Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

  The UK signs first fisheries agreement since leaving the EU and first as an independent coastal state. Source - Gov.uk Link The UK has today signed an historic fisheries agreement with Norway – the UK’s first since leaving the EU and first as an independent coastal state in 40 years. The Fisheries Framework Agreement signed today by Environment Secretary George Eustice and Norwegian Fisheries Minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen will mean that the UK and Norway hold annual negotiations on the issues of access to waters and quotas. It is a significant step forward as the UK prepares to leave the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy at the end of December. Leaving the EU means the UK is able to decide who can access its waters and on what terms, in the best interest of its marine environment and its seafood and fishing sectors. The agreement demonstrates the shared will of the UK and Norway to cooperate as independent coastal states and seek effective and sustainable management of their fisheries. T

Biden has spent time away from the trail while Trump has dismissed the need for prep. Source - Daily Telegraph 29/09/20 Link In the 2008 election campaign an entire replica debate stage was constructed for Joe Biden. It was designed to resemble the one he would use in his vice presidential debate and was set up in a hotel in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.  For a handful of nights leading up to the crucial clash Mr Biden would stand in position. The lights would be on, the cameras rolling. Beside him on the stage was Jennifer Granholm, then the governor of Michigan, playing his real opponent - Sarah Palin.  “Biden held mock debates at the exact time the debate was set to start, just to reorient the body clock,” said Jeff Nussbaum, Mr Biden’s speech writer at the time, as he recalled the intensity of that preparation 12 years ago to The Telegraph.  “Every night there would be a mock debate and then the debate prep staff would work late into the night going over tape, reviewing ans

 The Anglosphere alliance is simply the most important foreign policy reality that no one is talking about   India is starting to realise its strategic future is allied to the Anglosphere nations against China   The EU is far too neutral on China to really face up to Beijing's belligerence Source CAPX 28/09/20 Link As George Orwell so sagely put it, “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”. Sadly, this is a battle most political risk analysts are in danger of losing. For, in obsessing about the unicorn of a united, pro-American, anti-Chinese EU, foreign policy thinkers risk wholly neglecting an actually functioning anti-Chinese alliance right under their noses. The Anglosphere is by far the oddest creature in today’s great power jungle. The UK and the major English-speaking dominions of the former British Empire — united by a shared tradition of English Common Law and the individual political and economic freedoms that flow from it — are easy to overlook. H

  Fishing rights and state aid remain stumbling blocks in the negotiations. Source - Daily Telegraph 26/09/20 Link The Prime Minister's chief Brexit negotiator hinted at progress in the trade talks last night, but insisted the EU still needed to be more "realistic" about the rules that the UK could accept. Lord Frost said the last fortnight of informal talks with Michel Barnier, his Brussels counterpart, had been "relatively positive", as he suggested that the EU had scaled back on some "unrealistic ambitions". The two sides have been at loggerheads over fishing rights in British waters and EU demands for the UK to continue following the bloc's rules on industrial subsidies. Government sources have also claimed that the EU's method of conducting the negotiations has led to "paralysis", with Mr Barnier insisting on slowing down talks on less contentious issues in order to focus on the most difficult areas. Mr Barnier is believed to hav

Now here is a first for this channel. A Guardian article! Unbelievable I know. But this is just priceless. Seriously it's hard to pick the best quotation from the most bereft leftie! I've not enjoyed reading an article as much since 23 June 2016. Source - The Guardian Link Boris Johnson is reported to have offered jobs at the head of two of Britain’s most important media organisations to two outspoken critics of the BBC. Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail, has been asked to run the national broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, while Lord Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, is believed to be considering accepting the role of chairman of the BBC. The provocative choice of two such hardline anti-BBC voices has prompted anger and dismay across the broadcasting and entertainment industry. Speaking to the Observer on Saturday evening the Labour peer Andrew Adonis summed up the response of many to the news. “If true this is Cummings

 Europa Worldwide boss says operators ‘aren't stupid’ and long queues ‘won't happen in reality’ Source - Daily Telegraph 25/09/20 Link Days-long lorry queues around Dover and the Channel Tunnel are highly unlikely after Brexit, the boss of a major trucking company has said. There is little danger that Government fears of a 7,000-vehicle tailback through Kent will come to pass, according to Europa Worldwide managing director Andrew Baxter. The trucking chief, whose firm runs more than 400,000 shipments a year and is one of the UK’s largest privately owned logistics operators, said: “To be honest, I think this is a misconception of the logistics industry. “Some businesses may be under-prepared. However, we currently have 99pc clarity as to what will be required in order to cross. By the time we get to January all operators will have 100pc clarity." Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove warned of major disruption on Kent roads earlier this week. In a letter to operators he sai

