Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

  UK is far from alone in its sudden need to accelerate recruitment of HGV drivers – the Continent allowed problems to fester for years Source - Daily Telegraph 14/10/21 Link As Europe battles a chronic shortage of lorry drivers, Dirk Engelhardt worries that higher wages alone will not be enough to tempt many back behind the wheel.  He has watched his friends quit the job in recent years, in frustration over low wages. But that was not their only reason – most have pointed to dismal working conditions, too. “Lots of people simply do not want to do this job anymore,” sighs the German haulier. His experience is symptomatic of a wider problem gripping the Continent, which is facing an estimated shortfall of 400,000 drivers. Empty spaces on supermarket shelves have ensued, triggering warnings from retailers that some Christmas products may not be available.  But while observers blame the pandemic – and some in the UK point to Brexit – industry insiders say that the onset of C...

The Irish minister for Foreign Affairs has done massive damage to the London/Dublin friendship over the years Source - Daily Telegraph - 12/10/21 Link As the UK and the EU prepare to renegotiate aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Irish Republic’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, accused Britain of risking a “breakdown of relations” with the EU by objecting to the European Court of Justice’s interference in Ulster. He has quite a cheek. Coveney and his boss, the Fine Gael leader and former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, have done more than most politicians to damage friendship between London and Dublin, undermine cooperation between the two parts of Ireland and destabilise the Belfast Agreement.  Coveney advocated openly the province’s absorption by the Republic “within my political lifetime”, attempted regularly to meddle in Britain’s justice system, including supporting a campaign to free the dissident republican terrorist, Tony Taylor, and dismissed with disdain multiple Brit...

Critics may scorn the PM's 'high-wage' vision, but poor productivity has dogged the UK economy for decades. Souce - Daily Telegraph - 09/10/21 Link A lot of people are criticising a lot of other people - notably Boris Johnson - for failing to understand the principles of economics. This ignorance, many claim, will inevitably destroy the government’s prescription for a better future. These attacks may be justified in their own terms, but there is something missing in their rather mechanistic account of the problems facing the country. Economics does not exist in a vacuum: it may sound, when expounded by experts, like a matter of mathematical formulae in which human behaviour and the outcomes that follow from it, can be infallibly predicted. But the responses of particular societies to circumstances, and their attitudes towards work and spending, lie in a wider political and historical context than the axioms of economic prediction. There is something much larger involved in ...

 No serious political forces are talking about 'Polexit'   A court ruling on the primacy of Polish law has triggered hysteria outside Warsaw   If the EU continues over-reaching, the Polish ruling could be the first of many Source CAPX 11/10/21 Link When David Cameron announced his intention to renegotiate the UK’s position inside the European Union, Poland was one of the first countries to express its support.  While those negotiations didn’t go as planned, the calls for EU reform haven’t gone away. Today, Poland continues to be at the front of the debate over national sovereignty and has taken an active role in the Conference on the Future of Europe. However, unlike in the UK, no serious political forces are proposing that Poland leave the European Union.  The governing conservative Law and Justice Party has remained a leading voice for reform, often working with other central-eastern European member states who have begun to share their scepticism when it comes...

Biden's global tax regime is just a virtue-signalling gimmick that will make Ireland poorer and leave no one else better off. Source - Daily Telegraph 10/10/21 Link A skilled workforce. Access to the Single Market. The English language, good airports, lots of other multinationals and let’s not forget the vibrant cafe culture and endless sunshine of Cork and Limerick. Okay, maybe that last one is not really going to work. But as it surrenders its tax competitiveness, Ireland’s ambassadors and inward investment officials will no doubt be playing up all the country’s other advantages as a base for global businesses. The trouble is, it is not going to work. By signing up to President Biden’s global minimum tax, Ireland has thrown away its economy.  The lowest corporate tax rate in the developed world was not incidental to the country’s recent prosperity. It was the core around which it was built. Even worse, it has not just destroyed that, it has done so for nothing more than a virtue-...

 No 10 prepares for confrontation in courts and House of Lords over Northern Ireland Source - Daily Telegraph 10/09/21 Link Boris Johnson is gearing up for a second explosive confrontation with Parliament and the courts over Brexit as he demands a new deal with the EU which would free Northern Ireland from the oversight of European judges. Downing Street is preparing for a major clash with the House of Lords and Supreme Court as soon as next month, with senior officials drawing up plans to unilaterally suspend swathes of the Northern Ireland Protocol if Brussels refuses to make "significant changes" to the current deal. The Telegraph understands that Lord Frost, the Cabinet Office minister, will make it clear to his EU counterpart that removing European Court of Justice (ECJ) oversight of the Protocol is a "red line" for Britain. In a speech this week, he will warn that "no one should be in any doubt about the seriousness of the situation", adding: "T...

  Berating employers is one thing, getting Brits to fill job vacancies is quite another Johnson's optimism can be pie-eyed, but it still strikes a note with voters who want some positivity For too many voters, Labour is about negativity, political amateurism and irrelevant identitarianism Source CAPX-  Link Prime Minister Boris Johnson provided a relentlessly upbeat performance with his party conference speech – one that was light in policy but heavy on the optimism. But how did it compare to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer party conference speech last week? While there were tender and heart-warming moments in Starmer’s party conference speech in Brighton, it was much too long, poorly delivered and uninspiring. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, was pithy, high-octane and engaging – providing the sharpest contrast imaginable. It was quite revealing that Starmer failed to capitalise on HGV driver shortages and the associated supply chain problems, while Johnson managed to tu...