Thinktank says new strategy needed in face of Covid, Brexit, net zero, automation and demographic change

Britain risks mirroring Italy’s economic woes unless it develops a strategy for tackling the five seismic changes that will shape a decisive decade for the country, a report has warned.

A joint project by the Resolution Foundation thinktank and the London School of Economics said the UK was neither used to nor prepared for the challenges posed by the aftermath of Covid-19, Brexit, the net zero transition, automation and a changing population.

It is a concern that the prime minister opted to ease restrictions without a sure grasp of the facts

The rollout of the vaccine in Britain has seemingly sprung the lock that kept the public indoors during the past pandemic year. For many this is a cause for celebration. Some may have paused, however, and wondered why many scientists appeared reluctant, as coronavirus restrictions eased, to take advantage of the new freedoms. For these experts, the risks are just not worth it. Indoor mixing, potentially with lots of different people, allows for circumstances fraught with danger in a viral pandemic.

The situation is made much more tricky by the emergence of the fast-spreading B.1.617.2 variant of Covid-19, first identified in India. Cases of this “variant of concern” are doubling every week and it is taking hold in different parts of the country. It opens up the question whether the government’s criteria for moving ahead with its road map for “opening up” has been met.

Brexit minister tells Commons’ select committee that Britain could act unilaterally over border checks

The British government has said it hopes the EU would not take retaliatory measures if it was forced to unilaterally suspend the special Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost told MPs that in the interests of stability and peace, he hoped that the “EU would not make that more difficult by reacting to it”.

Travellers caught up in extension of ‘hostile environment’ policy tell of being made to feel like criminals

Alarming stories have emerged of EU citizens being handcuffed at British airports, made to sleep in parked vans or prevented from accessing medication after being denied entry into the country under Brexit rules.

Ana Silvestre, 20, an Italian and Brazilian dual national, was refused entry at Luton airport on 8 May together with her Brazilian husband. She was handcuffed at the airport and left in a van overnight before being taken to Colnbrook detention centre, where she spent seven days before being sent back to Italy.

Long-term citizens alarmed at letter saying they risk losing rights to work and healthcare unless they apply for post-Brexit status

A number of long-term British citizens have expressed alarm at receiving letters from the Home Office telling them they risk losing the right to work, benefits and free healthcare unless they apply for UK immigration status in the next six weeks.

Campaigners said they were concerned that the “scattergun” mailshot, which was sent out to thousands of people instructing them to apply for EU settled status before the end of June, revealed weaknesses in the Home Office’s databases, and a lack of bureaucratic clarity about who has the right to live in the UK.

Marc Limon writes about Facebook's decision to ban Trump indefinitely from their platform; the Oversight Board warned that social media companies have a responsibility to strike a balance between free speech, and safety. In an age of information chaos, tech firms have significant influence over expression, but America may be moving towards increased intervention.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Trump, Facebook, democracy and rights: how to handle free speech in an age of information chaos

Michael Hindley writes about the history of Council of Europe (which is often confused with the EU); Churchill was ardently in favour of its creation. Out of the Council came the European Convention on Human Rights (later the ECHR) which was essential at the time of the collapse of the USSR.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The Council of Europe and the UK

Experts say recovery at risk amid sharp fall in EU workers and dwindling interest in UK jobs from abroad

Britain’s employers are struggling to hire staff as lockdown lifts amid an exodus of overseas workers caused by the Covid pandemic and Brexit, industry figures reveal.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the recruitment firm Adecco, employers plan to hire at the fastest rate in eight years, led by the reopening of the hospitality and retail sectors as pandemic restrictions are relaxed in England and Wales on Monday.

John Heywood delves into the history of Withernsea pier, finished being built in 1877; an awful storm was to damage vessels on the pier, and four sailors were killed. The Genesta disaster was also relentless and destroyed 300 feet of the pier.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Withernsea pier: the history behind the landmark

George Richmond tells our video reporter Julian Greenbank why it’s so important for farming to migrate to an agroecological base. Agroecology may be a new term to many but it is being promoted by many responsible environmental organisations. The British ‘Soil Association‘ defines agroecology as: “… sustainable farming that works with nature”. The United Nations […]

The post Agroecological Farms are Needed to End Food Colonialism appeared first on West England Bylines.

