Senin, 09 September 2019

British Airways pilots ground planes in unprecedented 48-hour strike - CNBC

British Airways BA BAW SHT SHUTTLE is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom, owned by IAG International Airline Group IAG and member of Oneworld aviation alliance.

Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images

British Airways pilots began a 48-hour strike on Monday, grounding nearly all its flights and disrupting thousands the plans of travelers in unprecedented industrial action over a pay dispute.

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) last month gave the airline notice of three days of industrial action in September, in the first ever strike by BA pilots.

"We understand the frustration and disruption BALPA's strike action has caused our customers. After many months of trying to resolve the pay dispute, we are extremely sorry that it has come to this," BA said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, with no detail from BALPA on which pilots would strike, we had no way of predicting how many would come to work or which aircraft they are qualified to fly, so we had no option but to cancel nearly 100% of our flights."

Following strikes on Monday and Tuesday, another day of industrial action is scheduled for Sept. 27.

Both sides say they are willing to hold further talks.

BALPA has said British Airways (BA) should share more of its profits with its pilots. BA has said the strike action is unjustifiable as its pay offer was fair.

Thousands of customers have had to seek alternative travel arrangements, and the airline has come in for criticism over how it handled communications with passengers before the strikes.

"We hope we can find a way of resolving this dispute. We've been trying very hard to do so for the best part of nine months now but here we are now sadly having to take industrial action," BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton told BBC radio.

He said they were willing to compromise but BA were not prepared to "budge".

The airline dismissed a new offer by BALPA last week as an "eleventh hour inflated proposal" that was not made in good faith. BALPA had said it would have called off the strikes this week if BA had engaged with the offer.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged both sides to end the dispute.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating the airline after it enraged some travelers by wrongly telling them their flights had been cancelled.

The regulator also reminded the airline to tell customers their rights.

During the strikes, BA must offer passengers reimbursement for cancelled flights, alternate travel arrangements under comparable conditions or a new flight at a later date.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/09/ba-british-airways-pilots-ground-planes-in-48-hour-strike.html

2019-09-09 06:55:13Z
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Editorial: Boris Johnson can barely lead his own government, let alone the country - The Independent

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  1. Editorial: Boris Johnson can barely lead his own government, let alone the country  The Independent
  2. ‘The Trumpization of U.K. politics’: Boris Johnson is busting political norms  The Washington Post
  3. Brexit extension: PM to 'test law to limit' to avoid delay  BBC News
  4. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson under fire as Brexit reality hits  NBCNews.com
  5. Brexit Brings Britain to a Brand-New Low: Theme of the Week  Bloomberg
  6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/brexit-boris-johnson-amber-rudd-resign-election-a9096681.html

2019-09-08 23:00:02Z
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Minggu, 08 September 2019

UK PM's leadership under fire over Brexit crisis - Aljazeera.com

The Brexit crisis has thrown the UK's Conservative Party into turmoil, with growing questions being raised inside the party about the leadership qualities of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson drew particular criticism inside his own party this week for sacking a number of high-ranking Conservative MPs including Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of the wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill.

Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from London on what direction the Conservative Party has taken under Johnson and what Churchill might have made of it.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/uk-pms-leadership-fire-brexit-crisis-190908115238837.html

2019-09-08 11:52:00Z
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Sabtu, 07 September 2019

Britain NOT ‘first in line’ for US trade deal, White House warns after Remainer MPs wreck Boris Johnson’s Brex - The Sun

BRITAIN is no longer "first in line" for a US trade deal after Parliament wrecked Boris Johnson's Brexit plans, a top White House official warned yesterday.

Larry Kudlow - Donald Trump's top economic aide - said "hurdles" stand in the way of a post-Brexit pact after Remainer MPs sparked chaos in Westminster this week.

