Covid pandemic resulted in output drop of 29%, the ‘worst in a generation’, say industry experts

UK car production slumped to its lowest level since 1984 last year amid the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and Nissan overtook Jaguar Land Rover as the biggest British manufacturer.

The output of British car factories dropped by 29% compared with the year before – to about 921,000. It was the first time annual production had fallen below 1m since 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis.

Only last week, new business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed consultation was going ahead

A controversial review into how EU employment rights protections could be changed after Brexit is no longer going ahead, the business secretary has announced.

In an interview with ITV’s Peston, Kwasi Kwarteng said: “So the review is no longer happening within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). I made it very very clear to officials in the department that we’re not interested in watering down workers’ rights.”

• French government yet to issue travel exemptions
• Organisers confident but have contingency plans
  

Fresh doubts over whether the Six Nations will go ahead as scheduled have emerged with Brexit red tape presenting a stumbling block to the tournament. Organisers have revealed they are still waiting on approval from the French government over travel exemptions – required with the UK no longer part of the EU – 10 days before the championship begins.

After the French authorities updated their regulations this week, all travellers from non-EU countries are subject to mandatory seven-day quarantine, including French citizens. That threatens France following their match at Twickenham as well trips to Paris for Scotland and Wales.

Dr Hywel Ceri Jones, who helped found Erasmus, explains why abandoning it was such a mistake in the government's pursuit of a global Britain. "With its global interests in view, the closest UK involvement in Horizon and Erasmus is an obvious and necessary investment. It makes little economic or policy sense to join one but not the other."

The post Exiting Erasmus is an avoidable mistake appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Poem, by Steve Pottinger

The post Government press office, 26th Jan appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

With all the conflicting stories circulating about the various Covid-19 vaccinations, will you, or won’t you, go and get immunised when you get the call? Weighing up the pros and cons isn’t exactly easy.

The post Covidconfused.com appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Lydia Macpherson details her experience being blocked by her Conservative MP, Robbie Moore (Keighley), and how typical this now is of Conservative MPs. "But far too many MPs manipulate us using social media, and calling them out can have consequences that extend beyond the frustration of being blocked."

The post Blocked by my MP: the social media tactics of Robbie Moore and his fellow MPs appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Researchers at Oxford University department of physics have developed a new world-beating solar panel using the semiconductor perovskite. Perovskite is a semiconductor that can transport electric charge when light strikes the material. Oxford PV, an Oxford University spin-off, has spent more than a decade working on improving the efficiency of solar technology.

The post New solar power global opportunity for the UK appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Buried away in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto in 2019 was a promise to “make intentional trespass a criminal offence”. And now, in the middle of a grossly mismanaged pandemic, when a need for the big outdoors has arguably never been more important, the government is beginning to act on this particular pledge, meaning even less of the UK’s land could be available to us than is currently available.

The post When it’s no longer right to roam appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Kerry Pearson speaks with a range of Americans from all different backgrounds to try and understand their views of Biden and their hopes and fears for the future.

The post Thoughts on Joe Biden from an American perspective appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Hornby and JD Sports among firms after space to offset port delays, extra freight costs plus new VAT and customs fees

• ‘An absolute killer’ – small firms struggle with Brexit VAT
  
• Move to EU to avoid Brexit fees, UK department says
  

Logistics and warehousing companies in the Netherlands are being inundated with requests from British businesses looking to rent warehouse space, as the country experiences a Brexit boom in investment and jobs.

Thousands of small businesses have been plunged into crisis by the UK’s departure from the EU, with exports to the continent collapsing because of delays at ports, increased shipping costs, and the sudden addition of VAT, customs duties, and in some cases tariffs, on shipments sent from the UK to customers within the bloc.

Emily Horner digs into the analysis from Google indicating that the people of Yorkshire have adapted their way of life in the pandemic. "Overall, these Google reports show that Yorkshire’s tendency to ‘just get on with it’ has remained strong, with most of us sticking to the rules and making the best of things."

The post Yorkshire’s approach to life seems to suggest we’ve been maintaining our distance appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Britain is no longer part of the EU VAT area, leading to extra costs for companies exporting to Europe

• Dutch warehouse boom as UK firms forced to invest abroad
  
• Move to EU to avoid Brexit fees, UK department says
  

Small British businesses exporting to the EU are struggling to navigate a new VAT regime, with one tax advisory firm receiving up to 200 calls a week from worried companies.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said its members are facing “significant issues” as a result of leaving the EU VAT area. “Businesses just did not have enough time to prepare for this,” said Selwyn Stein, managing director of VAT IT, a firm that helps reclaim the sales tax. “They’re being hit by a rulebook from 27 separate countries, when they are used to dealing with the EU as a single bloc.

