Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

  Blair seemed to understand the dangers of indulging in identity politics long before it became a mainstream issue Source - DaiLy telegraph - 30/12/21 Link Newly released government papers from the early Tony Blair era may not change anyone’s long-held opinions about Labour’s longest-serving prime minister, but they do reveal some magnificent insight into his thinking. Most of the focus so far has been on revelations that Blair disagreed with his home secretary, Jack Straw, about how the Government should respond to the conclusion of the Macpherson inquiry into the racially-motivated death of Stephen Lawrence. As well as responding to the report’s recommendations, Straw wanted a ten-year action plan, a public commitment to place racial equality at the heart of policy-making and a wide-ranging inquiry into relations between the police and Britain’s ethnic minority communities. But Blair rejected most of this, concerned about offering too many “hostages to fortune” and wary of creat...

The European Union is reportedly drafting legislation that would allow Brussels to take private property in the event of a pandemic emergency.  Source - Unredacted - 29/12/21 Link In an unpublished New Year message to his staff, the EU’s Intermarket Commissioner, Thierry Breton has laid out his plans for the creation of a “Single Market Emergency Instrument” which will include a “toolbox of measures” in order to guarantee the “security of supply during a crisis”. The proposed measures are likely to be put forward during the spring and could include export controls and new powers that allow the EU to collect data from businesses on their production process, their stockpiles and supply chains for their products, POLITICO reports. In his speech, Breton justified the need for the new authority by saying that the European Union “will not allow corporate interests to interfere with the greater interest of the European people.” While a system across the entire continent would be a first, ...

 'Significant numbers' set to cross border on New Year's Eve after Nicola Sturgeon closed some venues amid surging omicron cases Source - Daily telegraph 30/12/21 Link Nightclubs and pubs in England are expecting coach loads of Scots wanting to celebrate Hogmanay after Nicola Sturgeon closed some venues and forced others to operate with one-metre social distancing. Trade body Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) Scotland said it expected "significant numbers" to make the cross-Border journey so they can properly celebrate the new year. Scott Lawrie, landlord of the Meadow House in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the first English pub on the A1 after crossing the border, told the Scottish Sun: “We expect coaches from Scotland.” Donald MacLeod, who owns nightspots in Glasgow, also predicted that many people would travel to England for Hogmanay, which for some families in Scotland is a more important celebration than Christmas. But he predicted the majority would get round M...

Doctors said they are 'cautiously optimistic' that no new restrictions will be needed Source - Daily telegraph - 27/12/21 Link The number of people in hospital with coronavirus in England is less than half what it was this time last year, despite there being three times as many reported cases, figures show. As the government met with scientists to decide whether to impose new restrictions, the lastest hospital data showed there were 7,536 patients in hospital on December 26, compared to 18,350 on the same day last year. The current figure has risen slightly after falling in recent weeks, and is now at around the same level as on November 1 (7,535.) It is well below last winter’s peak on January 18 when 34,336 patients were in hospital in England, having tested positive for coronavirus. Doctors said they were "cautiously optimistic" that no new restrictions would be needed and cases would not reach the same highs as last year, while conservative MPs urged the prime min...

It cannot simply be a coincidence that neither the Iron Lady nor the Foreign Secretary were brought up as Conservatives Source - Daily Telegraph 26/12/21 Link What do Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss have in common? Many of the comparisons being made between the two are rather lazy. All politicians are shaped by the times they live in, and the post-crash, post-Brexit, post-pandemic world is a very different place to Thatcher’s Britain. The fact they are both women who love freedom, have a penchant for power dressing and look good on a tank ought not to mean all that much, however desperately the Foreign Secretary’s spin team might like grassroots Tories to think otherwise.  Yet try as one might, it’s somehow hard to stop thinking about Mrs Thatcher when Ms Truss is speaking. It’s not so much the content of her speeches that feels familiar, but their tone. To put it in cliched terms, there is something of the zeal of convert about both. And that’s hardly surprising. Thatcher, a humbl...