Can a pie turn things around for Keir Starmer? After Hartlepool, maybe the Labour leader needs fresh inspiration? Maybe erotic short stories starring the former DPP can change his image? And what rile might Mr Tumble play?

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Pie of the Week: Snowdens of Harden

Drinking habits changed for many people during the pandemic. Is this trend mirrored across other countries?

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: How drinking habits changed during the pandemic

England’s football clubs may be of Champions League quality, but the current political debacle reveals our politicians are not

It turns out that throughout the Brexit discussions with the British government, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, was keeping a diary. That he managed to do this at the end of days of usually frustrating talks says something for Barnier’s staying power. And to judge from speculation about the next French presidential election, he intends to stay around for some time.

His diary has been published in France. Surprise, surprise: with one or two exceptions, the British side does not come too well out of what our football commentators would call “the Frenchman’s” reflections.

As the orchestra prepares to welcome back live audiences, the conductor urges ministers to act on new touring rules in Europe

Sir Simon Rattle and his top team at the London Symphony Orchestra have appealed for government support to help them survive the difficulties created by Brexit and Covid.

The orchestra depended on international touring – much of it in Europe – for 40% of its revenue before the coronavirus, with tours cancelled by the pandemic.

Sadie Parker writes about David Nicholas Wilkinson's life as first a model, and later an actor. David's films always contain a 'love letter to Leeds'.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: David Nicholas Wilkinson’s Love Letters to Leeds

Shortages, delays and soaring prices caused by Brexit, Covid and the Suez blockage are holding up projects across the nation

By tradition, the wits of every construction apprentice are tested with two errands early on in their career: to ask the foreman first for some tartan paint and then a long weight.

The joke is ringing even more hollow than usual on building sites across the UK, where firms needing essential building supplies are facing some very, very long waits. The British building industry is in the midst of a supply crisis. From roof tiles to steel, timber to insulation, paint to kitchen sinks, products are scarce – and when they can be found, they’re expensive.

As concern rises about the impact and spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus, it appears that once again all the signs were there for the government to act swiftly – and yet failed.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Indian variant: playing fast and loose with our borders will have cost lives

Doctors are taking the government to court over its decisions to award PPE contracts to inexperienced and ill-prepared companies. Last night EveryDoctor beamed giant illuminated messages onto the walls of official buildings in London.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: #WhatsThePlanMatt: doctors taking government to court

Peter Norcliffe explains what being proud to be British means to him; he is ardently proud, without being nationalistic, of the four nations of the UK and the union flag, as well as the Yorkshire flag.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Norky’s ramblings: proud to be British

The UK is now facing a major constitutional crisis. The PM's casual dismissal of the conventions of constitutional behaviour, is worsening this crisis and taking us further away from constitutional democracy.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The importance of constitutional democracy

Passengers refused entry to UK but who cannot get flight home will be allowed to enter on bail conditions

UK ministers have told border officials to stop locking up EU citizens in detention centres, it has emerged.

After 48 hours of criticism over “disproportionate” and “heavy-handed” decisions to place EU nationals without the correct paperwork for entry into the UK in immigration removal centres for days, the Home Office has issued new guidance to its border force.

Italian woman visiting family was locked up in detention centre as they waited at the airport, Guardian told

• EU citizens arriving in UK being locked up and expelled

Britain’s hostile regime for potential EU migrants is traumatising visitors caught in its web and provoking further worries for European families receiving visits from relatives, according to accounts provided to the Guardian.

The slightest suspicion that someone may be entering Britain to work is often enough for them to be locked up, held at detention centres for up to a week and then expelled to wherever they have travelled from, some of those caught up by the policy have said. Complaints from relatives and host families in the UK have either gone unanswered or been ignored by the Home Office and some local MPs, they say.

Europeans with job interviews tell of detentions and expulsions despite rules allowing non-visa holders to attend interviews

• Hostile UK border regime traumatises visitors from EU

EU citizens are being sent to immigration removal centres and held in airport detention rooms as the UK government’s “hostile environment” policy falls on them after Brexit, according to campaigners and travellers interviewed by the Guardian.