European nationals added to voluntary returns scheme, which can include flights and up to £2,000 for resettlement

EU citizens are being offered financial incentives to leave the UK, the Guardian has learned, months before the deadline to apply for settled status.

From 1 January EU citizens have quietly been added to the government’s voluntary returns scheme where financial support is offered as an encouragement to return to their country of origin.

The Covid-19 pandemic has sent the film industry into decline. With fewer films being made for big screen release, will the independent cinemas we know and love financially recover from the pandemic? In December 2020, the government offered over £16m in grants, as part of their Cultural Recovery Fund, to more than 200 independent cinemas […]

The post Will independent cinemas survive a post-pandemic world? appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Oliver Lawrie looks at how our lack of knowledge of other languages will impede us in the post-Brexit world. "Fewer than 3,000 students sat A-level German in 2018. That’s about 5 percent of the number of people who would attend one average football match in the UK."

The post Monolingualism: the thorn in post-Brexit Britain’s side appeared first on Yorkshire Bylines.

Change from October could lead to higher prices for those paying with UK-issued cards

Mastercard is to increase the fees EU firms face to take payments from online shoppers from the UK by at least 400%, in a move that could mean higher prices for consumers.

When a credit or debit card is used, a percentage of the purchase price is paid by the retailer to the bank that issued it as an interchange fee, which is set by a payments firm.

Denying mission full privileges under the Vienna convention risks poisoning diplomatic ties, No 10 told

Downing Street has been warned by Brussels that downgrading the status of the EU’s ambassador to the UK will poison diplomatic relations for years to come.

The UK has so far declined to grant the bloc’s representative, João Vale de Almeida, and his 25-strong mission the privileges and immunities afforded to diplomats under the Vienna convention.

Never mind being big and bold, Keir Starmer and Anneliese Dodds want to be seen as competent managers

Big economic shocks tend to do for prime ministers. Jim Callaghan was finished after the winter of discontent, and the writing was on the wall for John Major once the Bank of England lost its fight with George Soros and his fellow speculators on Black Wednesday. Gordon Brown would have had a decent chance of beating David Cameron had it not been for the financial crash.

Brown’s defeat in 2010 was the start of a run of four election defeats for Labour, something that last happened between 1979 and 1992. Since it became a party of government in the 1920s it has never lost five in a row.

Ministers say it is just teething trouble. To many businesses it feels more like root canal surgery without the benefit of anaesthetic

You would have to possess a heart of stone not to weep with laughter at some of those who are now suddenly complaining about Brexit. It is a bit late for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, those lusty sponsors of the great experiment with the UK’s prosperity, to be wailing that they have been betrayed. I smiled to see that Roger Daltrey, the Leave-supporting lead singer of the Who, has joined the chorus of rock stars furious that the post-Brexit visa rules will ruin their prospects of touring across the Channel. Mr Daltrey will have to sing Won’t Get Fooled Again to himself before moving on to Boris the Spider and I Can’t Explain.

It is particularly rending for the soul to witness the rightwing press discovering that the cause they so noisily championed is not the nirvana that they sold to their readers. They were cheering when Boris Johnson flourished the Brexit deal that he concluded on Christmas Eve and proclaimed: “This is a cakeist treaty.” The UK would be having the sweet stuff and eating it by gaining lots of shiny new benefits from being outside the EU while still enjoying the historical advantages of frictionless trade with its closest neighbours.

Many thought the streaming service would come unstuck with its debt-fuelled growth, but the pandemic changed all that

Only Frank Underwood could amass as much power in such a short space of time. Nearly eight years after Netflix used House of Cards as the launch of its global empire, the streaming service announced last week that it now had more than 200 million subscribers. The pandemic has hastened the company’s transformation from a debt-laden digital upstart into an essential part of the TV landscape in homes across the world.

In 2013, when Netflix’s first original series made its debut, the company had 30 million (mostly US) subscribers. This was six years after it moved from being a DVD-by-post business to a streaming pioneer. Since then it has added 170 million subscribers in more than 190 countries and its pandemic-fuelled results last week sent Netflix’s market value to an all-time high of $259bn.

