Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

 The unemployment numbers do look bad - but they are far better than some had feared   The UK unemployment rate was just 4.4% in July, compared to 7.9% in the Euro area   Redundancies tend to hog the headlines, but hiring is also starting to pick up Source CAPX 15/09/20 link to article Today’s headlines understandably focus on the latest rise in unemployment, especially among the young. Losing a job is potentially a life-changer for many people. But it is no shock that the UK labour market has weakened given the depth of the Covid recession. The real news is that the deterioration is not as bad as feared – and there are some good reasons to expect further positive surprises. The usual Labour Force Survey (LFS) measures of unemployment are not very meaningful at the moment (as most now understand). In part this is because many people – perhaps 3 million – are still on the government’s job retention scheme. This means they still count as employed, even if they are not actua...

  The Labour leader says he wants to get Brexit done, but will that hold if the wholly unreasonable position of the EU scuppers a deal? Source Daily Telegraph 14/09/20 Link to Article The Remainers have come out of hibernation full of condemnation of the government’s threat to override certain aspects of the agreement to secure the sovereign integrity of the United Kingdom and its own internal market. Taking back control just got real, although it was unfortunate it took a year for the government to realise the flaws and severe constitutional problems in its own Withdrawal Agreement. In all the noise and excitement of the announcement from the government, there was one former ardent Remainer who was notably absent from the ranks of the appalled, outraged, offended and downright horrified: the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer. He was almost neutral in his view on the government’s new position of apparently breaking its own international treaty. Instead of lambasting the government ov...

 Prime Minister to open second confrontation with EU in bid to ease migrant deportation cases. Source - Daily Telegraph 12/09/20 Link to article Britain is preparing to opt out of major parts of European human rights laws, risking an explosive new row with the EU. Boris Johnson's aides and ministers are drawing up proposals to severely curb the use of human rights laws in areas in which judges have "overreached". The plans under discussion include opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, which could prevent many migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid deportation and protect British soldiers against claims relating to overseas operations. The Act allows British courts to apply the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The move sets up a major new confrontation with the EU, which has been demanding that the UK commits to remaining signed up to the ECHR and keep the Human Rights Act in place as the price of future "law enforcement co-operation...

Source - The Spectator 03/09/20 Link to article If the SNP win a majority at next year’s Holyrood elections, the UK government should be prepared to start independence negotiations with them. This may sound like a mad idea, at first. But as I say in the magazine this week, it might actually offer a way to save the Union. Rather than saying a straight no to another independence referendum, the UK government would tell Nicola Sturgeon she could have one, if the terms of independence were negotiated first. This would take time – unravelling a 300-year-old political, economic and military union would make Brexit look like child’s play – but it would mean that when the referendum came, it would be on the realities of independence not just the idea of it. This would give the Unionist side a far better chance of winning it. It would force the Nationalists to answer questions they would rather avoid: what currency an independent Scotland would use, what share of the UK national debt it would t...

Business groups said the deal was a 'breakthrough moment' after delays caused by Shinzo Abe's resignation and disagreements over agriculture. Source Daily Telegraph 09/09/20 Link to article The UK has struck a historic trade deal in principle with Japan, Britain's first agreement as an independent country for 47 years. Trade Secretary Liz Truss held a video call with Japanese foreign minister Motegi Toshimitsu on Friday morning to seal the agreement, which is expected to come into force in January. The free trade agreement is seen as a step towards Britain joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a bloc which also includes the likes of Australia, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. It is expected to increase trade between the world’s third and sixth-largest economies by £15.2bn, according to estimates by the Department for International Trade (DIT). David Henig, director at the European Centre for International Political Economy and...

 Source - Spectator 09/09/20 Link to article  Another crucial period has begun in the Brexit saga. Boris Johnson has ruled out extending the transition stage beyond 1 January, after which the UK will no longer automatically take over EU regulations or align with EU trade policy. So the key question surrounding Brexit will finally need to be answered: what are the conditions for the UK to retain a decent amount of market access to the EU? The answer the EU has given is that the UK must abstain from unfairly subsidising its companies. That is a fair demand, but the EU also wants the UK to continue to align with EU rules on state aid. The latter is something fiercely resisted by the British, and rightly so. The stakes are high – along with fisheries, it’s seen as the key sticking point in the negotiations. FT columnist Wolfgang Munchau thinks that ‘it is whether [the] EU accepts [an] independent UK state aid policy. If yes, there will be deal. Otherwise no.’ If the EU and the Uni...

Barnier complains endlessly about UK tactics - but how perfidious is Albion really? Tricky wording is one thing, but ultimately this will come down to power and politics Does the EU's skill at playing its hand include knowing when its opponent is bluffing? Source- CAPX 09/09/20 Link to article Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, constantly complains that the UK is trying to wriggle out of the ‘level playing field’ commitments it made in the joint Political Declaration of October 2019.  “Since the start of these negotiations, the UK has refused to engage on credible guarantees for open and fair competition,” Barnier lamented recently. “Where the EU has shown openness to possible solutions, the UK has shunned our offers.” This week’s manoeuvres from Boris Johnson’s government to override aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol will have surely banished any remaining doubt in his mind that he is dealing with la perfide Albion. Of course, Barnier’s complaints may be no m...