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.

No point expecting Labour to do anything

The Guardian must be losing patience with Labour -

Was there a big cut to NHS frontline services buried in the budget?

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “Rishi Sunak promised to be ‘open and honest’ with the British public. But buried in the small print of his budget is a cut to frontline NHS services that will increase pressure on staff and do nothing for patients stuck on growing waiting lists.”

Is Ashworth right?
No.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/04/was-there-a-big-cut-to-nhs-frontline-services-buried-in-the-budget

Pity you are not so hot on Johnson telling porkies.... however, Bojo doesn't get off Scott free in your link does he?

The NHS Confederation (hospital trust bosses), British Medical Association (doctors) and the Health Foundation thinktank say the NHS in England needs at least £10bn more in 2021-22 to meet the extra costs Covid has caused, notably a big backlog of surgery and extra demand for mental health care. Sunak gave the service £3bn more in 2021-22 for those things in his autumn statement last November. But the confederation says that is “not enough”. They point to the fact that 4.5 million people are waiting to have treatment in hospital such as an operation – the highest number on record – and that it is estimated up to 10 million people, or almost 20% of England’s population, will need either new or extra mental health support as a direct result of the pandemic

Rudlin blog (from Clavinova link):

The number of Japanese companies and their employees in the UK is starting to decline. Given that this is against the trend elsewhere in Europe, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a reaction to Brexit.

The decline in numbers of Japanese companies in the UK is mainly due to a reduction in Japanese companies in the manufacturing and financial sectors. There has also been a drop in the number employed in automotive manufacturing. On top of this, the main driver of the past few years behind the rising employee and company numbers – big-ticket M&As followed by expansion in employee numbers – has been less of a force more recently.

Pity you are not so hot on Johnson telling porkies

Jonathan Ashworth has been jumping up and down like a little school boy to point out Johnson's porkies - perhaps he should take more care with his own facts first.

@Clavinova

Pity you are not so hot on Johnson telling porkies

Jonathan Ashworth has been jumping up and down like a little school boy to point out Johnson's porkies - perhaps he should take more care with his own facts first.

So Johnson has not lied?

And the UK not properly controlling its borders was always the plan

and an unelected bureaucrat in charge of the UK 's stance with no Parliamentary oversight was the plan

really

Listened to Angela Rayner waffling on about something (on R4 this morning and didn’t realise it was her (have been impressed by her in the past). Waffle waffle, you know, waffle again, you know, on and on. She made about one pertinent point and I can’t even remember what it was. She did manage to talk over Nick Robinson (I think?) for a few seconds though, which is good going. But otherwise, I despair.

LostToucan
Rudlin blog

I was pointing out the contradiction in their blog versus their new DIRECTORY OF JAPANESE COMPANIES IN THE UK–MARCH 2021 EDITION.

The number of Japanese firms based in the U.K. fell 12 percent between 2014 and 2019, from 1,084 to 951...

Our new directory of over 1000 Japanese companies in the UK.

There has also been a drop in the number employed in automotive manufacturing.

It's difficult to predict what sort of year the car industry will have, however;
4 March 2021 Nissan is recruiting for 100 jobs ahead of the production of its latest model, the new hybrid Qashqai.

www.mtdmfg.com/news/nissan-launches-major-recruitment-drive/

The other three Japanese investment headlines I quoted were only published today.

Also of note in the MTDMFG link;

17 Nov 2020 Japanese-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer Eisai has announced an £11.5 million investment to fund two new packaging lines and create new jobs at its Hatfield production plant in Hertfordshire.

www.mtdmfg.com/news/japanese-pharmaceutical-giant-to-invest-11-5m-expanding-its-uk-site/

Also:
10 March 2021 GE Renewable Energy to open new offshore wind blade manufacturing plant in Teesside.

[the] new plant, set to open and start production in 2023, could create up to 750 direct renewable energy jobs and up to 1,500 indirect jobs in the area to support the entire value chain needed to operate this facility.

As part of that plan, Teesside has just been designated as one of the UK’s newest freeports.

www.mtdmfg.com/news/ge-renewable-energy-to-open-new-offshore-wind-blade-manufacturing-plant-in-teesside/

9 March 2021 Swedish manufacturer Oatly to create 200 jobs at its first factory in the UK.

www.mtdmfg.com/news/swedish-manufacturer-oatly-to-create-200-jobs-at-its-first-factory-in-the-uk/

4 March 2021 A new £50 million bottling plant, set to create hundreds of jobs, is to be built in Derbyshire.

Plans by the German-owned MEG Group for the 540,000 sq ft facility in Foston have been described as “the largest single investment in South Derbyshire since Toyota”.

www.mtdmfg.com/news/new-50-million-factory-set-to-create-hundreds-of-jobs-in-derbyshire/

BBC 10 March 2021 Danish toy giant Lego plans to recruit hundreds of computer experts in the UK, Denmark and China to expand its digital games and online sales operation.