Ministers are pushing for a return of the imperial measurement for fizz favoured by Winston Churchill and vintners alike Source - Daily Telegraph - 24/12/21 Link Winston Churchill hailed the pint bottle of champagne as the “ideal size”, declaring it “enough for two at lunch and one at dinner”. Now the sale of the wartime prime minister’s favoured quantity of fizz is set to become legal in Britain once more, as ministers prepare to scrap an EU ban on pints of sparkling wine. Before the UK joined what later became the European Union in 1973, it is claimed that 60 per cent of all champagne sold in the country was in imperial pint-sized bottles. Upon accession to the Common Market, however, the UK was forced to fall into line with an existing Brussels ban on the glass container, as well as other uses of imperial measurements. The Government now has its sights set on lifting the ban, alongside other unwanted EU legislation that has lingered on the UK statute book beyond Brexit. An ongoing r...

 Professor Neil Ferguson's team forecast thousands of deaths a day from the latest variant but new evidence suggests it may be far milder Source - Daily Telegraph - 23/12/21 Link The Covid modellers at Imperial College have begun to back down. About time too. Over the past few weeks, they have made extreme claims about the omicron variant that cannot be fully justified by fundamental science, let alone by clinical observation. Academic etiquette restrains direct criticism, but immunologists say privately that Professor Neil Ferguson and his team breached a cardinal rule by inferring rates of hospitalisation, severe disease, and death from waning antibodies, and by extrapolating from infections that break through the first line of vaccine defence.  The rest are entitled to question whether they can legitimately do this. And we may certainly question whether they should be putting out terrifying claims of up to 5,000 deaths a day based on antibody counts. “It is bad science and ...

It took years of bitter and divisive negotiations, yet turned out to be a lot of fuss about not very much Source - daily telegraph - 21/12/21 Link The ports would be plunged into chaos. Stranded lorries would turn Kent into a giant car park. The supermarkets would run out of food, the factories would run out of parts, and our export industries would be blown apart.  Only a year ago this week, the economy was on a knife edge as we waited to see if a trade deal with the European Union could be agreed at the last moment, and the dreaded cliff-edge avoided. Chaos was looming as the clock ticked relentlessly closer to midnight.  As we know, a deal was finally agreed, on Christmas Eve to be precise. Twelve months on, how is that working out?  In fact, it turns out to have been a lot of fuss about not very much.  The shape of the UK’s trading relationship with the EU has already started to emerge.  We sell, and buy, far less from the rest of Europe than we did as a mem...

 There is a better way of leaving the EU than the Tory radicals' unpopular vision of a 'Singapore-on-Thames' Source - Daily Telegraph - 19/12/21 Link The sarcasm and sneers following the resignation of Lord Frost were a reminder that the rancour that followed the referendum has yet to pass. He worked for the Scotch Whisky Association, retired mandarins laugh. He was hated by the Europeans, Remainers sigh. He was unpicking a treaty he himself had negotiated, commentators mock. The jeers say more about the critics than their target. Before the 2019 election, Lord Frost and Boris Johnson found themselves trapped. They needed a Commons majority to sort out Brexit, but they could not win one without a withdrawal agreement, and they could not reach a sensible agreement with the Remainer-dominated Parliament they inherited. They therefore agreed a deal they knew, deep down, could not hold. Northern Ireland would be treated differently to the rest of the UK, with European rules and...

Chaos at No 10 as Brexit negotiator leaves post over coronavirus restrictions, while Sajid Javid warns data may force new curbs Source - Daily Telegraph 18/12/21 Link Lord Frost quit the Cabinet on Saturday night over concerns about Boris Johnson's Covid-19 curbs and the Government's "direction of travel", as the Prime Minister considered calls for a third national lockdown beginning as soon as this week. The Cabinet Office minister, who was leading Mr Johnson’s post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union, resigned over the Government's Plan B Covid measures, having held private concerns for months about coronavirus restrictions and the Government's economic policy, including its planned National Insurance hike.  In his resignation letter, Lord Frost reminded Mr Johnson of his pledge that the lifting of restrictions in the summer would be "irreversible". He also urged the Prime Minister to "deliver on the opportunities" of Brexit by mo...

