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.

I thought that this paragraph was telling and sadly too true :

In fact, I think that many commentators in the media and think tanks miss or underestimate the extent to which the current government is radically different from any that we have seen before, not so much in its policies as in its repudiation of the norms and conventions of politics, including previous expectations of economic competence. Such an approach is not lacking in political rationality, for what Johnson has discovered is that, so far anyway, there is little or no political price to be paid for it.

Its also surreal to think that a couple of years ago Jolyon Maugham was on the side of common sense. But no more.

My take on the cartoon was as an illustration of how those that would seek to screw us, appear as "one of us" to gain our trust.

Who was it who said that fascism arrives as your friend ?

R4 'inside science' today was talking about the 'good news' of the UK having negotiated access to Horizon being negated by the prospect of the costs coming out of the science budget.

The R4 interview was a bit premature - a few hours later the government announced additional funding for Horizon. The scientist/Wellcome Trust policy advisor in the broadcast retweeted this link last night;

Universities UK responds to the government's commitment to funding UK science and research.

Professor Julia Buckingham, President, Universities UK said:

“We are very pleased that the government has averted threats to UK science and research by allocating additional funding to support the UK’s association to Horizon Europe; and welcome their commitment to increase investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

“Given current pressures on public finances this is a significant affirmation of the government’s belief in research, recognising the pivotal role it plays in the UK’s current and future prosperity, and ensuring UK universities will remain at the forefront of efforts to address the most pressing global challenges.”

www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/news/Pages/response-to-the-governments-commitment-to-funding-UK-science-and-research.aspx

I wonder how many companies that accepted employees non-UK, non-Irish, EU passports as proof of eligibility to work in the UK back in 2015 have bothered (or been able) to trawl through their records to obtain the new details needed to prevent a fucking massive fine ????

If it's in any way similar to the level of companies that have performed any due diligence on their employees splashing company data on domestic machines in a budget "WFH" wheeze, there are going to be a few companies going under when the Home Office - that well known bastion of reasonableness - comes a knocking.

and welcome their commitment to increase investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.
GOSH
data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm
So that means that we will only be ten years behind Iceland in reaching that level
and 12 years behind the OECD average
such excitement

Why are you bothered about the EU Clavinova?

Funnily enough the EU is mentioned everywhere I look:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/british-taxpayers-funded-eu-factory-heart-vaccine-row/
www.heraldscotland.com/news/19205435.letters-vaccine-fiasco-shows-folly-try-rejoin-eu/
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/britons-in-spain-face-three-month-visa-free-limit-under-post-brexit-rules

I think what the Government has shown us in the last few days is that Black Lives Don't Matter.

The government didn't write the report -

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9424719/War-woke-Distinguished-panel-experts-produced-controversial-race-report.html

If you were [a black woman] you were 4 times more likely to die in childbirth.

The reasons are complex - Guardian article here;

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/15/black-women-in-the-uk-four-times-more-likely-to-die-in-pregnancy-or-childbirth

www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-barnier-idUSKBN2BN2ZF

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said on Wednesday the reality of Britain’s decision to leave the bloc was only now being felt, years after the British 2016 referendum on membership.

GOSH

UK scientists are easily pleased.

.

🐿 Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collard greens, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi, different as they look, are all cultivars of the same single species: Brassica oleracea! Their ancestor, wild cabbage, was a boring-looking headless leafy plant that grew on coastal limestone cliffs of Europe.

Brussels sprouts, incidentally, really were invented in Belgium perhaps in the 16th century. Readers of the thread must be warned that the mention of Belgium, Brussels, or indeed the continent of Europe will trigger a proliferation of random shotgun squirrelling amongst the susceptible. 🐿

Brussels sprouts - baby cabbages?

Now why does this remind me of Freedom Fries? Turns out that the French weren't wrong to oppose the Iraq War.

@HappyWinter

Especially hot on the heals of the maternal mortality rate report - what was it? If you were coloured you were 4 times more likely to die in childbirth. Some of the accounts from mothers who had near misses - were harrowing and deeply concerning.

It's horrifying. I remember reading similar statistics about the US, I was horrified to find out it was similar in the UK. There are some issues with maternity care overall, the UK has quite a high stillbirth rate and there have been issues at specific hospitals like Furness and Shrewsbury. I had a very near miss where they didn't react quickly enough to deliver and my baby nearly died. It's awful to think that it is even worse if you are BAME. The maternity report and the race report makes me feel like as a country we are going backwards, not forwards.

These figures have been similar in the UK for years. I was fully aware of them.

The only change is that suddenly people are interested in maternity care and are suddenly interested in racial differences.

Thats something of a positive change - however given that this information has been around for years, you have to ask why those in power did nothing. Its largely the same MPs and the same press.

Has the political will to make meaningful change arrived? I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced. Either way, what has fuelled this sudden interest and concern is just as interesting to observe as the actual stats themselves. Is it real or is it lip service to pander to the crowds.

That goes not just for those in power too. Why haven't the Labour party championed this for years?

This absoluetely isn't new information.

@DGRossetti

My take on the cartoon was as an illustration of how those that would seek to screw us, appear as "one of us" to gain our trust.

Who was it who said that fascism arrives as your friend ?

Exactly. the cartoon 'leader' can say and can make it appear that "we're all screwed" but hiding beneath the rostrum is the reality ".....but I'm the one doing the screwing"

It's a good one as it can apply to any political view... The observer can ascribe their own view of who is depicted and which situation/decisions result in them getting screwed...

News from Northern Ireland which strangely enough, doesn't get reported on the BBC.

Peregrina
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56620702

I no longer watch or listen to BBC news as its all puff
but the website still covers the news

LQ if you go to the main page of the BBC website there is an article about a Police officer dying in an attack at the US Capitol, or a piece about the missing student. You have to specifically click UK news or NI news for the outbreak of violence in Belfast to come up.

I think that illustrates very well just exactly how the Westminster Government view NI, which is reflected in what the BBC reports. I am not saying that either of the other two articles weren't newsworthy, but they got more prominence. The Irish Times reported 13 hours ago, the BBC two hours ago, (or three depending on the link).

Peregrina
The home page of the BBC always prioritises 'loss of life' stories.
It always has.
I read the BBC from right to left, I've never relied on their priorities to pick the stories I read.
SAme with other news sources.

LQ - I question that - I suspect violence in London would have been reported much earlier.

My late DF used to go on about that about how during the War the media reported bombing in London, but nary a word about the bombing of Hull where he was living at the time.

Peregrina it was front page on the BBC website earlier this morning, although the US Capitol attack was the main story then.

My late DF used to go on about that about how during the War the media reported bombing in London, but nary a word about the bombing of Hull where he was living at the time.

That was deliberate though, to avoid feeding back news to the Germans on the success of their bombing raids. Hull was referred to as “a town in the north”.

Before the website, the BBC had to choose which few stories it covered.
Now they are all there
and we can look for and read what we choose.

I also looked at the Guardian website, and there was no mention at all, so that is even worse.

Not related to Brexit, but the New York Times view of Priti Patel's immigration policies. Yes I could hear you say, what are US immigration policies like - but Britain thought it was better than every one else.