Trade talks
Now that the government’s Withdrawal Bill has had its second reading in the House of Commons, attention moves towards the forthcoming trade negotiations. The Guardian reports:
Boris Johnson appeared to sidestep accusations from European leaders that he is on course to deliver a “harder Brexit”.
The prime minister is expected to have combative trade talks in the new year after ruling out adhering to Brussels’ rules after 2020 when the transition period ends.
The talks can only begin after Brexit on 31 January in a period which in effect freezes the UK’s EU membership until the end of 2020.
He altered his Brexit bill this week to make it unlawful for the government to extend the trade talks into 2021, giving negotiators an unprecedented 11 months to reach a free-trade agreement.
The Evening Standard claims Boris will talk tough.
Boris Johnson appeared to set himself on a collision course with the European Union in trade talks after ruling out adhering to Brussels rules after Brexit.
A huge majority of 124 votes for the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill at its second reading in the Commons on Friday means the UK is on its way to finalising its divorce from Brussels by the January 31 deadline.
But opposing views on both sides of the Channel mean that the Prime Minister is set for a combative 11-months of trade talks when UK and EU teams sit down to negotiate from February.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned that Mr Johnson looked to be embarked on a “harder Brexit than we anticipated” and said he feared the UK wanted to “undercut” Europe on food, health and product safety after it exits.
Conservative Party leader Mr Johnson told MPs on Friday that the “oven was on” when it came to delivering Brexit next year but said there would be “no alignment” to EU rules once the transition period ends in 2020.
The Guardian also covers trade talks with the US.
The US has banned mention of the climate crisis in trade talks with the UK, an analysis of leaked documents has revealed.
In negotiating a trade deal, the UK acknowledges that there will be pressure to ensure that any agreement meets its climate commitments. But to the anger of environment groups, analysis of a 451-page dossier leaked last month confirms that the Trump administration has told the UK that the climate crisis cannot be mentioned.
“The fact that the US has banned even the mention of climate change says it all,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, which first drew attention to the dossier’s existence. “Trump is a climate [change] denier, and any US deal is going to make it much harder for Britain to meet its already tepid commitments.”
Speaker
A world away from biased Bercow, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has promised to be impartial. The Telegraph says he’ll allow a great bell to herald the UK’s escape from the EU.
The new Commons Speaker has said he would allow Big Ben to ring out to mark Brexit, as he pledged not to let his political views cloud his decisions.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said the great bell in Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower should be rung on Jan 31 if MPs “wish to do that”, stating that the UK’s formal departure from the EU on Jan 31 will be a “significant moment”.
His comments mark a significant break from the approach of his predecessor, who, since stepping down has described Brexit as Britain’s biggest mistake since the Second World War. Last year a committee chaired by Mr Bercow blocked a bid for Big Ben to chime on the UK’s originally intended exit date of March 29 2019.
More than 50 MPs have now signed an early day motion calling for Big Ben to ring out at 11pm on Jan 31. The bell is housed in Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, which is currently being refurbished.
The Times says he will not prohibit it.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the new Speaker of the House of Commons, has said he will allow Big Ben to bong for Brexit on the day Britain leaves the EU.
Hoyle said he would not personally intervene to stop the bell being rung from parliament’s Elizabeth Tower. Last year a similar request was turned down by a committee headed by the former Speaker, John Bercow.
More than 50 MPs have signed an early day motion demanding Big Ben chime at 11pm on January 31 to mark the moment the UK departs the bloc. It is currently not being rung in order to protect workers refurbishing the tower.
A campaign by more than 50 MPs has persuaded him, says the Sun.
BIG Ben will break its silence – and bong on Brexit day.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has over-ruled his Remainer predecessor John Bercow and given permission for the famous bill to mark Britain’s EU departure on January 31.
He gave the order after a plea from more than 50 MPs to mark the historic occasion.
Sir Lindsay has now ruled Brexit day is added to the list of special occasions for which the Great Bell tolls – along with New Year’s Day and Remembrance Sunday.
The bell has been silenced since August 2017 while the 160-year-old Elizabeth Tower, which houses it, undergoes a £60 million restoration.
A lift is being installed in the tower, while the clock hands and numbers are being re-painted in their original blue.
The hourly chimes have been silenced to protect the hearing of construction workers in the tower and only sound at moments of national significance.
The renovation work is expected to last for four years, meaning there will be no regular bongs until 2021.
Home office
Looks like some Whitehall offices are in for a revamp, says the Mail.
Home Secretary Priti Patel would be handed control of sentencing powers under a radical shake-up of Whitehall being drawn up.
The move to give responsibility for prisons and parole conditions to Ms Patel – who once advocated the return of the death penalty – follows a series of rows over the release of London Bridge killer Usman Khan and plans to free black cab rapist John Worboys.
No 10 is also looking to strip the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government of responsibility for ‘community cohesion’ amid concerns that anti-radicalisation measures need to be ‘toughened up’, with the Home Office taking over.
The plans are likely to form part of wider reforms being drawn up by Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings, including creating a standalone department to manage borders and immigration.
