Fisheries
Express
BREXIT negotiators are set to collide today when the issue of fishing rights takes centre stage during crunch talks in London. Meanwhile, in Brussels, President of the European Parliament David Sassoli has warned any attempt to change the withdrawal agreement would result in “serious consequences”. UK chief negotiator David Frost and EU opposite number Michel Barnier will continue their discussions today, with significant differences remaining between the two sides as they try and thrash out a trade deal before the end of the year. Their timetable includes six hours solely devoted to fishing rights, with access to British waters after December 31 a key sticking point. Mr Sassoli was commenting on reports that legislation due to be published by the UK Government today will seek to alter the Northern Ireland protocol which aims to prevent a hard border with the republic by leaving some goods subject to EU checks. In a post on Facebook, he said: “I am deeply concerned about the lack of progress in the withdrawal negotiation with the United Kingdom, whose sovereignty the European Union respects.
Brexit
Telegraph
A Cabinet minister has admitted that plans to change parts of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland will break the law, just hours after the head of the Government’s legal department quit in protest. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, told MPs that plans to override elements of the Withdrawal Agreement with domestic legislation would breach international law in a “very specific and limited way”. However, he insisted the Government was “fully committed” to implementing the agreement and was merely delivering on its commitments to ensure Northern Ireland enjoyed “unfettered access” to the UK’s internal market.
Mail
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis today admitted Boris Johnson’s plans to tear up part of the Brexit divorce deal will breach international law. Mr Lewis sparked an instant backlash as he said the Prime Minister’s proposals to override the Withdrawal Agreement will ‘break international law in a very specific and limited way’. Labour described the admission as ‘absolutely astonishing’ while senior Tory MPs said ‘adherence to the rule of law is not negotiable’.
Guardian
Senior Conservative MPs and a raft of legal experts have urged the government not to go ahead with plans to drive through a change to the Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland after a minister conceded it would break international law. The remarkable admission by Brandon Lewis, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, followed the resignation of the most senior legal civil servant and has raised questions over the future of justice secretary, Robert Buckland, and attorney general, Suella Braverman, both of whom have taken oaths to uphold the rule of law.
Mirror
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has confirmed that the government’s proposed changes to a Brexit agreement will break international law “in a limited way”. It came just hours after the government’s top civil servant lawyer quit – with the UK’s decision understood to have underpinned the decision. Even former Tory PM Theresa May raised concerns in the Commons over how the decision would affect the UK’s perception abroad. She said: “The UK Government signed the Withdrawal Agreement with the Northern Ireland protocol, this Parliament voted that Withdrawal Agreement into UK legislation.
Times
Boris Johnson’s decision to tear up parts of his Brexit deal damages the UK’s reputation abroad and respect for the law at home, critics claimed last night. Sir Jonathan Jones, QC, the Treasury solicitor and the government’s top legal official, resigned in protest yesterday while Theresa May led the backlash over the government’s move. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, admitted that the attempts to unilaterally interpret rules to avoid a hard border in Ireland “break international law”, but “in a very specific and limited way”.
Express
BORIS Johnson is legally entitled to dump a key section of the withdrawal agreement relating to Northern Ireland – because the EU’s negotiation strategy has breached the rules, a Tory MP has said. David Jones, MP for Clwyd West and the deputy chairman of the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) was speaking after Mr Johnson‘s spokesman said two forthcoming pieces of legislation would aim to “clarify specific elements of the Northern Ireland protocol in domestic law to remove any ambiguity”. The news has angered many in Brussels, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claiming the agreement signed last year was enshrined in international law.
Evening Standard
A controversial bill which overrides elements of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal with Brussels is set to be published, after a senior minister confirmed the plan would breach international law. The Bill, which will be tabled on Wednesday afternoon, is intended to ensure Northern Ireland can continue to enjoy unfettered access to markets in the rest of the UK. But Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told MPs the legislation would breach international law in a “very specific and limited way”.