 Source - The Spectator 25/09/20 Link For some time now, there has been talk about a challenger television to rival Sky and the BBC. Now it’s official: GB News will launch early next year – under the chairmanship of Andrew Neil, who is leaving the BBC to be its flagship presenter. He’ll be one of about a hundred journalists joining the new channel, which will be the most important television launch in Britain for a generation. It’s currently raising between $55 million and $65 million  - and the lead investor is Discovery Inc, which is behind Discovery Channel and Science Channel, has emerged as the lead investor stumping up about a quarter of the cash. It looks as if they’ll now be now oversubscribed, so a pretty big warchest is being built that will be spent on journalists. The premise of GB News is fairly simple: that the current players – BBC, Sky, ITV – are so similar in tone and format that there’s space for a bit more diversity. For intelligent, discussion-based show coming from

  Brussels fears that London could pose a threat to its ability to set financial rules and regulations after Brexit Source - Daily Telegraph 24/09/20 Link The EU must wean itself off its dependence on the City of London for access to capital markets and toughen up its financial regulation to prevent a race to the bottom after Brexit, the European Commission warned on Thursday.  London is Europe’s biggest capital market, but Brexit means that the EU’s major source of non-bank capital will be outside the EU’s regulatory framework.  Brussels fears that could pose a challenge to its abilities to set rules and regulations in the sector, and is looking to break its addiction to the City by onshoring capital markets and establishing new ones on the continent.  “This is particularly important in light of Brexit, as Europe's biggest financial centre is leaving the single market,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, an executive vice-president of the European Commission. EU efforts to improve access to

 The new scheme will top up the wages of people who work at least a third of their usual hours, however it will not prevent all job losses. Source - Daily Telegraph - 24/09/20 Link Workers have been spared from the prospect of mass redundancies when the furlough scheme comes to an end, with the Government announcing new measures to keep people in jobs.  People who work at least a third of their usual hours will have their wages topped up by the state, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said. Under the new Job Support Scheme, employers will pay them in full for the hours they have worked. For the remaining hours not worked, the Government and employer will pay one third each. An employee working a third of their usual hours would therefore receive around 77pc of their normal pay in total. The scheme will run for six months from November. However the impact of the measures will be uneven, with some benefitting while others are left behind. Here we take a look at the winners and losers.  Winners

 A summer of violence has left even jaded Swedes reeling From magazine issue: 19 September 2020 Link We have an obvious problem,’ admitted the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven recently. He was referring not to the Covid pandemic, but to a summer of crime that has left even jaded Swedes reeling in disbelief. There are regular bombings, hand grenade attacks and shootings. Young men are killing each other at a horrific rate — ten times that of Germany. The feeling is growing that the government has completely lost control. Yet, while Löfven has finally acknowledged the existence of the problem, he still seems in denial about its true nature. Last month in Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, a 12-year-old girl walking her dog was killed by a stray bullet from a gang shooting — and in a TV interview her friends explained that shootings are simply part of daily life in their neighbourhood. One child said that she hears gunfire from her bedroom window almost every night. And this is perhaps wha

 As Reagan said so rightly: 'The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress'   The WTO has achieved no serious trade liberalisation for 25 years - it's high time for change   Development budgets have gone up, but so have trade barriers for poorer nations Souce CAPX -23/09/20 by Dr Liam Fox Link to aricle As the World Trade Organization progresses through its current leadership selection process, a major stock take and reality check is required, for all is not well in the trading system. Global trade was contracting by the fourth quarter of 2019 even before the Covid pandemic struck. We need both practical changes in the organisation itself and the recommitment to the principles of free trade and comparative advantage which have seen us help take more than 1 billion people out of extreme poverty in the last generation. One of my political heroes, President Reagan, put it succinctly back in 1986: “Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of