Labour Party
Following the party’s terrible GE result, the blame-game is well under way, says the Times.
The Labour Party’s leadership contenders may have radically different ideas for the party’s future. But they share at least one belief: Jeremy Corbyn’s closest aides, Karie Murphy and Seumas Milne, are culpable for the party’s catastrophic general election result.
Like Corbyn, neither Murphy, a Scottish former nurse, nor Milne, a Winchester and Oxford-educated journalist, was prepared to quit immediately after the defeat. And the presence at headquarters of the architects of the doomed election campaign is fuelling such resentment that it threatens to stymie the left as it seeks to “win the debate” on where the party goes next.
It appears that one of the contenders for the party leadership has been dumbing down her background, says the Mail.
Labour leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey has been embroiled in controversy over claims made about her upbringing and choice of advisers for the upcoming campaign.
The Sunday Times reports Jon Lansman, chair of the activist movement Momentum, is acting as an ‘adviser’ to the Shadow Business Secretary in her bid to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
The news is likely to anger moderates, with former Home Secretary Alan Johnson blaming Mr Lansman and Momentum for Labour’s worst general election defeat in almost 100 years.
Launching into a tirade on ITV after the exit poll was announced on election night, Mr Johnson, who was asked personally by Tony Blair to stand to be an MP, said: ‘I want Momentum gone. Go back to your student politics and your little left wing.’
Corbynism is dying, according to voters, reports the Independent.
Voters want Labour’s next leader to make a decisive break with Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda, but are not impressed by any of the potential candidates to succeed him, a new poll has revealed.
In a finding that will cast doubt over Mr Corbyn’s claims to have “won the argument” during the general election campaign, the BMG survey for The Independent found that voters think Labour must ditch its current approach to taxation, public spending and national security, and shift towards the centre ground.
The public wants the next Labour leader to abandon radical plans to raise taxes and embark on a huge public spending spree, including £500bn of borrowing to fund investment in infrastructure.
Mr Corbyn will step down early next after leading Labour to its worst general election result in 85 years. Despite his party losing 59 seats, he insisted that Labour had “won the argument”.
EU
European peasants are revolting, says the Express.
PROTESTS against the EU erupted in the Netherlands on Wednesday as farmers and construction workers rallied against the trade bloc.
The protest emerged this week after the Netherlands was found to be in violation of EU rules on “reactive nitrogen” in May. Both sectors have accused Brussels of being unfairly singled out and protestors gathered outside the Netherlands’ national broadcaster, NOS in Hilversum – the country’s media hub.
Groups of tractors and demonstrators gathered on major motorways during rush hour with one carrying the banner, “no farmers, no food”.
A spokesman for the group said: “We’re not looking for more money or a better contract, but for more respect and fewer rules.”
And Breitbart reports on the bloc’s plans for its own army.
The European Union (EU) may be expediting its plans for a centralised army with a massive expansion of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), according to the agency’s chief.
“We don’t have a military army, but we will have, let’s say, civilian troops wearing a European uniform. And for certain functions carrying weapons,” said Frontex executive director Fabrice Leggeri slyly, in an interview with POLITICO in Brussels.
These “civilian troops”, who “will be able to deploy to an EU member-state and exercise executive powers such as carrying out border controls”, according to POLITICO, are to be expanded from a modest 750 officials to a 10,000-strong corps — greater than the active manpower of Belgium’s land force.
While it is claimed that this new force will not be able to take control of national borders or use their weapons without the authorisation of the relevant EU member-state, the bloc has rewritten its rules to suit its purposes on the hoof before, such as when it pushed through Eurozone bailouts during the Greek crisis, or when it introduced compulsory migrant redistribution quotas over the objections of governments in Central Europe which, unlike Germany and its allies, opposed opening their borders during the 2015-16 influx from the start.
Boundary changes
The Tories could have won an even bigger majority if constituency boundaries had been changed, says the Telegraph.
Tory grandees are urging Boris Johnson to urgently introduce legal changes that could give the Prime Minister 20 more seats at the next election.
Two former Conservative chairmen, an ex constitution minister, and Sir Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 committee of backbenchers, are among senior party figures calling on the Prime Minister to change the “deeply-flawed” parliamentary constituency boundaries “as fast as possible”.
Last week an analysis revealed that the Conservatives would have a 104-seat majority under proposed changes put forward by the Boundary Commissions in 2018 for a slimmed down 600-seat House of Commons.
The reforms were proposed under a process that sees the size and shape of parliamentary boundaries periodically reviewed in order to keep up with changes in population size.
The PM is being put under pressure to consider the changes, reports the Express.
TORY grandees have called on Boris Johnson to introduce boundary changes that could led to 20 more seats for his party at the next election.
Analysis last week revealed that if the proposed changes put forward by the Boundary Commission were in place, the Conservatives would have earned a 104 seat majority in last week’s election.
Now former senior Tories – including two former Tory chairmen, an ex constitution minister and Sir Graham Brady – are urging the Prime Minister to press ahead to reform a “deeply-flawed” parliamentary constituency “as fast as possible”, according to The Telegraph.