Europeans with job interviews are among those being denied entry and locked up. They have spoken of being subjected to the traumatic and humiliating experience of expulsion, despite Home Office rules that explicitly allow non-visa holders to attend interviews.

Research shows lack of trust in government as deadline to apply for settled status approaches

One in 10 EU nationals in the UK are considering leaving after 30 June, the deadline for applications to remain lawfully in the country post-Brexit, according to a survey.

Common reasons cited in the research included a lack of trust in the government and a feeling that the UK is a less welcoming place as a result of Brexit, with 30% of respondents saying they had concerns that their rights would not be upheld by public bodies.

There is a danger that the opposition narrative is stuck inside ‘Echo Chambers’ of like-mindedness which prevents our chatter, debate, research and critiques from reaching the ears of Tory supporters. Are we talking to ourselves? Can and should we escape these confines? The UK electorate seems deeply perverse. Labour has bombed overall in last week’s […]

The post Challenging Lies and Sleaze: The Echo Chamber Problem appeared first on West England Bylines.

UK government’s to-do list includes planning reforms, voter ID and limits on right to protest, but sidesteps social care and rental reform

The Queen’s speech has set out more than two dozen planned bills for the government’s legislative programme in the coming parliament. Here’s what it contains – and what it misses out.

Scots are still evenly split on independence, and a lengthy constitutional stalemate seems likely

Opinion polls for most of the past three years have shown Scotland to be evenly divided between supporters of union and independence. The Scottish parliament election result confirms this again. While the Scottish National party narrowly failed to gain an overall majority, independence supporters (the SNP and the Greens) have 72 of the 129 seats. Scottish electors cast two votes. The first is for a constituency MSP, elected by first-past-the-post as in Westminster elections. The second is for a regional party list, with seats distributed proportionally to ensure that the overall balance in the parliament is close to the regional list vote. Pro-independence parties won 49% of the constituency vote and 50.1% of the vote in the regional lists.

The polarisation of Scottish politics around the constitutional issue is exacerbated by Brexit. While unionists and nationalists backed remain by substantial majorities in 2016, since then there has been a move of remainers towards independence, while a smaller number of leavers have moved in the opposite direction. This polarisation has benefited the SNP and the Conservatives, while Labour has been squeezed. The middle ground, on which the largest section of Scottish opinion was previously camped – more devolution but short of independence – has shrunk.

Keir Starmer may have hoped to put the referendum behind him, but its effects on voting patterns seem to be intensifying

Brexit is done. Long live Brexit. The long election weekend started badly for Keir Starmer and Labour, and got worse from there, as the aftershocks of the 2016 referendum decision continued to reverberate through the English electorate.

At 7am on Friday, a massive Conservative victory was announced in the Hartlepool by-election, Peter Mandelson’s former seat and Labour’s for decades hitherto. Even before the Hartlepool result was declared, the evidence from early council results was looking bad for Labour. Under Starmer, the party has sought to move on from Brexit. This, it seems, is not yet something English voters are willing to do. In seat after seat in Leave-voting parts of England, the Conservatives surged and Labour slumped. Leave voters, it seems, remain keen to reward the prime minister who “got Brexit done”.

If victory eludes us in the row over fishing rights around Jersey, the prospect of Macron at No 10 has much to recommend it

If this week has demonstrated anything, it’s that war with France is one of few policies to still enjoy true cross-party support. Brexiters are happy because they crave armed conflict with the uppity frogs above all else. Remainers are happy because they always said Brexiters craved armed conflict with the uppity frogs, and they crave being proved right in a losing cause.

Other than being paid by the government not to work, it’s hard to think of another idea in recent years that everyone has rallied around with such enthusiasm. In fraught times, we ought to be grateful for these fleeting bursts of unity.

Boris Johnson has been forced to discover and explain what he stands for. Keir Starmer cannot, and voters are unimpressed

One can read too much into the Conservative party’s astounding victory at the byelection in Hartlepool, a deprived port town seat in north-east England. But it is rare that a government wins such contests, especially when it has been in power for 11 years and when the seat had been the opposition’s for decades. Now the town with the highest unemployment rate in the country has a Tory MP. This makes for a significant moment. The result represents the first fruits of Boris Johnson’s political strategy, which rests on consolidating the 2016 leave vote and using the state to direct cash and jobs to the parts of “rust belt” England that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit.