The paralysis at Britain’s new borders was wholly foreseeable to those not led astray by zealotry and ignorance in high office

Teething troubles? Bumps in the road? Pull the other one, Mr Gove. As the daily news from fishing crews, farmers, road hauliers, wine merchants, musicians and thousands of businesses up and down the land – not least in Northern Ireland – confirms, Brexit tier 3 is indeed a disaster. Far from having teething troubles that disappear, many of these businesses are having their commercial teeth extracted.

It becomes increasingly manifest by the day that this is a Conservative act of conscious economic self-harm which, in an ideal world, would be rescinded before things get a lot worse. Not to put too fine a point upon it, Brexit is not only a disaster: it is also plain stupid.

Exporters advised by Department for International Trade officials to form EU-based companies to circumvent border issues

• Brexit nightmare: British businesses at breaking point

British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit, the Observer can reveal.

In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely.

Simon Spurrell says his firm lost 20% of sales and will switch £1m investment to France

A commercial cheesemaker in Cheshire has been left with a £250,000 Brexit hole in his business as a direct result of the UK’s departure from the EU on 1 January.

Simon Spurrell said he has lost 20% of his sales overnight after discovering he needed to provide a £180 health certificate on retail orders to consumers in the EU, including those buying personal gift packs of his award-winning wax-wrapped cheese worth £25 or £30.

UK overseas territories such as Cayman Islands also may lose protection once afforded by UK’s EU membership

The European parliament is pushing for UK overseas territories and crown dependencies, including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, to be added to an EU tax havens blacklist after the conclusion of the Brexit deal.

Sending a signal that tougher action on tax avoidance was required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adding more nations and territories to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

Consumers now face UK VAT, rather than local rates, as well as customs duty and courier admin charges

• Britons buying from EU websites hit with £100 customs bills

Before Brexit, UK consumers were free to buy items from anywhere in the EU without incurring import duties and other charges. That all changed on 1 January 2021.

Online orders up to £135 are now supposed to have the UK’s prevailing VAT rate added at the point of sale by the EU retailer, which has to have registered with HM Revenue & Customs.

Biden’s warm inauguration words will not reset the dials. The era of US global leadership can’t be rebuilt quickly, if at all

Donald Trump departed today from the American presidency as he arrived four years ago: vain, cruel and telling lies, without any vestige of grace or magnanimity.

There was no acknowledgment of, still less apology for, his deranged delinquency in the face of Covid, or of his election defeat – failures that made the nervy, locked-down inauguration of Joe Biden inevitable. But Trump leaves having changed America.

Conservatives continue to obsess about the burden to business of red tape, except where it is real – at the EU border

Among the various grievances that led to Britain’s departure from the European Union, resentment of worker protections was not dominant for most voters. But it was a point of urgency among many Conservative MPs, for whom freedom to deregulate was the purpose of Brexit.

That is what they meant by regaining sovereignty: emancipation from rules that, in Eurosceptic demonology, suffocate enterprise and limit prosperity. In that ideological conception, a successful Brexit is one that casts off the bureaucratic shackles as soon as possible.

Our ruling class is expert in maintaining a myth of continuity, and absorbing supporters from the ranks of the aggrieved

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s star has waned since his glory days leading backbench rebellions against Theresa May. He is on TV less, playing to smaller crowds. I caught him the other week on the BBC Parliament channel telling the Commons that fish unable to reach EU markets were “better and happier” because Brexit makes them more British.

Watching his performance, I recalled the perennially startling fact about Rees-Mogg: he is younger than Kylie Minogue (also Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn, but Minogue is the more arresting comparator for some reason).

The decision to apply for Spanish citizenship isn’t just about paperwork, it’s freighted with a lifetime’s worth of confusion

On my birth certificate, Christobal Garcia-Ferrea is listed as a painter and decorator, though his occupation has never struck me as the most compelling thing about him. I’ve not seen my father since I was eight, and now – despite my name – there’s little about me that betrays the Spanish heritage I supposedly inherited from him.

Christobal moved to Britain from Spain in the early 1990s. He had it OK here, at first. He was lively, handsome and often enthusiastically in pursuit of a good time, as men in their early 20s often are. Never too far from song, or heroic all-night drinking sessions. He’d met my mum in La Línea, a little coastal city on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar border, though they were back in London before too long. Christobal’s English wasn’t great and work was hard to come by. Things started to slip. His drinking worsened and grew to long periods of absence. And then, in 1999, he made an abrupt return to Spain after my mother’s death from breast cancer.

