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 Grauniad is pretty irrelevant now.
Very hard to track down many news stories

On the contrary the Guardian is one of the only newspapers one can rely on. The Times is really right wing and full of establishment hogwash. The Telegraph is insane. The Independent is ok but a bit limited.

Just been riding Sasha Swire’s diaries - interesting insight into Tory fuckwitism during Brexit and not as gratuitously scurrilous as the media makes out. Looking forward to reading Alan Duncan’s dairies too:

On Boris - “a clown, a self-centred ego, an embarrassing buffoon, with an untidy mind and sub-zero diplomatic judgment”.

“He is an international stain on our reputation”

”He says Boris doesn’t appreciate that diplomacy is not about having nice conversations with your friends: it’s about how you engage with those who are awkward”

May - “a frightened rabbit, a cardboard cut-out, her social skills are sub-zero”

Priti Patel - a nothing person, a complete and utter nightmare, the Wicked Witch of Witham”

Tatiana
I'm enjoying Byline Times, and then the Irish press and the New York Times and then of course the Economist and Sky web news.
I am bored with the UK Newspapers not speaking truth to power

The Irish newspapers are very good, put ours to shame. Sky is Murdoch, and the Economist is obsessed with Covid..

the Economist is obsessed with Covid..
??
About four pages in each edition are about COVID
at least six are about trade and EU and the WTO and their continuing fury about Brexit

I feel like the Guardian has a good coverage of stories and does generally speak truth to power. I don’t always agree with every viewpoint, but they have some good regular columnists who are experts in their area, eg Prof Devi Sridhar.

They have the NI story on the front page.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/03/northern-ireland-secretary-calls-for-calm-after-belfast-riots

Another Brexit bonus, this time supplies of chocolate to the EU being hit.

Now personally I wouldn't mind too much if Cadbury's took a hit, no longer being a British company but I do feel for the artisanal producers who have been making a good quality product. I will add a caveat to my Cadbury statement - I don't know how many people they still employ in the UK and I would feel sorry for them losing their jobs.

This is one of the annoying things about Brexit- prior to going into the EEC as it then was, we found with our antiquated and poorly managed industries we couldn't compete globally with the cheap and cheerful producers, but we might have done better going for the high quality markets. We are now sabotaging The high quality producers, made considerably worse because of Johnson and Frosts piss poor negotiating skills.

Byline times is excellent, as is the Irish times, available online

@ListeningQuietly I’m on their subscriber list so I get relentless emails. At first they were interesting but now I’m over the Covid summaries.

Tatiana
Ah yes, I got rid of the emails.
I just read the paper magazine. Much more balanced.

I too get bombarded wit the emails, which are all Covid as far as I can see.

Interesting. Starmer thinks Johnson will go for an early election in May 2023.

@Peregrina

Interesting. Starmer thinks Johnson will go for an early election in May 2023.

Starmer had better come up with some ideas and policies then because at the moment he's an utter waste of space

I get highlights from the latest issue emails + Covid.

We can all get bored with the mainstream media 'churn' attempting to influence us.

Found another one - NDT.TV - it's quite interesting, moreso if you ignore the Advert stuff and give it a Google. The Falong influence is a read in itself.

Just a little suggestion as I'm sure many here are tired of "going over the same old ground, year after year".

Happy Easter All

Why haven't the Labour party championed this for years?

This absoluetely isn't new information.

Heads up arses?
Women don't really matter?
Black women really don't matter?
Criticism of the NHS is seen as a political gift to the Tories?
All of the above?
Other?

@Peregrina

Interesting. Starmer thinks Johnson will go for an early election in May 2023.

That will be the early election that Labour will need to vote for ?

Or is there another UK somewhere ?

No, DGR Labour won't need to vote for it. Johnson plans to repeal the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which his nodding dogs will vote for, and then he can call an election any time he chooses. Which is thought to be May 2023 while he's still riding high if Covid is defeated or brought under control but not soon enough for the shit of a failing economy to have hit the plan.

He may not be wrong in wanting to repeal the FTPA - it probably should have been part of a proper electoral reform.

What isn't factored in is what might happen in Scotland.

This is where we need a comment from our Scottish posters, but to me, it seems that the attempt to blacken Sturgeon's name has gone and fallen flat. I am now waiting to see what happens with the May elections.

So the FTPA can be repealed by a simple majority, even though it's actual effects require a supermajority ?

I'm remembering the time our student union had an executive meeting of 4, and the quorum was 7. So they voted to change the quorum to "make the meeting legitimate".

Heigh ho.

I can see why he'd want to avoid having an election after the US presidentials though.

I think the FTPA can be repealed by a simple majority - as far as I know it was just an ordinary Act of Parliament. Now I know that Johnson and chums find these a bit inconvenient generally but there are times when they are useful.

This is where we need a comment from our Scottish posters, but to me, it seems that the attempt to blacken Sturgeon's name has gone and fallen flat.

From where I've been watching that's because what the nationalists are accusing the Tories of is 100% true. They really don't understand Scotland and it's people. They may as well have run a slur campaign against Jacinda Ardern and then been surprised it had the opposite effect.

It seems Unionist Scots are becoming like English Remainers.

DGR - yes, a question of people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. They were screaming for Sturgeon's head for supposedly breaking the Ministerial Code but when Patel actually breaks the Ministerial code it's 'So what?'

William Hutton has a good article today.

Key extract for me:

[David] Hare writes: “The people who were desperate to pull Britain away from its geographical moorings were as likely to be found in Knightsbridge as in Hartlepool. The leader of the UK Independence party, Nigel Farage, who put the fear of God into the Conservative party, was a stockbroker. His principal cheerleaders were press owners, paid-up members of an elite who all lived abroad: Rupert Murdoch, Lord Rothermere and the Barclay brothers.”

This for me is at its most basic: Cameron called his referendum because he was shit scared of Farage/UKIP. They were and are anti immigration, so therefore even those who wanted more money for the NHS or think that the UK is suddenly going to introduce better animal welfare standards, knew deep down that they were going along with it.

More Christmas Turkeys
www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/05/small-time-dealers-fear-brexit-could-decimate-antiques-trade-in-uk
Kathyrn Singer, the director of strategy and operations at the British Antique Dealers’ Association, said she hoped the UK government would find a way of dealing with traders by “some kind of reworking to allow people to transport their own goods for trade purposes”
I bet she voted for Johnson.