Labour might argue that “Super Thursday” was about much more than a single constituency. Elsewhere, devolved and local governments were being chosen. Yet in Scotland, Labour is being steamrolled by the nationalists. The party is clinging on in Wales. But to win power it needs to be competitive in England. At the time of writing, English local government elections seem to point to a revival in voting for the Greens and Liberal Democrats, eating into Labour’s support. This spells real trouble for Sir Keir Starmer, who could be caught in a pincer movement, losing votes on the left and the right. There are about 20 or so “safe” Labour seats, including those of Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper, where the combined 2019 Brexit and Tory party vote would easily overtake the sitting MP.

PM tried not to gloat at Jill Mortimer’s win, claiming no knowledge of Brexit party demise, vaccine bounce ... and even his new MP

The real surprise was that anyone was surprised. Over the last few days the polls had looked desperate for Labour and it would have been astonishing if the Conservatives hadn’t easily won the Hartlepool byelection.

And sure enough those who had voted for the Brexit party in the 2019 general election moved en masse to the Tories and Hartlepool went blue for the first time since the constituency had been created back in the mid-1970s. So what with the end of the Brexit party and the vaccine bounce, the byelection had been an accident waiting to happen for Labour.

Ultimately, Britain will need to find a way to cooperate with its closest neighbours without resorting to gunboat diplomacy

When the UK and the EU finalised their trade deal last December, you could be forgiven for assuming that Boris Johnson had fulfilled his pledge to “get Brexit done”. But as events this week have proved, the process is far from over. An argument with France over fishing rights around the island of Jersey rapidly descended into threats, blockades and the government sending in the navy.

The current dispute rests on differing interpretations of one part of the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA), the trade deal that now governs economic relations between the UK and the EU. While Jersey is not part of the UK and was never within the EU, the TCA replaced the Bay of Granville agreement, which used to govern fishing rights in Jersey’s waters.

French fishers ended their protest around the Channel island of Jersey on Thursday.

French trawler crews, angered by limits on access to British fishing grounds, had sailed in a flotilla to Jersey earlier on Thursday to register their protest.

Representative Hugo Lehuby said the French government needed to proceed with retaliatory measures such as the one suggested by France's sea minister, Annick Girardin, to cut power supplies to Jersey if its fishers are not granted full access to UK waters under the post-Brexit trading terms

• UK navy vessels to remain off Jersey as French fishers end protest

British naval patrol vessels arrived in the waters around Jersey on Thursday as scores of French boats gathered at the port in St Helier to protest about post-Brexit fishing rights. 

It followed French threats to cut off electricity to Jersey, a self-governing dependency of the UK off the tip of northern France. French fishers are protesting over new licences issued on Friday that restrict for the first time the number of days they can operate in shared waters

• UK sends patrol vessels as 80 French protest boats gather off Jersey
  

British navy patrol boats, protesting French fishers and Brexit – a summary of the escalating row

The immediate threat to which the prime minister was apparently responding when he dispatched the patrol vessels on Wednesday evening was a mooted blockade by French fishing boats of the port of St Helier, Jersey’s main entry point for supplies. French fishers accuse the Jersey authorities of limiting access to the waters around the Channel Island – and being in breach of the post-Brexit arrangements agreed between the EU and the UK in its Christmas Eve trade and cooperation agreement. A flotilla of boats full of angry fishers did indeed gather at the port on Thursday morning under the watchful gaze of two Royal Navy River class patrol vessels. The bigger picture, however, is the rancour and tension between Britain and EU member states after a bruising few years since the June 2016 referendum result.

Brexit has settled the UK’s relationship with the EU for years to come. Labour’s duty now is to help improve leavers’ lives

Traditionally, Europe is the issue that afflicts the Conservative party. Margaret Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May were all – in different ways – booted out of Downing Street as a result of Britain’s troubled relationship with Europe.

The political pattern has now been turned on its head. It will be five years next month since the UK voted narrowly to leave the European Union, and the Tories have accepted the result and moved on. Labour now says that it is reconciled to a post-Brexit future, but its predicted defeat in the Hartlepool byelection suggests the new approach has failed to convince.

