Morning, all,
Today, the HoC deals with the NHS Funding Bill Committee and Remaining Stages and will debate rail travel in the North East. The HoL will move to the Second Reading of the Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill. The Bill provides new arrest powers for extradition purposes.
I'm fairly sure M. Barnier only actually has one expression. I'm fairly sure he is constipated..not enough veg with the meals in Brussels, or the chicon was too bitter again. Then again, he could be clenched because the EU budget is in a state of utter disarray and they have to get it sorted in a couple of weeks. Should be interesting.
That’s it, Scary! That describes to a T the habitual expression on M. Barnier’s face. Constipated. Thank you.
Monsieur Dulcolax has good cause to worry.
Asa Bennett in the Telegraph reports that Charles Michel has called an emergency EU summit on 20 February to try and agree the bloc’s first post-Brexit budget now that it has lost the UK as one of its biggest contributors. The shortfall is around £10 billion per year - £70 billion over the seven-year budget cycle.
Time to tighten one’s belt, non?
Non, mes amis. The EC doesn’t do austerity. It wants to increase the budget and breach the symbolic 1% of gross national income that has long been a red line among the net contributors. This would see the contributions to the coffers made by the likes of France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden soar.
For some reason, they’re not terribly keen on the idea. Five countries, including Germany, are demanding the budget proposal be slashed. France isn’t seeking a budget cut but wants spending on the CAP to be hiked because...French farmers. The poorer countries want their subsidies to be ring fenced and the richer ones to tighten their belts instead. I’ve no idea what the Walloons want, by the way.
Battlelines are drawn.
In an effort to diffuse, M. Michel will clock up some miles meeting heads of state and prime ministers for bilateral talks known as “confessionals” - secret talks in which he will invite them to confess what their red lines really are. He will then try and pull all sides together.
Even as a former PM of Belgium, the country once famously without a functioning government for 589 days and riven with age-old disputes between its French-speaking and Flemish-speaking peoples, M. Michel knows that agreement on 20 February is “unlikely”.
Breakfast this morning is sautéed mushrooms on sourdough toast and as always, is locally sourced. The mushrooms are from Somerset and the sourdough bread made by the Bertinet Bakery in Bath. Please help yourselves.
Kettle’s on ☕️☕️☕️