 Biden's plans are a laundry list of the American left's pet policies   Amid all the talk of character and leadership, Biden's actual policies have barely been scrutinised   Biden's agenda is clear: ever more planners and regulators can coerce us into eliminating injustice Source CAPX 01/09/20 Link to article Joe Biden is running a quiet campaign when it comes to policy. His messaging focuses on the state of discourse in the US, or on Donald Trump, or on the need for national unity. His pitch is that this election is both a referendum on the current President, but also a test of the “character of the nation” or “who we are”. Yet anyone who has explored the Biden-Harris campaign website will be struck by how detailed the policy platform is. All the talk of character, leadership, the political oxygen sucked up by the President, Covid-19, and violence in cities, obscures that Biden is offering a markedly “progressive” agenda. Taken together, his manifesto is a veritable la

  The Labour leader refused to commit to voting for the deal if it ever comes back from Brussels for a parliamentary vote Source - Daily Telegraph 20/09/20 Link to article Sir Keir Starmer has warned Boris Johnson the Labour Party will not necessarily vote for his Brexit deal when he brings it back to Parliament. Deal talks have stalled in recent weeks over the key issues of state aid and fishing rights, but negotiations must be concluded before the end of the transition period, after which Britain will automatically leave without a deal. Sir Keir, who supported Remain in the 2016 referendum, has urged the Prime Minister to secure a deal with the EU as promised during last year’s election campaign. But speaking on Sky News, the Labour leader refused to commit to voting for the deal if it ever comes back from Brussels for a parliamentary vote. His party will only vote for a deal that is “in the best interests of the country”, he said, signalling that Mr Johnson may have a battle in the

A nicely linked double header today from John Redwood. Source - John Redwoods Diary 18/09/20 Link to article The only past UK Prime Minister to have conducted a successful UK negotiation with the EU was Margaret Thatcher. I wish the current PM every success in pursuing a Free Trade Deal and a full assertion of UK powers over borders, trade, money and laws. All the other PMs failed to stand up to Brussels bullying or failed to engage to get the UK a better deal in the first place. Mr Heath needlessly sacrificed our fish in a last minute panic to get into the EEC, setting up a running sore about our membership. His terms over money were also feeble. Mr Wilson attempted a renegotiation which gained practically nothing back from the EEC, but did allow him to force his very divided party into accepting the EEC after a referendum. The pro remain referendum campaign told us we were just joining a Common Market with no loss of sovereignty.Over the years instead successive governments surrender

 The idea the Internal Market Bill threatens the GFA is contemptible nonsense   Irish nationalists act is if the 1998 agreement somehow erased the border - it did no such thing   Irish American politicians are clueless about the GFA - the Government should tell them as much Source CAPX 18/09/20 Link to article There are many criticism you could level at Boris Johnson’s Internal Markets Bill, but the idea that it threatens the Good Friday Agreement is baseless nonsense. On Wednesday, Joe Biden piled in on the subject, saying that if he becomes President he will not allow the Good Friday accord to become a “casualty of Brexit”. “Any trade deal between the US and the UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border in Ireland,” he tweeted. He attached an image of a bi-partisan letter signed by four Congressman, which threatens to scupper a US-UK trade deals if Britain dares to “undermine the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal agreeme

 Source - The Spectator 14/09/20 Link to article  Johnson's proposal to break international law 'in a specific and limited way' has sparked uproar. But do you remember when the UK broke the Geneva Convention? Oh. Well we did. The government ratified the Geneva Convention on the Sea on 10 September 1964. From then the UK was bound forever by the treaty and bound by international law. On 25 September 1964, we were not. No explanation was given. No explanation was asked. Our Judge who ruled in favour of the government when it broke the Geneva Convention of the Sea, said this: 'the Crown [The Government] has a sovereign right, which the court cannot question, to change its policy, even if this involves breaking an international convention to which it is a party and which has come into force so recently as fifteen days before'. That Judge became Lord Diplock and he was, one of our very best judges. He was utterly silent on whether or not he thought that example of breaki

 Despite insisting its borrowing is always "based on treaty", the EU struggles to be so sure about its Covid recovery plans Source Daily telegraph - 16/09/20 Link to article There is enormous gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the government’s Brexit fallback bill and its supposed breach of an international treaty. The EU should remove the beam in their own eyes on this one, before trying to remove the speck in the UK’s. The EU’s Coronavirus Recovery Fund – now known by the hubristic title of Next Generation EU - was agreed at a European Council Summit in July, and sets up a €750bn package of grants and loans, which the EU will borrow on international financial markets and then disburse. The EU has represented to international financial markets that its borrowings are always “based on Treaty” i.e. on the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU or TFEU. In this case the Article of the TFEU justifying the Fund itself and the borrowings which enable it is Article 122. Th