Mail
Ministers will take new powers today to fund infrastructure projects in Scotland and Wales despite warnings it will ‘roll back devolution’. The Internal Market Bill will see Westminster take over the funding and operation of regeneration schemes currently run by the EU. Sources said this could see ministers pour funding into projects such as the proposed M4 relief road in South Wales, which was rejected by the Welsh Assembly last year on the grounds of environmental impact and cost. Infrastructure schemes are currently the preserve of the devolved administrations.
iNews
Theresa May is leading a Conservative rebellion against a move by Boris Johnson to override parts of his EU Withdrawal Agreement. The former Prime Minister warned the move would damage Britain’s reputation on the world stage and she was joined by a succession of senior Tories in condemning the plan. The row set the scene for a showdown between Mr Johnson and Tory MPs over his plans to row back on parts of the treaty signed with Brussels. Mr Johnson’s difficulty in justifying the change to the Withdrawal Agreement deepened when the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, conceded in the Commons that the move would breach international law in a “very specific and limited way”.
Express
THE SNP have made their position to Boris Johnson’s trade bill “airtight” as plans for the UK internal market Bill are set to be revealed tomorrow. The new leglisation will see measures which were previously managed by the EU return to the UK at the end of the year when the Brexit transition period expires policy areas including animal welfare, public procurement rules and environmental regulations. It will also allow UK ministers to overide elements of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in areas relating to Northern Ireland.
BBC News
Details of the UK government’s plans for policing trade between different parts of the country from next year are set to be published on Wednesday. The Internal Market Bill will set out how powers currently held by the EU will be shared out after the post-Brexit transition period ends. But it has prompted a row over elements which could allow minsters to modify the UK’s exit agreement. It comes as the talks over a trade deal with the EU continue in London.
Times
It will be a long journey to convince people of the benefits of a “Festival of Brexit”, its director said as the government confirmed that it was intent on ploughing £120 million into the event. The festival is due to be held in 2022 with ten large-scale projects in “different forms and spaces right across the UK” that will celebrate the country’s “creativity and innovation”. When Theresa May announced the festival in 2018, highlighting the role the 1951 Festival of Britain played in the postwar years, it was immediately dubbed the “Festival of Brexit”.
New lockdown
Telegraph
Social gatherings of more than six people are to be made illegal, Boris Johnson will announce on Wednesday after a sudden surge in coronavirus cases prompted fears of a second wave. It is the first time the Prime Minister has imposed a nationwide lockdown measure since restrictions began to be eased in May and reflects growing alarm in Government at the sharp rise in infections (see graphic below), which was followed on Tuesday by a jump in daily deaths. Mr Johnson will hold his first Downing Street press conference since July to say: “We need to act now to stop the virus spreading”.
Sun
BRITS face new £100 fines if they meet in groups of more than six indoors or out under tough rules to halt a second Covid wave. Boris Johnson will announce the clampdown today in his first No 10 press conference since July as cases continue to soar across the UK. The rules apply from Monday to gatherings in homes, pubs and restaurants — and could still be in force at Christmas. Currently, people only face fines for gathering in groups of more than 30. And they can only legally meet inside with one other household.
Sky News
A ban on groups of more than six people gathering in homes, parks, pubs and restaurants in England is being imposed by Boris Johnson in the biggest coronavirus crackdown since lockdown rules were eased. First offenders will be fined £100, which will double on each further repeat offence up to £3,200, the prime minister will announce in a bid to stem an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases in the UK. “We need to act now to stop the virus spreading,” Mr Johnson will declare at a Downing Street news conference, coinciding with a new government advertising campaign entitled “Hands. Face. Space.”.
Mirror
Social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal in England from Monday as the Government seeks to curb the rise in coronavirus cases. The tough new rules see the size of groups people can meet in slashed from 30 – with fines of up to £3200 for those who break the rules. The announcement came just hours after Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied the Government has “lost control” of the coronavirus pandemic, despite new cases more than doubling. For a second day running, almost 3,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded yesterday. Just a week ago, the daily total was less than 1,300.
Mail
Gatherings of more than six are being banned to try to halt a second wave of coronavirus. In his first reversal of the easing of national lockdown, Boris Johnson last night warned a surge in cases must not be allowed to get out of control. From Monday it will be illegal to assemble in groups of seven or more anywhere in England, whether indoors or out. The ‘rule of six’ is a dramatic reduction on the limit of 30 put in place on July 4. Police will be encouraged to break up larger groups and issue £100 fines, which will then double on each repeat offence up to £3,200. Only schools, workplaces and a limited number of other locations will be exempt.
Times
Social gatherings of more than six people will be banned in England under new measures designed to be easier to understand and enforce. Boris Johnson will say today that meeting in larger groups for fun will become illegal in England from Monday as ministers try to prevent a sharp increase in coronavirus cases leading to a second wave of deaths. Local curfews in areas such as Bradford are also being considered as the government seeks to emulate Belgium, which has bucked the trend of rising numbers of cases in Europe by banning people from going out at night. Stricter measures have already been enforced in Bolton, including takeaways shutting at 10pm.