 Larry Kudlow, President Trump's chief economics adviser, said the top White House trade priority is with Canada and Mexico - not Britain

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Larry Kudlow, President Trump's chief economics adviser, said the top White House trade priority is with Canada and Mexico - not BritainCredit: Reuters
 Boris Johnson and Donald Trump agreed last month that a speedy trade deal would be thrashed out after Brexit

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Boris Johnson and Donald Trump agreed last month that a speedy trade deal would be thrashed out after BrexitCredit: Getty - Pool

He said: "Regarding Great Britain, the president has said that we would love to do a trade deal with the United Kingdom - but they've got some hurdles.

"But our desire and our goal is to get a deal with the United Kingdom."

The comments from the US National Economic Council Director to Dailymail.com mark a shift from the sunny tone struck by other Trump officials earlier.

John Bolton, the president's National Security Adviser, said last month the UK would be "first in line" for a deal after Brexit.

And the Prime Minister said President Trump agreed to an aggressive one-year timeline for a trade deal when they met at the G7 in France.

'BIG FAN OF BORIS'

Mr Kudlow reassured that the president is a "big fan" of Boris - who Trump yesterday praised as a "fighter" amid his ongoing Brexit battle.

But the aide added that a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada - dubbed USMCA - is the president's number one legislative priority.

Addressing reporters outside the West Wing, he said: "It's not a tomorrow question.

"The most important trade deal is the USMCA.

"That is our top legislative priority."

WESTMINSTER CHAOS

Boris' ambitions to see Britain leave the EU on the "do or die" deadline of October 31 were dealt a series of blows this week as MPs sought to make him cow to Brussels.

Twenty-one Tory rebels joined Opposition parties to seize the Commons agenda and push through a bill delaying Brexit to at least January.

The treacherous MPs - including former chancellor Phillip Hammond and Sir Nicolas Soames, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill - were booted out of the party as warned.

TORY PURGE

That purge of anti-Brexit rebels left the PM without a majority in Parliament and essentially unable to govern.

But yellow-bellied Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn became the first Opposition chief in history to turn down the offer of a General Election.

He called on his MPs to abstain a vote that would have triggered a snap election - which Boris had hoped to take place on October 15.

The Prime Minister - riding high in opinion polls because of his strong Brexit stance - hopes for a pro-Brexit Tory landslide in a quick poll.

That would give him a fresh mandate to storm a crunch EU summit in Brussels on October 17 to hammer out a last-minute Brexit deal.

We'd be happy to get to work with a United Kingdom [free trade agreement]. We just have to get a greenlight from their side, with respect to their parliamentary activities and their discussions with the EU

Larry KudlowPresident Trump's chief economic adviser

If a new favourable deal is not reached, Boris has vowed to go ahead with a No Deal Brexit to finally take us out of the EU on October 31.

He hammered the point home on Thursday when the PM said he'd rather "die in a ditch" than see another "pointless" Brexit delay.

In a nod to the confusion in Parliament, Mr Kudlow added: "We'd be happy to get to work with a United Kingdom [free trade agreement].

"We just have to get a green light from their side, with respect to their parliamentary activities and their discussions with the EU."

FREE TRADE PLEDGE

Vice President Mike Pence said during a visit to the UK on Thursday that the US still remains committed to a swift deal with Brexit Britain.

He said President Trump asked him to "convey that the United States of America is ready, willing, and able to do a free trade agreement with the UK immediately upon the completion of Brexit."

Mr Pence added: "As I told Prime Minister Johnson today, we believe a free trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom could increase trade between our two countries three or four times.

"And we’re already going to work on that free trade agreement.

"When you’re ready, we’ll be ready."

He later vowed: "Our message is clear: The minute the UK is out, America is in."

 Vice President Mike Pence recommitted the US pledge for a fast post-Brexit trade deal during his visit to the UK this week

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Vice President Mike Pence recommitted the US pledge for a fast post-Brexit trade deal during his visit to the UK this weekCredit: EPA
 John Bolton meeting the Chancellor Sajid Javid last month, where the US National Security Adviser said the UK was 'first in line' for a trade deal with the US

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John Bolton meeting the Chancellor Sajid Javid last month, where the US National Security Adviser said the UK was 'first in line' for a trade deal with the USCredit: AFP or licensors
PM Boris Johnson 'would rather be dead in a ditch' than ask EU for another Brexit delay


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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9881248/britain-trade-deal-us-brexit-boris-johnson-mps/

2019-09-07 01:31:00Z
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U.K. House of Lords Approves Measure Blocking No-Deal Brexit - National Review

Brexit posters in Westminster in London, England, May 23, 2019. (Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

The British House of Lords on Friday passed a measure barring the United Kingdom from divorcing the European Union without a deal between the two sides, ensuring that the measure will become law after the House of Commons passed it earlier this week.

