Saturday papers – 7 November 2020

Fisheries

The Express thinks Boris will sell our fishermen out.

BORIS JOHNSON has been warned the UK will blink first on fishing and sell out the industry to the European Union the closer the two sides get to the transition period deadline without a post-Brexit trade deal in place.
The negotiating teams, led by David Frost and Michel Barnier, have been locked in crunch talks for the past two weeks in a desperate bid to make a breakthrough and meet the mid-November deadline for an agreement to be in place. But no breakthrough had been made, particularly on fishing, with both sides giving major hints over the possibility and preference of a no deal outcome. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Mr Barnier had said “very serious divergences” remained in trade talks with Britain following the latest round of negotiations in Brussels on Wednesday.

Brexit

Elsewhere in Brexit, the Guardian reports that Boris and Ursula will talk today.

Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will hold talks on Saturday before a potentially decisive week in the Brexit negotiations, amid growing concern in Brussels at the lack of progress.
UK sources played down expectations of a breakthrough moment but with time short for parliamentary ratification the phonecall may prove to be the final chance for a political intervention in the troubled talks.
“The prime minister will speak to [Von der Leyen] tomorrow afternoon to take stock of the UK-EU negotiations,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
Johnson said he hoped a trade deal with the EU could be agreed, but the UK was well prepared if final-stage talks failed. “I very much hope that we will [get a deal], and obviously that depends on our friends and partners across the Channel. I think there is a deal to be done if they want to do it. If not, the country is of course very, very well prepared and as I have said before, we can do very, very well on Australian terms.”

The chat has been confirmed by Downing Street says ITV News.

Downing Street said a phone conversation between Boris Johnson and the president of the European Commission would allow the leaders to “take stock” of the negotiations.
The Prime Minister is due to speak to his Brussels counterpart Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday to discuss the state-of-play in the deadlocked trade talks.
Briefings between the two leaders are seen as key moments in the cross-Channel bartering, with their conversation last month seeing discussions “intensified” before a fallout after the European Council meeting on October 15 briefly derailed the negotiations.

The Express calls them ‘crunch’ talks.

BORIS Johnson will hold crunch Brexit talks with Ursula von der Leyen in the hope of breaking the deadlock in the trade talks between Britain and the European Union.
The two leaders will speak on Saturday ahead of the next round of wrangling over post-Brexit future relationship. They will discuss the “state of play on the EU-UK negotiations”, according to Mrs von der Leyen’s chief spokesman. And on Friday a UK Government spokesman said: “The Prime Minister will speak to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this tomorrow to take stock of the UK-EU negotiations.”
Britain doesn’t expect the video-call to usher in a last-minute compromise as both sides head towards a no-deal Brexit.

But City AM claims Boris will go for ‘no deal’ if the talks fail.

The prime minister said today he hoped a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union could be agreed, but the country was well prepared if final-stage talks with the bloc did not succeed.
“I very much hope that we will [get a deal], and obviously that depends on our friends and partners across the Channel,” Boris Johnson told broadcasters this evening.
“I think there is a deal to be done if they want to do. If not, the country is of course very, very well prepared and as I have said before, we can do very, very well on Australian terms.”

EU

There’s friction within the bloc, reports the Express.

ANGELA MERKEL’s protégé Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has “directly attacked” French President Emmanuel Macron, casting aside years of Franco-German convergence on foreign policy and security, a new report claims.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the European Union that it must be more realistic in accepting Britain’s negotiating position in fishing and trade talks. Earlier this month, Mrs Merkel said Brussels had to accept that any deal must be in the interests of both the UK and the EU. It is widely believed the German Chancellor will play an influential role in brokering any UK-EU trade agreement in the coming weeks.

And mini-Manny has conceded that his country is breeding terrorists, says Breitbart.

French president Emmanuel Macron has said there are “breeding grounds for terrorists in France”, in his latest remarks regarding Islamist ideology following two terror attacks in his nation.
Writing in the Financial Times, the centrist French premier said that while France is not fighting against Islam, it is battling “Islamist separatism”, which is antithetical to the secular values of the French Republic.
Mr Macron remarked that since 2015, it was “clear” that “there are breeding grounds for terrorists in France”.

Remembrance

On the eve of Remembrance Sunday, the Telegraph reports a government edict to councils telling them to stop us remembering the fallen.

The Government has ordered councils to “discourage” the public from attending Remembrance Sunday events, amid mounting criticism after it banned veterans from standing inside.
According to current Government guidance, local authorities in England can organise events at a “public war memorial or cenotaph” as long as they are held outdoors, are short, numbers are kept to a minimum and those in attendance observe social distancing measures.
However, as local authorities prepare to mark Remembrance Sunday, the Government issued a warning to “be mindful” of the risk of spreading Covid-19 that commemorative events can cause.
The guidance said: “Members of the public are legally permitted to stop and watch the event as spectators, but event organisers should take reasonable steps to discourage the public from attending events, and be mindful of the risk that such events pose, especially to veterans who are often elderly.”

The Mail reports criticism of the government’s instructions.

