Westministenders: Unilateral Ignoring of WHO rules

[RedToothBrush]

Where we are:

On 1st January the EU started to apply checks on all goods from the UK coming into the Union.

However the UK decided to take a slower route to this, and planned that on the 1st April the UK we would be carrying out Sanitary & Phytosanitary paperwork for animal and plant EU imports like meat and eggs.

Then on 1 July we'd implement a full customs check on all goods arriving into the UK from EU member states.

Obviously we've struggled with exports as we weren't ready for this and its fucked business. But ultimately the import side of things has yet to hit the shit fan still.

It sounds like there is likely to be issues with imports of food in particular, so there is talk of delaying our plan of checks until later in the day. There is concern that the reopening of pubs and restuarants which will up demands of imports occuring at the same time as checks are put in place is likely to be 'problematic'.

Remember we get 2/3 of fruit, veg and cheese from the EU. And half our wine. And to date these largely have only been affected by haulage issues NOT UK customs issues...

You might want to keep that in mind.

The poll tax riots being a case of when consent for Government action was withdrawn.

It didn't just have to be rioting in the streets - it could also be minor protests like going in to pay your bills with heaps of change on the last day possible.

The shit could go an hit the fan. The Brexiters are bigging up the vaccine roll out, but by the summer a significant number of the population should have been vaccinated, the disease should be on the wane, so what need would there be for Covid restrictions?

@Seventrees

Why are they beefing up their nuclear arsenal? What's the end game there?

Pure posturing as the Navy does not have enough crew for the vessels it has and no planes for its aircraft carriers

Pure posturing

Hasn't it also been said that the tank currently used is well passed the end of its useful life?

@Peregrina

Laws made here, being enacted by a Parliament elected through a free and fair poll can be considered to have public consent.

Only up to a point. If something is a Manifesto commitment, then yes, it can be assumed that the public wanted that. So where is the manifesto commitment to crack down on public demonstrations if a small clique of Tory ministers decide they find them inconvenient?

Agreed, this is why I said they can be considered to have that status, i.e considering that they do is a reasonable position, the opposite that they don’t have that status is also reasonable. IMO the latter position is weaker, esp in regard to manifesto commitments.

Exceedingly late PMK, just checking in to see what your take is on 'Ursula and the Vaccines?'

It's been bugging me for ages who she reminds me of, it's the Grand High Witch out of The Witches.

Anyway, I'm back after a hiatus, and here to thank you for your incredible knowledge, and add trivia along the way!

Interesting that while Boris was determined to follow a scorched earth policy on all things "Europe", he quietly was pushing for the UK to join the Lugano convention. (Otherwise British firms can whistle about enforcing judgements in the EU). So it's clearly of importance.

Just notice who needs to approve it ...

www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/switzerland-approve-uks-post-brexit-joining-disputes-convention

...

The UK submitted an application to re-join the Lugano Convention in its own right on 8 April 2020. To re-join, it needs the unanimous consent of all the other contracting parties – the EU , Denmark and the Lugano states – and to follow the formal accession procedure for the convention.

...

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/post-brexit-trading-in-northern-ireland-not-worth-the-hassle-leading-food-firm-says-258744/

Post-Brexit trading in Northern Ireland ‘not worth the hassle’, leading food firm says

Nikos Chrysoloras @nchrysoloras
I did a quick table from the numbers that @vonderleyen cited in her presser. The deliveries schedule shows that by end-June the EU will have enough supplies to vaccinate 260 million people, the bulk of its adult population.
Assuming of course governments administer the vaccines:

The EU need 260 million doses.
They are expecting a total of 466 million doses by the end of Q2 according to this.

That means they don't even neccessarily need AZ to meet that goal if all their other deliveries are in full and on time.

As of Monday:
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Germany has received slightly more than 3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and only used 1.35 million doses so far.

This is typical of the EU as a whole where less than half have been administered so far. Across the EU Norway/Iceland they have had 14.8million doses. Only 7.3million have been administered.

Having said that there is some Breaking News:

BBC news just reporting that there will be a significant reduction in weekly supply of vaccines for 4 weeks from March 29th. So as I was speculating earlier, anyone not booked in (the under 50s) are stuffed.

It will be interesting to find out why and which vaccine this is affecting.

Image to go with the above.

Hi there Tokyo
I'll be honest
I am very bored of the Vaccines stuff.

I am MUCH more concerned about the wholesale destruction of civil liberties in the House of Commons
The misogyny and homophobia at the ONS and in the Police
The potential collapse of local democracy on May 7th
The trade implications of not obeying WTO rules from April 1st

Vaccinations are a short term issue
the others may affect us for decades.

