Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Sometimes I find it quite interesting to look at the foreign press to see what their perspective is. These people must love their wonderful EU. Well they are welcome to it. Intense negotiations  resume to break deadlock over UK’s future relationship with EU. Source - The Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/brexit/britain-ups-the-pressure-to-end-brexit-talks-by-end-of-summer-1.4291981 The UK has turned up the pressure dial on Brexit talks as negotiators begin their first face-to-face talks in Brussels since February to try to break the deadlock over its future relationship with the European Union. This week is the start of a month of intensified negotiations between teams of experts that will determine the trade terms between the EU and the UK from January 1st next year. As the British team were on their way to Brussels by train, the government of prime minister Boris Johnson revealed that its chief negotiator, David Frost, had been appointed to a new role as

Doing what I believed was right for my country cost me thousands in legal fees and badly damaged my reputation Source Daily Telegraph 27/06/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/27/electoral-commission-plunged-nightmare-terrible-personal-cost / We all know that our lives can change in a moment, but we never imagine it will happen to us. My life changed on July 17, 2018, when I was named in an Electoral Commission report into the funding of the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum. The report also referred me to the Metropolitan Police with a request for a criminal investigation. The story began two years earlier, when I was approached by Matthew Elliot, the founder and CEO of Vote Leave, which was hoping to get accreditation from the Electoral Commission to become the main Brexit grouping in the referendum. He asked if I would take the position of "responsible person" on the campaign, which means you have formal responsibility for reporti

Source  The Spectator - 25/06/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-biden-might-be-better-for-brexit-britain At the best of times, US presidential elections require the British government to walk a tightrope. In 1992, a Tory prime minister got this very wrong. John Major’s excessive support for George Bush Sr’s unsuccessful re-election effort alienated Bill Clinton. The damage to the UK’s relationship with the country’s most important security partner was only fully repaired when Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997. This time around, things are particularly tricky for the UK, since Donald Trump doesn’t feel bound by normal diplomatic protocols — just look at his interventions in UK politics since taking office — and isn’t shy about asking for favours from foreign leaders (see the accusations from his former national security adviser, John Bolton). Boris Johnson is a canny enough politician not to make Major’s mistake, especially given the polls suggest Joe Biden is

Talks over deal enter intensive phase as chief negotiator David Frost arrives in Brussels. Source - Result Telegraph - 27/06/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/27/uk-can-reach-broad-outline-brexit-political-agreement-summer / Britain can agree to the "broad outline of a political agreement" with the European Union over the terms of Brexit this summer, Boris Johnson's negotiating team will tell their Brussels counterparts on Sunday. David Frost, the Prime Minister's chief Brexit negotiator, is arriving in Brussels with a small team of 20 UK negotiators as talks over a deal enter an intensive phase. The news came as Mark Francois, the chairman of the Eurosceptic European Research Group of Tory MPs, warned the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, that a deal selling out UK interests would not be passed by MPs in Parliament. At last week's high-level meeting. both sides agreed to a process of intensified negotiations in the hope of in

In the grand scheme of things, it is easy to overestimate the importance of Parliamentary performances. But they do influence the troops' morale. Over the past week or so, there have been widespread sighs of relief in Tory circles. BoJo seems to have regained his mojo. Could this be the beginning of a fight-back? Source - The Spectator 27/06/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/Has-Boris-s-luck-finally-run-out Six months really is a long time in politics. In December, in the pomp of his electoral glory, who would have thought that by summer, a fair number of his own MPs would have been speculating about his political mortality. At the New Year, Boris appeared to be the master of the battlefield. and the confident possessor of that vital political attribute, luck. Back then, no-one was talking about viruses. Labour was still troubled by Corbyn's leadership. It was not even clear whether the party retained the will to live. As for the Lib Dems, what was happening to th

As we awake from our collective covid nightmare, we are finding ourselves confronted by the new horror of a global economic depression. Source - CAPX 26/06/20 https://capx.co/in-the-node-how-to-revive-the-global-economy/?omhide=true&utm_source=CapX+briefing&utm_campaign=220019092e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_17_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5017135a0-220019092e-241907801 If we are to beat this new threat to our wellbeing, governments must work to stimulate economic growth. This is why the Global Economic Neural Network (GENN) yesterday teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies for a webinar to discuss the potential for global cities, nodes and networks to power our recovery and lead us to a brighter future. Here are some initial thoughts: Global Agreements and FTAs When thinking about how to deliver economic growth, we have to understand the context for global economic policymaking. If we are to progressively reduce trade barriers as well as governmen

For years some people have  referred to rising Euroscepticism  and populism as a “virus”. Now, within the EU there is some hope that a real virus has helped quell the political one, with populism starting to subside. Source - CapX 23/06/20 https://capx.co/europes-leaders-risk-provoking-a-second-wave-of-euroscepticism/?omhide=true&utm_source=CapX+briefing&utm_campaign=fec3ec8ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_17_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5017135a0-fec3ec8ee4-241907801 European leaders like the German finance minister Olaf Scholz have even argued that the recovery plan will mark a “Hamiltonian moment” that gives new purpose to the European project. Just as the first American Secretary of Treasury set the USA on the road to federation through pooling the debts from the revolutionary war, they hope that the European recovery plan will be a staging post on the road to a United States of Europe. There is no doubt that a massive recovery plan is critical to gett