The Government has ordered local councils to ‘discourage’ the public from attending Remembrance Sunday events this coming weekend due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Its order comes amid mounting criticism aimed at No.10 after it banned veterans from standing inside.
Current Government guidance states that local authorities in England can hold events at a ‘public war memorial or cenotaph’ providing they are outdoors, numbers are kept to a minimum, social distancing is observed and they are kept short.

London

The stats show Covid infections are falling in the capital, reports Yahoo News.

Tory MPs are lobbying Boris Johnson to get London out of lockdown and into Tier 1 as official figures show Covid-19 cases falling in 21 boroughs, the Evening Standard reveals today.
They are urging No10 to dramatically ease restrictions in the capital if the virus is brought under control by the end of lockdown on December 2.
However, they also stressed that Londoners should follow lockdown rules to reduce infection levels and that hospitalisations were still rising, which will inevitably lead to more deaths in coming weeks.

And the mayor is throwing his toys out of his pram, says the Express.

SADIQ KHAN has demanded the removal of a fact-checking website which accuses him of “bankrupting” Transport for London (TfL) through “out-of-control” waste.
The furious London Mayor said the site was “masquerading” as a fact-checking source and accused its publishers of “peddling fake news”. The Transport for London Bailout Facts website does not carry Conservative branding but describes itself as being published on behalf of Tory mayor candidate Shaun Bailey and gives the party’s campaign HQ’s address.
The site attacks Mr Khan’s management of TfL in the wake of a second £1.8bn bail-out from the Government.

Lockdown

And it’s not only London where the numbers are dropping, says the Mail.

Downing Street today refused calls for England’s second lockdown to be cut short and insisted it will run until December 2, despite four more sets of real-world data that show the second wave was already shrinking before the Government pushed the panic button on a drastic month-long shutdown.
Promising figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – which runs a massive government surveillance scheme that randomly swabs tens of thousands of people to track the size of the outbreak – suggest that the country’s coronavirus outbreak has shrunk.
It estimated the number of people getting infected each day dropped 12 per cent in a week from 51,900 to 45,700 in the seven-day spell ending on October 31 – the same day Boris Johnson announced the country was heading into another economically-crippling lockdown.

The Evening Standard reports the government’s admission that the graphs that lead to lockdown were wrong.

Downing Street has admitted there was a mistake in graphs that showed deaths during the second wave of coronavirus could soon surge beyond the first peak.
Graphs used during Boris Johnson’s press conference on Saturday showed predictions of 1,500 deaths a day by early December.
The Government has since found “an error” in the graphs that made the numbers too high, and amended them to reduce the worst case scenario to just under 1,000 deaths a day.

There have been protests, says the Telegraph.

The second lockdown has come under immediate threat from angry protesters, with almost 200 arrests made in London and university students tearing down fencing in Manchester.
As many as 16 anti-lockdown protests are planned for this weekend in England as police vowed to crack down on anybody flouting the new Covid-19 restrictions.
Police made 190 arrests on Thursday night as they disrupted a demonstration in the centre of the capital, in which protesters chanted “freedom” and “no more lockdown” as they marched towards Trafalgar Square. A splinter group that had gathered in Oxford Street in the West End was also broken up.

The Express calls Whitty and Valance ‘anoraks’.

IT BEGGARS belief that a pair of anoraks like Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance – who terrified the nation with data they knew was FOUR weeks out of date – have effectively plunged the country into a second lockdown.
And their fantasy-land models and projections – fancy words for guesswork – have irreparably damaged the economy and consigned thousands of businesses to ruinous oblivion. How dare these scientists try to baffle us with a tsunami of wildly inaccurate information, insisting this virus is out of control and hospitals all over Britain are rammed to the gunnels with Covid patients when it isn’t true. In the week Whitty and Vallance said 4,000 people a day could die and that infections rates were soaring, we discovered the R rate had actually dropped to just above one and there are many areas where infection rates are either static or falling.

And the Sun says they should be sacked.

BORIS Johnson is under growing pressure to sack Sir Patrick Vallance after doomsday data used to order another lockdown turned out to be wrong.
Labour and Tory MPs said confidence in the chief scientific adviser was shattered.
A graph shown at last Saturday’s press conference said England would be hit by up to 1,500 Covid deaths a day by early December.
But Government scientists admitted an error in the modelling overegged the numbers.

The Mail refers back to the Iraq ‘dodgy dossier’.

The Government and its scientific advisers were lambasted today for using ‘dodgy coronavirus data’ to justify a devastating second lockdown.
Tory MPs warned SAGE‘s doomsday predictions – wheeled out by Boris Johnson on Saturday night to announce the draconian measures – had echoes of the controversial dossier that sent Britain to war with Iraq.
It emerged last night a graph brandished at the same gloomy press conference that claimed England could see up to 1,500 Covid-19 deaths a day by December had been secretly toned down ‘after an error was found’ in the data.

Second wave

There is even talk that the second wave has passed its peak, says the Sun.