Local curfew
Times
Britain’s first local curfew is being considered in Bradford as ministers look to Belgium for lessons on how to avoid a second wave. People could be banned from going out after 10pm or 11pm in hotspots under measures to tame rises in infections which are largely driven by socialising. It is understood that Bradford is being considered for a curfew after ministers required venues in Bolton to close after 10pm. Ministers have been impressed by how Belgium brought cases under control by early imposition of tough restrictions such as banning people in some cities from leaving home at night except for work or medical care.
Mail
Britain could be subjected to a nationwide curfew with businesses forced to shut from 10pm, it has been reported. Punters in Bolton were yesterday told to down their pints before they were kicked out of pubs at the dawn of a new lockdown, amid desperate efforts to stop partying young people fuelling a surge in coronavirus cases. Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced bars and restaurants in the city will only be allowed to serve takeaway and must close between 10pm and 5am.
EU
Express
WRANGLING over the European Union’s budget has been plunged into chaos by a demand for a £99.5billion (€110billion) top up to the package. Negotiators are pressed for time to conclude a final agreement on the €1.8trillion package before the end of the year. The seven-year budget, due to start in 2021, stands at over €1trillion and is bolstered by a €750billion recovery fund for pandemic-stricken regions and industries across the bloc. But European Parliament representatives have said the cash pot should be increased by another €110billion to fund scientific and education programmes. They also demanded a legally binding commitment on the introduction of new EU-wide taxes to pay for the coronavirus fund. During the three-way negotiations, European Council officials expressed concern at the requests.
Mail
The UK faces being locked out of the continent from January as EU countries look to standardise their approach to fighting the pandemic. Britons could be forced to quarantine or take Covid-19 tests when travelling to EU countries, and might even be banned from Europe as a whole if infections continue to rise. The European Commission and member states are discussing standardised ‘red to green’ colour system of country Covid levels, as well as infection rate thresholds at which to enforce a local lockdown. But the plans don’t involve the UK, which will be treated as a non-EU country when the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.
Sun
BRUSSELS threatened to disrupt food exports from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland as negotiating leverage, The Sun can reveal. The incendiary trade talks power play infuriated the UK side and helped trigger their bombshell bid to make legal changes to the Withdrawal Agreement. Trade talks were in meltdown tonight after the Northern Ireland Secretary admitted Britain will break the law to tweak the exit terms signed by Boris Johnson just last year. Brandon Lewis unleashed an international firestorm after he starkly told the Commons the UK wants to rip up a signed treaty in “a very specific and limited way”.
Vaccine
Times
A large trial of the candidate coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University has been put on hold in the United States after a volunteer suffered a possible serious adverse reaction, it was reported last night. A spokeswoman for Astrazeneca, the British drugmaker that is partnering with Oxford University, told The Times in a statement: “As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee.
TV licence
Mirror
Pensioners stepped up their fight for free TV licences today – piling pressure on the BBC’s new boss to hand them back. The National Pensioners’ Convention urged the corporation’s director-general Tim Davie to reverse the decision to strip over-75s of the £157.50-a-year lifeline. The campaign group, which has 1.5 million members, insisted funding welfare benefits should be the Government’s job. In a letter to Mr Davie, NPC general secretary Jan Shortt says: “Our main argument against making the BBC responsible for funding the free TV licence is that it is an element of a wider package of universal entitlements to supplement the poorest state pension in the economically developed world.
Planning
Times
The government’s planning reforms would lead to a 45 per cent increase in housebuilding under Tory councils outside London whereas the number of new homes in Labour areas would fall. Conservative MPs have warned Boris Johnson that a “mutant” algorithm at the heart of the planning reforms would lead to overbuilding in the southeast and “permanently disadvantage” the North and the Midlands. Under the changes, local discretion over the rate of building would be removed and central government would “distribute” an annual target, at present 337,000 a year, among councils using an algorithm.
Green motoring
Telegraph
Dedicated electric vehicle parking spaces could be painted green under plans being considered by the Government to encourage uptake ahead of the phase out of petrol and diesel cars. Giving EV drivers their own on-street parking space and installing charge points at supermarkets and tourist sites such as Stonehenge are also among suggestions in a report from the so-called ‘nudge unit’ that will be considered by Grant Shapps. The Department for Transport yesterday said it could recommend councils implement green parking spaces, which would have EV charging points and could be free or better placed than parking spots for internal combustion engine vehicles.