The law requires Prime Minister Boris Johnson to request an extension of the current October 31 Brexit deadline from the EU if the two sides have not reached a deal on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal by October 19.

Johnson has vowed that he will not ask the EU for an extension but will keep Brexit on track despite the lack of an agreement, saying Thursday that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than delay.

“There are no circumstances in which I could accept anything like it,” Johnson said. “We promised the people we would get Brexit done. Enough is enough. The country wants this done.”

Nevertheless, the measure will become law as soon as it gets formal royal approval.

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https://www.nationalreview.com/news/u-k-house-of-lords-approves-measure-blocking-no-deal-brexit/

2019-09-06 15:37:00Z
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Jumat, 06 September 2019

No one thought a UK Prime Minister could be worse than Theresa May. Until now. - CNN

By the end of her inglorious three-year stint in Downing Street, even her most loyal supporters admitted that the robotic May would never be regarded as one of the greatest British leaders.
By comparison, Boris Johnson's off-the-cuff, sunny disposition made him a darling of Conservative Party members who chose him for the top job when May finally resigned, defeated by her inability to get a Brexit deal through Parliament.
On his first day as Prime Minister, Johnson promised a bold new Brexit deal, bashing the "doubters, doomsters, gloomsters" and the political class who he said had forgotten about the British people they serve. It was as if an upbeat attitude alone could be enough to overcome any adversity on the United Kingdom's path to exiting the European Union.
A legacy of failure: Theresa May was a disaster as Prime Minister
For a moment, it seemed he would breathe new life and, in his words, "positive energy," into the Brexit process. Some thought, just maybe, he could manage to do what May did not.
How quickly it all went wrong.
Johnson has lost every one of his first votes in parliament, an unprecedented record in the modern era. Undeterred, the Prime Minister purged 21 members of his parliamentary party who voted against him, blowing apart his majority.
Then, his efforts to secure a snap general election -- with the goal of replacing the sacked lawmakers with a new slate of candidates more aligned with his hard-Brexit views -- were scuppered when opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to play along.
Now, he is effectively trapped in Downing Street, with Corbyn holding the keys. The government plans to propose new elections again on Monday, but the opposition leader says his party will only support the move when its efforts to prevent a no-deal Brexit are locked down.
"Certainly his biggest tactical mistake so far was not to realize that it was Corbyn, as leader of the opposition, who effectively had veto power over when a general election could be held," said Professor Tony Travers, director of the Institute of Public Affairs at the London School of Economics.
Boris Johnson reacts to Jeremy Corbyn during his first Prime Minister's Questions Wednesday.
"It looks as if the Conservatives and their advisers thought that if they offered a general election to the Labour Party it would jump at the opportunity, but the way things have turned out -- the coming together of the no-deal bill and the possibility that the opposition can frustrate a general election -- creates the possibility of keeping the Prime Minister trapped in government, unable to fulfill his commitment to leave the EU come what may."
Now the newly minted PM finds himself in a position that May never was -- on his knees, begging the opposition for a general election.
How did it come to this?
The bad luck set in with Johnson's decision to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament from mid-September, effectively shortening the time available to lawmakers to block a no-deal Brexit. It will be the longest suspension of Parliament since World War II, and it jolted the fractured opposition parties. Divided on Brexit, they were united in their opposition to what they perceived as an all-out assault on British constitutional conventions.
The 'mother of parliaments' is falling apart on live TV
Since then, the blows have kept on coming -- many of them self-inflicted. The conduct of Johnson's shadowy chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has riled many senior Conservatives. First, there was a decision to fire an aide to the chancellor, Sajid Javid, who was reportedly marched out of Downing Street by an armed police officer after Cummings accused her of not being open about her contacts with more Remain-minded members of the party. All the more galling, for some, was the fact that the aide in question was an ardent Brexiteer.