The prime minister should be ditching the economic doctrine that is causing so much misery. Instead, he is using Brexit to supercharge it

Today’s Conservative party is the opposite of what it pretends to be. Boris Johnson’s great crusade, he claimed, was to level up Britain. Coronavirus affects everyone, but not equally. Wealthier folk can shrug off the economic shock; the poor cannot. The best way to help those at the very bottom of society is to give them money directly. Whether it’s to feed hungry children or to ensure hundreds of thousands don’t slip into poverty by not cutting benefits from their current level, Mr Johnson seems unwilling to stump up the cash.

Yet the government seems unconcerned about losing £26bn because companies can’t pay back the Covid loans that the state guaranteed. It is puzzling that ministers cannot find a fraction of that for the poor. What is at stake is a conservative principle of personal responsibility: it is up to parents to feed their children and to get the cash to run their lives. Clinging to such ideas in the teeth of a pandemic appears foolish. But Mr Johnson’s skill in politics has been to reconcile apparently irreconcilable ideas.

The leader of the House of Commons claimed fish delayed for export because of the introduction of the post-Brexit fishing regime were 'happier' because they are now British. 'The key is we’ve got our fish back,' he told MPs. 'They’re now British fish and they’re better and happier fish for it'

• Tory MPs from fishing areas criticise government over Brexit red tape

Dutch TV news has aired footage of customs officers confiscating ham sandwiches from drivers arriving by ferry from the UK under post-Brexit rules banning personal imports of meat and dairy products into the EU.

Shown on the current affairs programme EenVandaag, officials wearing hi-vis jackets explained to startled car and lorry drivers at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal that since Brexit, “you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe ...” A bemused driver with several sandwiches wrapped in tin foil asked if he could surrender the meat and keep the bread. One customs officer replied: “No, everything will be confiscated. Welcome to Brexit, sir, I’m sorry.”

The ban came into force on New Year’s Day as the Brexit transition period came to an end, with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) saying travellers should “use, consume, or dispose of” prohibited items at or before the border

• Brexit: what are consumers’ rights on holidays, banking and more?
• How did your MP vote on the Brexit deal bill?

The Labour leader said his party had to be honest with the public, and that if it won the next general election a major renegotiation of the Brexit treaty would not be possible

• Starmer accepts end of EU free movement in Brexit reversal

Journalist and photographer Max Duncan was told his green residency paper was no longer valid as he interviewed Britons barred from flying home to Spain.

People were prevented from boarding a joint BA-Iberia flight to Madrid on Saturday night after airline staff said their pre-Brexit residency papers were no longer valid

• Britons living in Spain barred from Madrid flight in post-Brexit travel row

Analysis: Far from being free of the EU, Johnson now faces the economic reality of his political demands

In the words of one official in Brussels involved in the Brexit negotiations, the last year “accelerated the grieving process” over the UK’s departure from the EU.

This is not to say the bloc’s institutions will be celebrating the country’s passing from the single market and customs union, 48 years to the day after its accession to the then European Communities on 1 January 1973. It remains a devastating loss to the EU, from which the full repercussions are yet to be seen even four and a half years after the referendum.

Boris Johnson signed his post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Wednesday, adding his signature to that of EU chiefs after the document was flown from Brussels to London

British and Spanish negotiators have reached a draft agreement on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit. Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, welcomed the deal which she said meant the British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula would be able to join EU programmes and policies such as Schengen

• Spain and UK reach draft deal on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar

Industry leaders warn of invisible chaos as businesses grapple with trading rules and software systems

• Brexit: what are consumers’ rights on holidays, banking and more?
• How did your MP vote on the Brexit deal bill?

The bells of Big Ben will chime to mark the occasion but there will be no street parties or chaos on the roads for the arrival of Brexit at 11pm, when the transition period ends.

Covid curbs mean the roads of Kent and streets of Dover, emblematic of the divorce from the EU, are expected to be deserted with little public sign of the abrupt end of a 47-year relationship with the EU.

Analysis: From retail to aviation to pharmaceuticals, we look at what will change from 1 January

After months of tortuous negotiations between the UK and the EU, a Brexit trade deal was agreed at almost the last minute. But how prepared are UK businesses for the significant changes that will come into force on 1 January? Are they happy with the terms of the agreement?