BRITAIN may have already passed the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 and should be in “good shape” by December, experts said last night.
Daily infections are down on a week ago, while the national R-rate also remains stable across the last seven days.
A survey by the Office for National Statistics also suggests new infections are falling — while Public Health England data showed cases dropped in more than half of the country’s local authorities.
The findings will be a major boost to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s hopes of  ending the lockdown on December 2.

Vaccine

GPs could be asked to work over Christmas, says the Sun.

GPs could dole out the Covid vaccine on Christmas and Boxing Day under plans to protect millions of Brits quickly.
Family doctors are being primed to offer the jab seven days a week between 8am and 8pm.
Every major city will also get a dedicated mass Covid vaccination centre to speed up roll-out.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to outline plans next week for dozens to be readied, with the aim to deliver more than 100,000 jabs daily.
They will be backed by 3,000 mobile units, while teams will visit care homes and the vulnerable.

It’s all to do with getting the vaccine out, says the Mail.

GPs could offer a Covid vaccine on Christmas and Boxing Day in a rapid roll-out plan to protect the NHS, according to a report.
Doctors are being readied to inoculate other medics and the most vulnerable Britons seven days a week over midwinter.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will put forward plans next week for dozens of vaccine centres so that more than 100,000 people can have a jab every day, The Sun reported.
Another 3,000 mobile units will speed across the nation to deliver the cure to care homes and those in high-risk categories.

Travel ban

Meanwhile, the virus is reported by the Telegraph to have mutated in Denmark, stopping travel between the two countries.

Travel between Denmark and the UK was banned on Saturday morning to prevent the spread of a mutated Covid virus from mink that scientists fear could counter the effectiveness of a vaccine.
The ban is the first of its kind in the UK since the start of the pandemic and follows the discovery of a mutated form of coronavirus, which can spread to humans, in Danish mink farms.
Visitors from Denmark arriving in the UK from 4am on Saturday  will be denied entry while British Nationals, visa holders and permanent residents who have travelled to Denmark in the last 14 days will have to self-isolate along with their household.

And that leaves just two places we can travel to without self-isolating, reports Yahoo News.

Only two restriction-free options are available to British holidaymakers, as the travel map continues to shrink.
Greece and Gibraltar remain after Germany and Sweden saw their travel corridors with the UK removed yesterday by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. Passengers arriving after 4am on Saturday will need to self-isolate for two weeks when they get home.
And overnight the travel corridor with Denmark was also scrapped following widespread outbreak of coronavirus in Danish mink farms, with a mutated strain of the virus passing to humans.

The development could hit vaccine production, says the Mail.

Britain will close its borders with Denmark amid fears a Covid mutation spreading from mink to humans could derail the race to a vaccine.
The full implications of the new strain are not yet known – but the Danish prime minister warned it could pose a ‘risk to the effectiveness’ of a future Covid-19 vaccine.
Denmark has already ordered a cull of its 17 million mink.
The country was initially dropped from the UK’s travel corridor list in the early hours of Thursday – but following emergency talks yesterday, ministers decided on the unprecedented step of blocking all arrivals from Denmark.
Recent arrivals will be told to self-isolate immediately, and their contacts traced as a matter of urgency.

Testing

The mass testing of Liverpudlians is criticised by the Mail.

England’s first city-wide mass-swabbing scheme was branded a ‘shambles’ by the people of Liverpool today who claimed they were forced to mingle in hour-long queues with potentially infected Covid-19 patients.
The Merseyside city – once the nation’s coronavirus hotspot – today began offering rapid Covid-19 tests to all 500,000 of its residents in the first major step forward for No10’s ambitious ‘Operation Moonshot’. Everyone is being encouraged to get tested, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.

It’s a mess, says the Guardian.

The UK’s first mass Covid testing trial in Liverpool risks being “an expensive mess that does more harm than good”, health experts said as it got under way on Friday.
Six new testing centres opened their doors to Liverpudlians at midday on Friday as part of the government’s Operation Moonshot drive to eventually test up to 10 million people a day.
Huge queues had formed before some of the centres had opened, indicating significant early demand.

BLM

A non-political organisation has praised the black movement, reports the Mail.

The National Trust chairman has controversially defended Black Lives Matter  (BLM) despite its radically left-wing and anti-police agenda.
Tim Parker described the campaign as a ‘human rights movement with no party political affiliations’ in a statement that risks alienating the Trust’s 5.6 million members.
His view came in a letter written in response to a National Trust report which found a third of its sites had ties to the ‘sometimes uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history.’
The UK strand of the Black Lives Matter movement has repeatedly drawn criticism for its radical left-wing objectives to ‘dismantle’ capitalism and abolish the police.

Smart meters

Are we to be pressured into installing smart meters?  The Telegraph says maybe.

Households could face pressure to get a smart meter, experts have warned, because firms face fines for missing their roll out targets.
Energy regulator Ofgem launched an investigation on Friday into Scottish Power’s compliance with smart meter targets in 2019.
Under the Government’s smart meter programme, firms must take all reasonable steps to give the devices to all homes and small businesses by next June. Suppliers negotiate their own annual targets with the regulator and face enforcement if they fail to meet them.