Then, more explosively, was the decision to fire 21 rebellious MPs who voted with opposition lawmakers in favor of a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit, widely seen as a plan hatched by Cummings. The list included eight former Cabinet ministers, two former finance secretaries, the longest-serving member of the House of Commons and the grandson of Winston Churchill.
Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major urged Johnson to ditch his aides. "Get rid of these advisers before they poison the political atmosphere beyond repair. And do it quickly," he said in a speech in Glasgow.
On Thursday, in the most potent of humiliations, Johnson's own brother quit his ministerial post and said he would stand down as an MP -- that rare breed of politician to leave his job in order to spend less time with his family.
"In recent weeks I've been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it's an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister," Jo Johnson tweeted on Thursday.
Boris Johnson with his brother Jo, left, at the launch of his leadership campaign.
That seemed to hang like a cloud over the Prime Minister when he made a speech that might have been the opening salvo of an election campaign, under other circumstances.
In front of a wall of police cadets in West Yorkshire, Johnson attempted to recite the caution that police deliver to suspects when they make an arrest, only to stumble over the words and abandon the joke halfway through. He then lurched into some lackluster remarks that had commentators cringing.
Finally, in the heat, one of the cadets behind him sat down, apparently to avoid fainting. Johnson turned to ask her if she was okay, promised to end the event, but carried on anyway.
Journalists' questions were brutal. "Aren't people entitled to ask, if your own brother can't back you, why should anyone else?" one asked.
It is indeed an open question. Certainly, an election is a gamble. But it is a risk that Johnson and his advisers have taken in the hopes that, by turning the broad church coalition of the Conservative Party into a group of Euroskeptics, that it will reconfigure the Brexit alliance and prove enough to win a general election.
Boris Johnson makes a speech flanked by police cadets in West Yorkshire Thursday.
If Johnson is able to pull it off, his decision to kick out moderate Conservative members will have effectively set him up to have a far more consolidated, hard-line pro-Brexit party -- saving his skin and redefining the Tories all at once.
But, if his bumbling and, at times, awkward speech Thursday was any indication, he may have lost some of the winning luster that had previously seemed so promising.
His predecessor was endlessly slammed for her poor performances in speeches -- from her robotic dancing to losing her voice -- but she never lined up dozens of bemused police officers as a backdrop to a political stunt.
Yet, unlike May, Johnson was able to ram home the core political message that he intends to take the UK out of the EU "no ifs or buts" by October 31 -- a stark contrast to her central failure to find consensus.
Asked if he could promise the British public that he would not go to Brussels and ask for another delay to Brexit, Johnson said: "Yes I can. I'd rather be dead in a ditch."

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/europe/boris-johnson-theresa-may-brexit-gbr-intl/index.html

2019-09-06 09:20:00Z
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Kamis, 05 September 2019

Boris Johnson defeated again; no snap UK election - Al Jazeera English

London, UK - For the third time in two days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suffered a major parliamentary defeat as his bid to call an election next month was easily thwarted late on Wednesday.

Johnson's Conservative Party failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to call a snap election, mustering only 298 of the 434 votes required.

Given the size of the rebellion, and the subsequent lack of numbers on the government’s benches, most opponents abstained from voting, with just 56 opposition politicians actively opposing his bid to head to the polls in the coming weeks. 

After the vote went badly against him, he chided opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn before MPs. 

"I think [Corbyn] has become the first opposition leader in the history of our country to refuse the invitation to head to a general election," said Johnson. "I can only speculate as to the reasons behind his hesitation, the obvious conclusion is I'm afraid that he does not think he will win."