 When the state imposes restrictions, all sorts of value is lost that economists can't account for   Would anyone really turn down a huge payout in exchange for staying in over the Christmas period?   Value in a pandemic is not what we measure in markets, nor a simple public health metric Source - capx- 16/12/21 Link Just a week ago, I asked on Twitter: How much money would you need to be paid to voluntarily accept being locked down from December 23 to January 3, alone with your household? It was a semi-serious question. News of the omicron variant was filtering through. Plan B measures were being talked about, including a return to mask mandates and work from home advice. Given this context, I was trying to ascertain just how much value people put on the social aspects of the festive period. If a Covid hawk appeared at your door offering to pay you not to socialise over Christmas, what would your price be? As you might expect, some people (seeing where I was going with t...

The collapse in the Prime Minister’s popularity is partly down to his shift to illiberal conservatism Source - Daily Telegraph - 16/12/21 Link My eldest son turns 14 this month, approaching the troublesome part of his teens. He’d best watch his step. If he performs a drunken prank that sufficiently displeases the home secretary of the day, then he or she can strip away his citizenship, a penalty that cannot be inflicted upon me. It’s reserved for the children of immigrants – or, more specifically, those who qualify for another passport (my wife is Swedish, so he does). His British citizenship is not a right, like mine, but a privilege that can be revoked. Boris Johnson will soon change this law, making it even tougher by abolishing the right of targets to be notified in advance. It’s the latest power-grab from his Government and is intended for the likes of Shamima Begum, who left London to join the Islamic State. Rather than try her here, Sajid Javid decided to strip her of her citize...

 Ceding powers to a supra-national court undermines public trust in our institutions   It's not just immigration – bad Strasbourg decisions extend to all manner of policy areas   Reform isn't enough – the Human Rights Act must be scrapped altogether Source - CAPX 16/12/21 Link Marcus Aurelius was emperor during the golden age of Rome, with all the might, learning and general Hollywoodness that entailed. His realm was vast, his legions many, his diktats supreme. Yet burrow into book nine of his Meditations, and you come across this particular aperçu: " Don’t hope for Plato’s utopian republic, but be content with the smallest step forward, and regard even that result as no mean achievement’ It seems that even the greatest leader of the ancient of world had to contend with the Capitoline Whitehall’s version of ‘the Blob’. Perhaps this discovery ought to temper our disappointment at the Government’s latest moves on reform of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 98). This week, the ...

Leadership challenge has 'got to be on the cards' after PM suffers worst revolt of premiership as backbenchers ignore plea on virus curbs Source - Daily Telegraph 14/12/21 Link Boris Johnson suffered the worst Parliamentary rebellion of his premiership after scores of Tory MPs ignored a personal plea to support the introduction of Covid passports. Almost 100 Tory MPs, close to half of the party’s backbenchers, voted against legally requiring events with large crowds to check attendees for proof of vaccination or a negative test. The rebellion dwarfed the previous record under Mr Johnson, which came last December when 55 Conservative MPs opposed a new tiered lockdown system. The vote came less than an hour after the Prime Minister had sought to convince rebels to back his Plan B restrictions by addressing the 1922 Tory backbench committee. Mr Johnson used the face-to-face meeting to urge his fellow Tories to do the “right thing” in the face of the rapid spread of omicron. But on...

Removing patents will do little to help the world's poorest become vaccinated, contrary to Prince Harry's belief Source - Daily Telegraph - 13/12/21 Link Our pious age really needs a snappy phrase for “high-status opinion”. These are political positions that are fashionable amongst finger-wagging elites, but which are undesirable and even completely unworkable in the real world. Worryingly, in the age of the pandemic one of these is gaining ground. Two weeks ago, the Duke of Sussex joined Pope Francis in calling for a global waiver of vaccine patents. Today, those patents are held by the handful of large pharmaceutical companies who also make them.  But many of the world’s poorest have not been vaccinated against Covid, and for Harry, the solution is “breaking pharma monopolies that prevent vaccines from getting to communities around the world in need”. Activists want to invoke an emergency compulsory licensing mechanism built into the World Trade Organisation processes to allo...