Local elections are coming. Is it worth voting?

The post Election – what election? appeared first on West England Bylines.

The French maritime minister, Annick Girardin, warned on Tuesday that France could cut off electricity to the British island of Jersey in a dispute over fishing rights. The warning followed claims from Paris that Jersey was  stalling in issuing licences to French boats under the terms of the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. 'The agreement provides for retaliatory measures and these measures of retaliation we are ready to use,' Girardin told French lawmakers.

• France threatens to cut off power to Jersey in post-Brexit fishing row
  
• Jersey hits back at ‘disproportionate’ French threat to cut electricity
  

Are enormous and expensive aircraft carriers the best way for Britain to ‘make friends and influence people’? The Americans have Route 66, the Chinese have the Silk Road and in the West of England we have the historic A303. The ‘303’ runs between Basingstoke and Exeter. Shortly after you leave Basingstoke, Popham Airfield is visible […]

The post Projecting Global British Military Power appeared first on West England Bylines.

Boris Johnson and his former aide are locked in a relationship that is still having damaging consequences for all of us

Before he moved on to lower things, Boris Johnson lived in our neighbourhood, just off the Holloway Road in London’s Islington. Another famous Islingtonian who lived off the Holloway Road was the fictional Mr Pooter, protagonist of the Victorian classic Diary of a Nobody.

Mr Pooter’s wife was called Carrie, and his close neighbour went by the name of Cummings, of whom on one occasion Pooter writes: “Cummings and I have a little misunderstanding.”

It gives no pleasure to witness integrity and professionalism being treated as an optional extra by those in power. Dominic Cummings: ‘It is sad to see the PM and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves.’ Lord Kerslake, former head of civil service: ‘The level of toxicity […]

The post A Vacuum of Integrity appeared first on West England Bylines.

France: first the disturbing news More than a thousand mostly retired officers, including twenty generals, have published an open letter with a barely concealed call for a military coup in France, reports the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) on 29 April. They want to prevent what they call the ‘disintegration’ of France. Only military ‘intervention’, they […]

The post NEUws from Elsewhere appeared first on West England Bylines.

I once spent several days grinding the rust of my old Mini car and carefully rubbing down the applied filler before re-spraying it and polishing it. I even vacuumed (not with a Dyson!) the interior and to be fair, it looked pretty tidy when I sold it. However, whatever the cosmetics, it was still, fundamentally, […]

The post If you put Lipstick on a Pig, it’s still a Pig appeared first on West England Bylines.

Arlene Foster has announced she is stepping down as leader of the Democratic Unionist party and Northern Ireland’s first minister after party members attempted to oust her over her handling of Brexit and other issues. 

Foster said she would step down as party leader on 28 May and as first minister of Northern Ireland at the end of June. She said it had been 'the privilege of my life' to serve the people of Northern Ireland

• Arlene Foster to quit as DUP leader and Northern Ireland first minister
  
• UK politics news – live updates

Party needs a scapegoat for Northern Ireland’s Brexit barrier and a chance to turn the page

Most of the DUP’s 27 assembly members and reportedly four of its eight Westminster MPs signed letters calling for a new leader, so Foster would have needed Houdini-level skills to survive. Her tumultuous six-year tenure as DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister in effect came to an end on Wednesday with the announcement she would step down from the roles on 28 May and the end of June respectively.

The European parliament has given its overwhelming backing to the Brexit trade and security deal. Five MEPs voted against the deal, with 660 in favour and 32 abstentions, although in an accompanying resolution the chamber described the referendum result of 23 June 2016 as a 'historic mistake'.

UK and EU senior figures hailed the vote as a ‘new chapter’ of friendly relations after four years of division. As the result was announced, Boris Johnson issued a statement saying: 'This week is the final step in a long journey, providing stability to our new relationship with the EU as vital trading partners, close allies and sovereign equals'

• European parliament votes through Brexit deal 

Katy Balls is Deputy Political Editor at The Spectator magazine. Prime Minister Johnson was editor there before becoming an MP. Johnson’s new spokesperson Allegra Stratton is married to a senior Spectator journalist. The Spectator website says, ‘We uphold strict standards of accuracy’. It is clear therefore that they report accurately what is going on in […]

The post Johnson, Eco-Warrior? appeared first on West England Bylines.