Royal mail
Telegraph
Royal Mail has hinted it could scrap Saturday letter deliveries in one of the biggest postal service shake-ups since the Penny Black was introduced 180 years ago. The former FTSE 100 company is considering possible changes to its governing regulations amid a scramble to focus more on parcels in the hope of making up ground lost to the likes of Amazon and DPD. Bosses warned that the firm faces a significant loss this year after coronavirus rapidly accelerated the decline in letter writing. More than one billion fewer letters were posted between March and August than in the same period last year. In a trading update published ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, the firm said that customers “still want an affordable next-day letters service”.
Guardian
Royal Mail has signalled that it may ask the regulator to drop Saturday letter deliveries, as the pandemic accelerates the long-term decline in volumes, and online shopping drives a boom in parcels. Royal Mail, which delivered 1.1bn fewer letters year-on-year in the five months to the end of August, hinted that it is likely to question whether Saturday letter deliveries should continue when it contributes its findings into what consumers need from its service to a review being conducted by postal regulator Ofcom.
Three cheers Boris has gone for broke on the WA political bit and I was really chuffed to see were Bernie spitting tacks that she considers he is taking away elements of the devolvement agreement too.
Serves her right for taking advantage of her position to try to foist a second independence referendum after it was agreed the earlier one was for a generation 30 years?.
I have heard on Sky that Boris’s WA reset plans will go to Supreme Court, ECJ and even we would have to pay penalties
Perhaps the EU does have a case, but not a moral one,they are the baddies in the mix, they are the ones seeking by stealth to impose vassalage on an independent nation or at least one struggling to regain its Sovereignty from a totalitarian state run by a set of gangsters
REMEMBER GREECE
If the EU wishes to recover its international reputation it will do well to agree to reset the WA now and do a Canada type deal as we requested, presumably then there would be no need for us to break international law.
O.M.G. I was chuckling at how well Boris and co were doing against the E.U. and at the Horror oh Horror of a senior civil serpent resigning. Was mentally hanging traitor May, (drawing and quartering her too).
THEN I find the Dictator State being clamped down again.
International Law Everyone knows about that. Its just lawyers. Attempting to pin logic on to the illlogical to impress… UDI trumps everything, is not illegal and is just No Deal…..U.D.I. Unilateral Declaration of Independence.! That s it..! . Many of the worlds countries started this way. Which is to say Sovereignty reigns
Talking about illegal between countries is wierd. I doubt if there’s one in the world that has not trashed an agreement. Trump does it daily according to undemocratic Democrats
The Cabinet Minister who said that, is a FOOL among multiple fools ..And has to be got rid of instantly and quietly. It is embarrasing. And HagMay is also embarrasing. Can she not see her sorry nasty vindictive self.
It seems to me that any deal you sign up to, you can withdraw from.
So some remoaner civil serpent has resigned, well good riddance.
The EUSSR is bent on doing us down, we owe them nothing.
Good on Boris for putting the screws on the scumbags.
When I think of the blood and treasure expended to free them from tyranny on numerous occasions my blood boils.
A plague on their houses!
Our local supermarket has recently installed EV charging points.
After the first flush of enthusiasm, they are now deserted.
The power you can put into your battery during an hours shopping is negligible.
We don’t need new houses, we need less immigration and fewer”single parents”.
Harryagain. Agreed.
I have had it with this blithering government, the total incompetence knows no bounds. The prime minister and that other utter clown Matt Hancock are the absolute pits to put it mildly. Today I will cancel my membership of the Conservative Party. I only joined this farcical party in February 2020 because I thought at last they were going to make a real change, but we are constantly going backwards. Far from instituting new lockdown measures and talk of curfews etc, we should be learning to live with Covid 19 for the foreseeable future in the absence of a vaccine. Instead this government seems keener to permanently restrict our daily lives to that of a fascist state, head down the road of totally trashing the country’s economy. I am sick to the back teeth of the entire rabble to be honest. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again we urgently need a replacement conservative party to the fake Conservative Party that are in power at the moment. They are a bl***y disgrace in what is a supposedly a democratic country. Come on Nigel for the umpteenth time, The Brexit Party needs to be urgently resurrected and it needs to be done right now. It needs to challenge this incompetent government head on and wipe the floor with them at next year’s local elections. No votes equals no councilors. It is the only thing the wretched Conservatives understand.