The reforms will see the parliamentary boundaries reviewed keeping in check with changes to the UK’s population size.
NHS
Our health service is on its knees, reports the Times.
The NHS will no longer be financially sustainable and patients will continue to face “dangerously” long waiting times for cancer treatment and emergency care under the government’s plans for the health service, Boris Johnson has been warned.
A decade of underfunding has resulted in a “dire situation”: hospital bed numbers are at a record low, waiting lists are the longest since records began and staff are working in an “intolerable climate of stress”.
The stark warning was issued in a two-page memo sent to the prime minister by Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA).
But epileptics could benefit from a cannabis-based drug, says Yahoo News.
Cannabis-based medicine is to be fast-tracked into the NHS, allowing thousands of people to be prescribed the drugs, including children with severe epilepsy.
Last month the NHS struck a deal with the manufacturer GW Pharmaceuticals to bring down the price of Epidiolex, which has been approved by the European medicines agency for use in children over the age of two who suffer from seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy – Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) and Dravet syndrome.
NHS England has said it will speed the process through so that the drugs will be obtainable through doctors from 6 January.
Clinical trials have shown the treatment could reduce the number of seizures by up to 40% in some children when used in combination with another drug, Clobazam. It is estimated that 2,000 people a year could benefit.
The move will not end the calls for cannabis-based medicines to be made easily available on the NHS for people with other conditions. Sativex, GW’s cannabis-based medicine for multiple sclerosis, has been rejected because of its high price, to the dismay of patients and campaigners. Others have unsuccessfully campaigned for approval of cannabis medicines to relieve pain.
Police
There’s a lot of paperwork to be completed when police issue an on-the-spot fine. Too much? The Mail reports:
Police forces have been accused of ‘tolerating’ low-level crime after a dramatic 87 per cent fall in the number of on-the-spot fines they issue.
The quantity of penalty notices handed out for crimes such as criminal damage, drinking in public and littering has fallen in nine years from 176,123 to just 22,835 last year.
Campaigners have accused forces of regarding anti-social crimes as ‘no more than a distraction’.
But police chiefs say the huge drop is down to there being 20,000 fewer officers now compared with 2010 along with other measures being introduced.
Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird said: ‘These figures show an alarming fall in the issuing of penalty notices to those causing a nuisance or distress to others.
HS2
Is the new line worth maybe £100billion? There’s still a lot of discussion going on says the Telegraph.
Conservative MPs representing newly-won northern seats have joined a new group calling for the party to “change course” over its support for High Speed 2.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, 21 MPs reveal that they have formed an HS2 Review Group, whose members are concerned that the business case for the rail line has “increasingly weakened” amid spiralling costs.
The members of the new group, which met for the first time on Friday, include James Grundy, who now represents the Labour stronghold of Leigh, Lancs., along with Alexander Strafford, the new MP for Rother Valley, in South Yorkshire, and Andy Carter, who won the seat of Warrington South last week.
Their intervention comes as Mr Johnson prepares to decide the future of the scheme, after he shelved an official review into whether and how it should proceed, until after the election. During the campaign he admitted to this newspaper that the project was likely to cost “north of £80 billion pounds, maybe £100 billion”.
Foreign aid
We’re still sending aid to places like North Korea, says the Mail.
The Foreign Office has been condemned by senior MPs and human rights groups for continuing to use aid money intended to alleviate poverty to help some of the world’s most brutal regimes.
Controversial projects funded with its growing aid budget include training government officials in Kim Jong Un‘s repressive North Korean regime and helping China with ‘combating violent extremism’ in its Xinjiang region, where huge numbers of Uighurs, a Muslim minority group, are incarcerated in concentration camps.
The Foreign Office has also used taxpayers’ cash to help China’s economy – now the world’s second biggest – and spent £17,060 on three trips to Britain by the head of Beijing’s Supreme People’s Court.
Thornberry a leader, give us a break. Totally clueless individual. If that is the best that Labour has to offer, then they are going to be out of office for generations
Trade talks:
“The talks can only begin after Brexit on 31 January…” So, give the EU until 31 March 2020 (I’m being generous) to reach an agreement. Any longer will just give them more time to add that which will benefit the EU to our disadvantage.
Boundary changes:
The most pressing boundary change required is to reduce / merge the Scottish constituencies to produce a similar per capita representation to the rest of the UK. That would prevent the tail wagging the dog.
One minute it’s open boarders the next a 10.000 strong boarder force to control land and sea , all apparently in our imagination. I wonder what next the ’empire’ will come up with and how ‘out means out’ Boris intends to integrate all this into our ‘new and deep special relationship’ . Citizens wearing e.u uniform, sounds all vaguely reminiscent of the ideas of an earlier European who had similar ideas I wonder if they will have a youth corps as well.
The universities are full of Boris Jugend crushing dissent. They just don’t know yet who their real boss is or his real intentions.
Ask yourself this question. Is Boris opposed to political correctness? Yes we know he makes gestures against to dog whistle his grass roots – pillar boxes for example.