Boris Johnson celebrated the Brexit bill as MPs debated the deal he negotiated with the EU. The agreement was condemned by SNP’s leader in the Commons, Ian Blackford, and criticised but backed by Labour’s Keir Starmer.

The deal is expected to sail through the parliamentary approval process in just a day, with the backing of Labour

• Brexit latest updates

EU (future relationship) bill to pass through all parliamentary stages - and get royal assent - on Wednesday

• Live coverage: MPs and peers to rush through Brexit bill

MPs and peers are expected to approve the Brexit trade deal with the EU on Wednesday, in a frantic day of parliamentary activity.

European Union (future relationship) bill is expected to go through both the Commons and Lords in just a day

It is a time of year when MPs might typically still be at home chomping through Christmas leftovers. But, instead of devouring turkey sandwiches during the festive break, they will probably be leafing through pages of draft legislation in preparation for Wednesday’s vote on the historic Brexit trade deal with the EU.

From practical impacts on business travellers to odd references to obsolete software, three Brexologists dive deep

Experts are still poring over the 1,246-page Brexit trade deal, but the devil is always in the detail.

Dozens of UK-EU committees overseeing all aspects of the deal will now have to be set up, committing the UK and the EU to semi-permanent Brexit negotiations.

The UK chancellor said on Sunday that Brexit offered Britain a chance to do things differently in financial services, despite Boris Johnson admitting the deal 'does not go as far as we would like' over the sector's access to EU markets. Under a system known as equivalence, access will not be granted to banks, insurers and other financial firms based in Britain unless their home rules are deemed by Brussels to be 'equivalent', or as robust as regulations in the bloc

• Boris Johnson admits Brexit deal falls short for financial services
  

Boris Johnson said the UK would be an ally and supporter to the EU, following the announcement that a Brexit deal had been reached between the two sides. Speaking in a news conference at Downing Street on Thursday, the prime minister said the deal had ensured the UK had 'taken back control' of its regulations, borders and laws

• UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal
  

The European commission president said the Brexit trade deal was 'fair and balanced', but added that while she normally felt joy at the end of negotiations, she now felt satisfaction and relief. 'To all Europeans, I say: it’s time to leave Brexit behind,' she said. 'Our future is made in Europe'

• UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal
  

Timeframes to reach agreement explained with just 11 days before end of transition period

After nine months of talks and with just 11 days to go before the end of the transition period when the UK will leave the EU’s single market and customs union, there is still no sign of a post-Brexit trade and security deal.

When the history of Brexit is written, the Lib Dems’ decision to let Johnson hold this election will be seen as a key strategic error.

The post Why we lost – and where we go from here appeared first on InFacts.

We can kick Johnson out. So brave the elements and vote for the candidates with the best chance of beating the Tories.

The post 7 reasons to vote Johnson out appeared first on InFacts.

Relying on the WTO for our trade was always a terrible idea. Now that the US president has ripped a hole in it, it’s economic suicide.

The post Trump sabotages Brexiters’ last-ditch safety net appeared first on InFacts.

Good news from YouGov poll is Tory lead is shrinking. Bad news is they are still ahead because too many pro-European votes are being wasted.

The post With a final tactical voting push, we can beat Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

A Tory victory means more chaos. The only way to end the arguments over Brexit and fix our real problems is to vote them out.

The post Johnson won’t stop the chaos – that’s just propaganda appeared first on InFacts.

Johnson yesterday hinted he would axe the licence fee. This had two purposes: cover up his NHS blunder and pummel the BBC into submission.

The post Tories bully BBC because it’s easily cowed appeared first on InFacts.

PM rips off Love Actually in his video but misses out the punch line: “Just because it’s Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth.”

The post At Christmas you tell the truth, but not if you’re Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

Right-wing press has branded Corbyn unelectable. They are right - he is. Not for the reasons they suggest, but because of simple maths.

The post Don’t worry about voting tactically for Corbyn. He won’t win appeared first on InFacts.

To cover up Johnson’s NHS disaster, Tories fabricate story about Labour activist punching Hancock aide.

The post Tory “punch” propaganda backfires appeared first on InFacts.

Not only is Johnson lying about surrendering to the EU demand for an internal UK border, he isn’t ready to deliver a deal by December 2020.

The post Johnson’s dishonesty and disorganisation on Irish Sea border appeared first on InFacts.