I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of Lia Nici MP before her tweet regarding Queen and flag brought her to some prominence recently. So, I checked her Twitter profile and found that she represents the constituency of Leave-voting Grimsby and describes herself as a proud Grimbarian. Now, forgive my ignorance but I didn’t […]

The post We are all ‘Grimbarians’ now appeared first on West England Bylines.

The story of one theatre reflecting the issues faced by the wider industry. In the small market town of Hitchin in the Home Counties, is the appropriately small Market Theatre. Like all theatres over the past year and a bit, they were severely affected by the Covid Crisis. As manager Glyn Doggett explains, the Market […]

The post A Local Theatre is Locked down, Rejected and Nearly Evicted appeared first on West England Bylines.

Rioters have been blasted with water cannon by police on the streets of Belfast as unrest continued into a seventh day.

Stones and fireworks were thrown at police by groups of young people who had gathered on the nationalist Springfield Road, close to where riots took place on Wednesday night.

After calls for calm this week, there was a heavy security presence, with water cannon, riot officers and police dogs at the scene 

• Belfast: police use water cannon on rioters in seventh night of unrest

Rioting has spilled on to streets in pockets of unionist areas in Derry, Belfast and towns in County Antrim

• Northern Ireland executive holds emergency meeting over unrest

Northern Ireland has been rocked by six successive nights of violence with 55 police officers injured in a level of unrest “not seen in years”.

Analysis: Brexit terms and handling of funeral seen as latest in a litany of perceived or real concessions

A Sinn Féin funeral was the spark but loyalists in Northern Ireland have been throwing petrol bombs and burning cars partly because they fear political marginalisation.

The union flag no longer flutters daily over Belfast city hall, a trade border separates the region from the rest of the UK and the police are allegedly beholden to Sinn Féin. Add to this a criminal gang’s resentment at recent arrests and you have the context for three consecutive nights of rioting in several towns that have left dozens of police officers injured, including five on Sunday night.

Producers in Great Britain could once sell meat to EU customers as easily as they could at home. Since Brexit, exporters face a process of up to 26 steps, with every shipment logged in multiple databases and certified by reams of red tape. Here are all the hoops exporters must jump through

• UK firm to stop using British pork owing border problems

Before Brexit, it was as easy to send a shipment of meat to Bavaria as it was to Birmingham, but since Britain left the EU, trade with the continent requires significantly more paperwork, cost and effort. Animal products such as meat have a particularly high number of checks and documents.

Before 1 January, meat exporters based in the UK only needed to obtain a consignment note (CMR) and a delivery note before their goods could be loaded on to a lorry and transported across the Channel.

Boris Johnson defends Britain’s unilateral move to extend grace periods for checks on some food products going to Northern Ireland that has angered the European Union, repeating on Friday during a trip to the province that they were lawful and right. The EU has said London should respect what it signed up to and has said it will launch legal action, or a so-called ‘infringement procedure’, against Britain

• Sinn Féin calls Boris Johnson’s visit to Northern Ireland publicity stunt
  

Boris Johnson has said the latest problems surrounding Brexit and Northern Ireland could be solved with 'goodwill' and 'common sense'. The EU said it would take legal action against the UK government after it unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, against terms of the Brexit deal

• EU postpones setting date for ratifying Brexit trade deal

The UK's foreign secretary has said people should take a '10-year view' of the economic troubles caused by losses in trade with the EU after Brexit, arguing that opportunities in developing markets outside Europe would eventually close the gap. Questioned on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show about warnings from UK businesses of the threat that new bureaucracy and duties pose to viable trade with the EU, he appeared to blame Brussels, saying that it was imposing obstacles

• Raab shrugs off Brexit troubles, urging people to take ‘10-year view’

EU staff will be temporarily withdrawn from their work at Northern Irish ports due to security concerns, an EU commission spokesman said. Northern Ireland’s government has also suspended Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving into Belfast and Larne ports after 'sinister and menacing behaviour' towards staff led to fears for their safety

• Northern Ireland suspends Brexit checks amid safety fears for port staff

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.

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.