Don’t exaggerate.
It all depends on how likely YOU are to get the virus and the possible outcome.
Hindsight is a jolly fine thing. The government has handled the recent virus events pretty well. How well, we shall only be able to judge four or five years down the road.
The virus largely disappeared as a threat at the end of May. The mean age of deaths ascribed to Covid-19 is 80-86 across the Western world with an mean of over 2 comorbidities. The vast majority died of old age in other words.
Fathead and his creatures had the perfect opportunity to call a halt to their insane destruction of the country’s economic and social structures in June and get everything back to normal but instead doubled down.
They will be no second wave just herd immunity finally reaching the parts it was hindered in by the ludicrous lockdown. No Boris Bits being worn in shops etc. in Wales. A rise in positive tests in places but no corresponding rise in hospitalisations (formerly known as “cases”) and deaths. Same as in the muzzle countries.
Excuse me Harryagain. As a 75yr old with COPD I think I’m entitled to say ‘I will make MY OWN DECISIONS on my health and safety. I AM NOT just a statistic with no brain of my own. I AM a PERSON who deserves liberty’.
Agreed Colin Hussey. The only good thing Boris and co. have ALMOST done is a complete Brexit. Apart from that like you say they seem determined to destroy the economy and impose a fascist dictatorship.
Pauline Baxter :L It looks as though we may not retain control of our armed forces which are still being wound down and demoralised I understand (in preparation for being sucked under single EU control: ; the parachute regiment is already now under EU control,; there is a photo of them wearing horrible sinister black masks bearing the EU logo. . And the EU Arrest Warrant will I predict remain along with other EU Criminal Justice nasties such as EU Public Prosecutor and EU Gendarmerie force access to Britain In my book that is nothing like a almost/near -complete Brexit. The Tories have cunningly kept attention on trade, fish, N Ireland all of which vital of course. But unless we retain/regain control over armed forces or criminal law , then we have been sold down the river. On top of which as you say, fascist dictatorship and a ruined economy. They are serving the globalist agenda to the letter; I would bever have expected otherwise.
PS I suggest also, viewing around 19.23 on today’s UK Column where Brian Gerrish asks: why , if we’re supposed to be leaving the EU, the EU Regional Development Fund is pouring money into an advert promoting his home town Plymouth as the best place to shop ? The answer being that the EU plan to chop Britain up into bite size chunks for the EU to swallow proceeds apace.
Sorry a Minister openly saying in Parliament we are going “to break international law” even in a small way will not end well (why would he say that even if it is the “truth”! ). Will it get a majority in the Remain Commons even with a 80 majority? The Supreme Court are “waiting” to give their views when the Remain lawyers bring to them! I despair!
Unless I have got the wrong end of the stick.
I understand this is only intended as as preventative legislation to remove an anomaly from the WA in the event of our leaving in the E U in a No Deal eventuality.
In my book putting legislation on the statute book now is not actually breaking International law at the moment
As I also understand it this and other anomalies we have discovered smuggled into the WA by the EU scribes actually mean we leave in name only, a situation I remember Mrs May herself describing as “half in half out” and into the bargain which she was not prepared to allow under any circumstances. It is iniquitous that she should be whining now that this government is acting illegally in trying to right these wrongs
That the EU negotiators should be using these outright cons as a form of blackmail ( oh sorry leverage) is despicable
I would expect on reflection that they would not like it put about for their International Reputation that they set out to negotiate and enforce an agreement that left them in possession of the field, but the victim in a worse position FOREVER as a vassal state with absolute no say in any aspect of the tyrants control.
I have heard rumours that the EU intends to sideline their Chief Negotiator, I don’t suppose he was the architect of this infamy, but certainly deserves to be the fall guy for the highly necessary U turn that must come from the head of the EU commission and the President of the EU “Parliament” who on reflection will value their already low international reputation much more than their desire to make a vassal state of a rightly fully independent nation.
I know this political reversal won’t end there, because it will make them even more determined to ensure we do not prosper, nor be able to operate our rightful position in the world in full stature alongside their abominable totalitarian state.
If anybody disagrees all I say is “REMEMBER GREECE”!!!
And PTS stop spreading alarm and despondency, we’re at the run in and the peasants will WIN