Downing Street insisted Johnson would not resign to force a general election after losing control of the House of Commons a day earlier, resulting in a defeat that allowed the opposition, led by Corbyn's Labour party, to attempt to legislate to block a "no-deal" withdrawal from the European Union by forcing Johnson to seek a delay if he fails to reach an agreement with Brussels.

His supporters ended a night-long filibuster in the upper House of Lords when the government gave up trying to block the proposed legislation.

The opposition said they should now be able to pass the bill before Johnson suspends parliament for over a month next week.

"Govt commits to allowing (the draft legislation) to complete all stages in course of Thurs & Friday - with the bill then going back to the Commons for any further consideration on Monday," the Labour party tweeted early on Thursday.

No-deal Brexit could cause UK food, fuel and medicine shortages

'Rebel alliance'

A "rebel alliance" of 21 Conservative MPs were kicked out of the party on Tuesday night after siding with the opposition. They had taken issue with Johnson's plan to suspend parliament for five weeks ahead of the Brexit deadline on October 31, allowing the clock to run down towards the legal default of leaving the bloc without a divorce deal in place.

Many economists, business leaders, health sector administrators and political analysts had said such a situation would hurt EU economies, but would be disastrous for the UK, leading to shortages of medicine and fresh food - among other consequences.

The Conservatives were subsequently seeking a general election to wrest back control ahead of a key European Council summit in mid-October.

If victorious, Johnson and his advisers believed he would have a mandate to fulfil his pledge to take Britain out of the EU on October 31, deal or no deal, and would be able to repeal any new law stemming from Wednesday's legislation attempting to delay Brexit.

But with no majority and a seemingly united opposition, it has become clear Johnson is now unable to govern with parliament in its current form, and an election seems inevitable, sooner or later.

For the past few years, the Labour party has also sought a general election. The Liberal Democrats, also enjoying a resurgence in fortunes after being nearly wiped out at the ballot box following a stint in a coalition government with the Conservatives, would also like an election. But neither party supported Johnson's call to bring the country to the polls at this time.

'Trust issues'

Under legislation brought in under Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who sparked the Brexit crisis by calling the in-out EU membership referendum in 2016 in a bid to unite the Conservative party, a bid to call an early election needs the support of two-thirds of the parliament.

Fundamentally, Boris Johnson's problem is that nobody on the opposition benches, and a lot of people within his own party, simply don't believe anything he says

Chris Wilkins, Theresa May speechwriter

"Boris Johnson is not trusted in parliament and we have to make sure he doesn't try to play any tricks," the Liberal Democrats' deputy leader Ed Davey told Al Jazeera.

"We want an election for our own partisan purposes," he added. "The reason we want to delay just a few weeks is we don't trust Boris Johnson, and we want to make sure 'no deal' cannot happen. This is not the time yet for a general election - maybe quite soon - but we want to make sure the crash out can't happen.

"We want to put the national interest ahead of our party interest."

Johnson's perceived problem with truthfulness persists beyond parliament.

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"Boris has been asked so many times 'What's your plan?' - and he refuses to publish it," said Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee, reporting from London.

"And so many on the European negotiating side have said there is no plan. So then when he stands up in parliament and says there is a plan, people just think he's a liar."

Chris Wilkins was a speechwriter for former prime minister Theresa May.

"The big issue at the heart of all of this is a lack of trust," he told Al Jazeera. "Fundamentally, Boris Johnson's problem is that nobody on the opposition benches, and a lot of people within his own party, simply don't believe anything he says - and that's a massive problem for a prime minister with no majority to play with."

The divisions in the Conservative Party over Europe have been long-held.

"These are unprecedented times, I've never known anything like it," said Wilkins. 

"There has been a civil war over Europe brewing in the Conservative Party for 30 to 40 years, and this week it has broken out, fully into the open. And the prime minister has picked a side - he's picked the side of the Brexiteers, the people who are anti-Europe, and that means he is kicking out of the party people who are traditional one-nation conservatives. And people are looking at that and saying 'look we're not going to stand for this'."

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/boris-johnson-defeated-snap-uk-election-190904201302893.html

2019-09-05 05:51:00Z
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