve had assurances from members of the cabinet that is what they will do this is, of course, four nations.
“It’s not just about England so you have to look at those four nations as a whole.
“We want to do a trade deal with Australia but we’ve got to look at where there are areas of sensitivity and I very much hope that they will stick to their long-term much-publicised commitment to the farmers of this country. 

Times
Boris Johnson is prepared to offer Australia tariff-free access to British food markets despite warnings that it could put farmers out of business.
The prime minister is backing a plan to give Australian food exporters the same terms as those enjoyed by the European Union in what would be the first bespoke trade deal signed by the government since Brexit.
The plan is being resisted by farming groups, which believe that it would set a dangerous precedent for future trade agreements and could result in British farmers struggling to compete with cheap imports.
They have been backed by George Eustice, the environment secretary, and Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, who have privately expressed reservations about the deal. 

Telegraph
Boris Johnson has been warned that the opportunities of Brexit are at stake amid a major Cabinet row over the Australia free trade deal. 
Ahead of a crunch meeting tomorrow, senior ministers are split over the issue of granting Australian farmers zero-tariff access, amid fears that lamb and beef imports could harm the British farming industry. 
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, is fighting to extend a transition period  – during which tariffs would gradually reduce to zero – from 10 to 15 years in order to shield British farmers and give them more time to adjust.
He is also said to favour maintaining tariff rate quotas, which would only allow a certain quantity of Australian imports to benefit from lower tariffs. 
He is backed Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, along with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, who fear a backlash from Scottish beef and Welsh lamb farmers.
However, allies of Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, have hit back at Mr Eustice, claiming that a failure to agree terms could scupper future deals with the US and other major economies, in turn squandering the opportunities of Brexit. 
One source questioned why Mr Eustice had voted to leave the EU if he intended to resort to protectionism, while another accused him and Mr Gove in The Sun  of being “more Waitrose than Redwall.”
Ms Truss is backed by Lord Frost, the former Brexit negotiator and minister in charge of EU relations, as well as Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, who warned that a failure to strike an agreement with Australia would make other deals “very challenging.”