Agree @ListeningQuietly that the horrible issues just seem to be piling up and the picture is very bleak indeed.

I'm 'poll clerking' on 6th May, I expect that we might be busier than usual.

@ListeningQuietly

Hi there Tokyo I'll be honest I am very bored of the Vaccines stuff.

I am MUCH more concerned about the wholesale destruction of civil liberties in the House of Commons
The misogyny and homophobia at the ONS and in the Police
The potential collapse of local democracy on May 7th
The trade implications of not obeying WTO rules from April 1st

Vaccinations are a short term issue
the others may affect us for decades.

The vaccine stuff effectively helps to enable the rest due to the culture war.

Tokyo
The May 6th elections are going to be VERY interesting

• Scotland
• Wales
• Police and Crime Commissioners
• Red Wall Parliamentary by election
• Country, Metropolitan, Unitary, District and Borough
• Parish and Town (the Jackie Weaver effect)

timed just as lockdowns should be easing
and businesses should be opening up

@TokyoSushi

Agree *@ListeningQuietly* that the horrible issues just seem to be piling up and the picture is very bleak indeed.

I'm 'poll clerking' on 6th May, I expect that we might be busier than usual.

I think the opposite. Lots of people can either postal or proxy vote or are just fucked off with the lot of them.

I expect a low turnout.

I admit I have no idea at all
I'm getting no mood music on it
BUT
Once nominations close and we find out who is contesting what
things might get more interesting

and I forgot
London Mayor
from my list

Ashish Joshi @ashishskynews
I’m told this shortage has nothing to do with ongoing tensions with EU. Instead “this a global supply issue with AZ”.

(The EU do not necessarily need those AZ vaccines to vaccinate the whole EU population)

I too am fed up with all the vaccine stuff, and think - what else is being buried? But LQ has beaten me to it there.

David Henig @DavidHenigUK
There is a very real possibility that a large number of people in the UK don't realise that international trade is not completely fair. Possibly because we did so much to invent it in that way, then called it free trade to try to disadvantage others.

In good news, I rang up to check and was told that my vaccination booking is for 25 March. Just under 2 weeks before my 60th

If I'd been more patient, my blue envelope with the appointment would have dropped through the letterbox shortly.

Yay, well done pretty

I've not caught up, still a couple of days behind...

But, I am getting concerned by some of the messages on here, detailing "little things" that are bloody worrying... The restrictions on protests recently, the allowing ministers to make decisions without going to parliament, and am adding a comment from the Media Show on R4 on investigative journalism..how Covid rules are making FOI requests more difficult...

Is anyone keeping a list of these quiet reductions in accountability, and transfer of power to central government.

Throw in breaking international law, (NIP, WT rules) breaking national law, (proroguing parliament) Not holding ministers to account for bullying and other wrongdoing, giving too much power to unelected government advisors,

Lots of things detailed on here over the years but probably need to be collected together.

@Peregrine I too am fed up with all the vaccine stuff, and think - what else is being buried? always this

@BlackeyedSusan - agree, there’s so much going on you lose track of what’s not normal

@Peregrina

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/northern-ireland-protocol-unionism-shoots-itself-in-the-foot-1.4492053

Unionism seeking to run roughshod over the will of the voters.
Militants returning to prominence.
Increasing polarisation.
Potential for destabilisation.
A return to a version of the Troubles.

The gauntlet has been thrown down in the form of the litigation aimed at destroying the Protocol, but the real target is the GFA, and they are doing what they are doing in the knowledge that they have support in Westminster.

It is up to the Westminster government to realise what is at stake in NI. Are they going to side with democracy or with the DUP, the extremists (Kate Hoey, Jim Allister, and the Loyalist militias) and abandon the Protocol? They are playing with fire right now with the unilateral extension of the transition period.

Maybe signals from Washington will have an effect.

But I have a suspicion that the Loyalist militias are ready to join the fray. Someone or something has emboldened them to take the public stand they have taken so far.

Now distinctly possible the rancour is now about to spill into other interactions between EU & UK. If it happens it will represent a huge failure of diplomacy for both sides, neither of which has covered itself in glory this year
(from RTB's post upthread)

The population at large doesn't see or suspect a lack of diplomacy.

All they see is the effect.

The effect will be shortages and potentially a resurgence of covid if second dosage schedule doesn't happen.
The scapegoat will be the villainous EU.
Also blamed - covid.

Winner - The Tory Party, Brexiteers.