Brussels will insist on strong level playing field guarantees in any trade deal even if the UK accepts tariffs on some goods Source Daily Telegraph 24/06/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/24/michel-barnier-warns-eu-demands-not-sale-ahead-trade-talks / Michel Barner will hold talks with the UK team every week in July after Boris Johnson and the EU agreed to redouble efforts to strike a trade deal. Michel Barnier warned on Wednesday that the EU’s demands for level playing field guarantees were “not for sale” but said that Brussels was willing to work on “clever compromises” to get a trade deal with Britain done. A week before the two sides begin month-long intensified negotiations, the EU’s chief negotiator said that the zero tariff, zero quota deal was “still in our reach” but added that “the ball is the UK’s court." Brussels wants the UK to sign up to commitments to not undercut EU standards on tax, state aid, labour rights and the environment. Londo

Its rescue fund will bail out the poorer states. It will fuel a rapid economic recovery. And perhaps most of all, it will finally turn the European Union into a fiscal union, raising its own money, and distributing it based on which region needs its most. The EU’s new €750 billion (£680 billion) rescue fund has been hailed as a huge step forward for the Union. Perhaps it will be. There is a problem, however. Some analysts are starting to argue the new shiny new EU bonds should be rated as junk – or something close to it. Source - The Spectator 23/06/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-eu-s-new-bond-isn-t-as-solid-as-it-seems On the surface, you might think an EU bond should be completely solid. After all, this is a £14.5 trillion economy, the largest single bloc in the world, with the world’s second-largest currency, the euro. It is only borrowing a fraction of GDP. In a world awash with debt, it should be able to raise the money, and lots more if it is needed, right?

Source - The Spectator 23/06/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-isn-t-being-mentioned-about-the-reading-attack-victims - Imagine of on Saturday evening a white neo-Nazi had stabbed three men to death. Imagine, furthermore, if in the wake of the killings it had turned out that all three of the victims were gay. Or ‘members of the LGBT community’, to use the lexicon of the time. And then imagine if two days later nobody in the UK or anywhere else was very interested in any of this. So what if the victims were all gay? Why bother sifting around for motives. What are you trying to say? Bigot. Well something that might well be analogous to that happened in Reading on Saturday evening and over the days since. On Saturday evening, Khairi Saadallah went on a stabbing spree in Forbury Gardens, Reading. His victims were three gay men, James Furlong, David Wails and Joe Ritchie-Bennett. It has since emerged that the 25-year old suspect, who is now in police custody, came to t

It is a bit rich that EU negotiators continue to make a UK trade deal conditional on British subservience to EU state aid rules Source - Daily Telegraph - 21/6/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/06/21/europes-double-standards-state-aid-put-britain-difficult-place/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1259054&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Edi_New_Sub&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_Edi_New_Sub20200622&utm_campaign=DM1259054 Europe's single market, it is often observed, is essentially a British, or even “Thatcherite”, invention. Trade cannot be merely tariff and quota free if it is to be fair. It must also have common rules, standards and mechanisms to ensure maintenance of a level playing field. Britain led from the front in making this vision a reality in Europe; the European Commission’s state aid and competition laws were virtually written by British civil servants, and ever since, the UK has been a prime mover in ensuring they are upheld, not always successfully, it

France's Europe Minister says UK needs free trade agreement more than EU because it would not survive shock of a no-deal Brexit https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/19/european-parliament-warns-eu-tariffs-will-hit-british-farmers/ SOURCE - Daily Telegraph 19/06/20 Beef and lamb will be among the products targeted first by EU tariffs if the UK refuses to stick to a level playing field guaranteed in a trade deal with Brussels, the European Parliament has said. The warning to the nation's farmers emerged as France’s Europe Minister said on Friday that Britain couldn’t afford a no-trade deal exit because of the economic impact of coronavirus. “Those who need the deal the most are the British, they cannot withstand a second shock after the epidemic,” Amélie de Montchalin said, “they won’t have access to the safety net of Europe”. The level playing field guarantees are a major obstacle to agreeing a UK-EU trade deal before the end of the transit

Mr Gove warns a heavy-handed approach from Brussels would mean voters deciding against continued alignment with EU rules in 2024 elections SOURCE - Daily Telegraph - 18/06/20 Michael Gove has warned Northern Ireland will vote to break away from EU customs rules if Brussels is too "bureaucratic" about enforcing the new border in the Irish Sea. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told MPs on a scrutiny committee that there would be "unfettered access" of Northern Irish products to mainland Britain. Pressed on whether that meant no exit declarations on goods travelling to the mainland, he said, "absolutely". Michel Barnier said at the end of the fourth round of Brexit negotiations that avoiding exit declarations on goods moving from Northern Ireland was "incompatible with the legal commitments accepted by the UK" in the Northern Irish Protocol. Mr Gove, a cabinet minister, warned a heavy-handed approach would mean voters deciding

The EU is following a classic 'beggar thy neighbour' strategy with the UK by exploiting the euro’s structural undervaluation Source - Daily Telegraph -19/6/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/19/eu-must-not-able-get-away-using-uk-dumping-ground/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr Michael Barnier is refusing to negotiate with the UK on the future trading relationship until the UK agrees to the EU’s idea of a ‘level playing field’.  One of its key issues concerning the EU is ‘dumping’. Brussels is worried that the UK will become a super-competitive, de-regulated ‘Singapore-on-Thames’ that undercuts the prices of products produced in the EU, in the same way that China does.  However, the opposite is the case. It is the nineteen EU member states operating a single currency, the euro, in the Eurozone (EZ), that are dumping their goods onto world markets ‒ in particular the UK ‒ because the euro is a structurally undervalued currency. The global eco