The digital expansion will mean recruiting more computer games and website specialists over the next couple of years, said [Niels] Christiansen, who praised the UK's expertise in this sector. "We go where the talent is available. Where we find the best talent is in UK and Denmark. I think the number will be in the hundreds.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-56344283

I was pointing out the contradiction in their blog versus their new DIRECTORY OF JAPANESE COMPANIES IN THE UK–MARCH 2021 EDITION

Because Rudlin wants to flog you a list of companies for £50.

It's difficult to predict what sort of year the car industry will have

Hahaha.

Remind me, when is Toyota shutting its Swindon plant? 3500 direct jobs plus all the indirect ones ...

*Honda shutting at Swindon (not Toyota).

I even worked on developing the site in the late 1980s 🙄

16 Feb 2021 Auto Express

Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport have formed a joint venture partnership to submit a planning application this year and plan to raise £2 billion for a battery gigafactory, working with battery suppliers and automotive manufacturers to secure investment.

The scheme would create thousands of jobs in the West Midlands, a hub for the automotive sector where firms including Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin Lagonda, BMW and LEVC have bases.

The Government is actively looking to secure a second gigafactory investment in the UK - £500 million of funding has been made available for this, which Coventry will be bidding for as part of its plan.

The UK has already secured its first gigafactory investment, with Britishvolt building a £2.6 billion facility in Northumberland. This will be up-and-running by 2023, and will operate at full capacity by 2027, by which time it will be producing 300,000 lithium-ion battery packs a year, and will have created 3,000 jobs directly and 5,000 in its wider supply chain.

www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/354308/plans-second-uk-battery-gigafactory-be-built-coventry

26 January, 2021
250 new jobs as Lotus pumps £100m into Norfolk scale-up.

www.businessweekly.co.uk/news/manufacturing/250-new-jobs-lotus-pumps-%C2%A3100m-norfolk-scale

but UK exports
without import paperwork
will be valueless

So the marbles are going back to Greece.
[[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/12/boris-johnson-rules-out-return-of-parthenon-marbles-to-greece
boris johnson rules out return of parthenon marbles to greece]]

Toyota, Daimler and BMW are leading a group of 13 companies across the world, investing $10 billion over the next decade in developing hydrogen technology and infrastructure

Lets hope for Britishvolt's sake, this tech never takes off.....

Meanwhile, Aberdeen is investing £38.4 million in hydrogen energy too.

www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/aberdeen-boosts-plans-for-green-energy-plans

You know the best way to use hydrogen to store and transport energy ?Stick a carbon and oxygen molecule into the mix somewhere.

Di hydrogen monoxide is indeed very useful stuff.

What are the odds that the EU will feel unable to ratify the deal
and we end up in WTO land ?

@FrankieStein402

So the marbles are going back to Greece. [[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/12/boris-johnson-rules-out-return-of-parthenon-marbles-to-greece boris johnson rules out return of parthenon marbles to greece]]

De-lurking (with thanks to all regular posters here) to quote this from the Parthenon Marbles article:

In Johnson's words "last year over €1.5m-worth of British lemons were exported to Greece" - this doesn't seem quite right...

In Johnson's words "last year over €1.5m-worth of British lemons were exported to Greece" - this doesn't seem quite right...

Is the Allegro still in production ?

@ListeningQuietly

Di hydrogen monoxide is indeed very useful stuff.

What are the odds that the EU will feel unable to ratify the deal
and we end up in WTO land ?

No deal, no security agreement.

blackwinged
I have to hope it was an error in the Greek newspaper
or the Guardian
as the third option that the UK prime minister is even thicker than Raab is too scary

ListeningQuietly

Yes newspaper error probably (Greek speaker here but I can't see the whole article online), I just thought it was funny.

@ListeningQuietly

blackwinged I have to hope it was an error in the Greek newspaper or the Guardian as the third option that the UK prime minister is even thicker than Raab is too scary

Possibly not - from the interview reproduced here:

www.linkedin.com/pulse/exclusive-johnson-douses-greek-hopes-return-parthenon-andritsopoulos/

The UK-Greece trading relationship is worth €6.5bn a year and encompasses a great deal of things that may surprise you. For example, last year over €1.5m worth of British lemons were exported to Greece to be enjoyed in dishes like souvlaki and avgolemono. While here in the UK we enjoy a vast range of Greek products.

Me being me I have just looked this up.
trendeconomy.com/data/h2/Greece/0805
Greece imports $1.45m of "Citrus fruit, fresh or dried" from the UK
but trying to dig deeper it looks like its candied peel re exported ....

Yeah, I dug around too and couldn’t find any lemon production stats for the UK, although Kyrgyzstan produces 1 tonne per year. Who knew.

This chart makes it make more sense
wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/GBR/year/2019/tradeflow/Exports/partner/ALL/product/080530
especially compared with this
wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/GBR/year/2019/tradeflow/Imports/partner/ALL/product/080530

So basically the UK sells other people's lemons to Greece
(or at least it did when it was in the EU ....)