Babak Belurs

Minggu, 06 Desember 2020

COVID-19: Batches of coronavirus vaccine pictured arriving at London hospital ahead of UK-wide rollout - Sky News

Batches of the coronavirus vaccine have been pictured arriving at a hospital in south London ahead of the UK-wide rollout of the treatment this week.

Staff have been unloading doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab from boxes at Croydon University Hospital before placing them in freezers on the site.

The COVID-19 vaccine must be stored in temperatures of -70C to -80C.

Louise Coughlan, joint chief pharmacist at Croydon Health Services, said: "This is just so exciting, it's a momentous occasion.

"The NHS has been planning ostensibly to deliver the largest vaccination programme in our history - so it's really exciting."

She added: "To know that (the vaccines are here) and we are amongst the first in the country to actually receive the vaccine, and therefore the first in the world, is just amazing - I'm so proud."

Vaccinations will be administered at dozens of hospital hubs from Tuesday.

People aged 80 and over, care home workers, and NHS workers at the highest risk will be the first to receive the jab.

There are 50 hubs in the first wave of the vaccination programme in England, with more hospitals starting to vaccinate over the coming weeks and months as the programme ramps up.

The NHS's medical director in England has said the start of the vaccination programme this week feels like the beginning of the end".

Professor Stephen Powis said: "As a doctor, this is a really exciting moment."

But he warned that what he describes as the "largest scale vaccination campaign in our country's history" will be a "marathon, not a sprint".

He said: "It will take many months for us to vaccinate everybody who needs vaccination."

Professor Powis also admitted there were "huge complexities" but said the NHS had a "strong record of delivering large-scale vaccination programmes".

He continued: "Hardworking staff will once again rise to the challenge to protect the most vulnerable people from this awful disease."

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Professor Powis said extra staff were being drafted in to help with the immunisation programme, and urged people to continue seeking treatment for non-coronavirus health problems.

NHS Providers, the association of foundation trusts and trusts, has told Sky News the UK could have up to four million vaccine doses by the end of the year.

GP surgeries in England have been told to start staffing COVID-19 vaccination centres by 14 December.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly been referring to Tuesday as "V-Day" and told The Sunday Telegraph that he "can't wait" to scrap the three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions and "get back to living by mutual respect and personal responsibility, not laws set in parliament".

When asked if the distribution of the vaccine beginning this week could mean restrictions end sooner, he said: "Yes, it will."

He added: "There's no doubt that having the vaccine early... will bring forward the moment when we can get rid of these blasted restrictions but until then we have got to follow them."

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2020-12-06 18:22:41Z
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Brexit: Lambs to the slaughter - BBC News

Brexit talks have been passed back to negotiators, with little sign of progress from the UK and EU leadership, and with no deal getting worryingly close for exporters.
Sheep meat is one sector facing particularly high tariffs - put there to protect British and other European farmers, but now the UK will be outside the EU fortress.
Even with a tariff-free deal, there will be high extra costs for animal produce going to Europe, involving certification, queues and border checks.

Remember spring? If you were lucky enough to get out to somewhere rural, you probably saw some cute lambs a-gambolling.

Well, it's not looking good for them now. They've put on some weight, and are less cute. Or they were. This has been the slaughtering season.

About a third of Scottish lamb goes for export, and 98% of that is to the European Union. French chefs highly value uplands-grazed lamb.

There's a metaphor somewhere in there for the Brexit talks.

But for sheep farmers, this isn't metaphor. This is their future. The average tariff on sheep meat is 48%. It is not a flat rate: instead, there's a fee per kilo and a percentage of the value.

And the more it is butchered and processed, the higher the tariff on entering the European Union.

UK-EU trade talks restart as 'sticking points' remain

Why so high? Because the European Union has acted as a fortress to protect its farmers, including those in Britain, against cheap imports. New Zealand, for instance, produces more efficiently in bigger farm units, with bigger flocks and blessed with better quality pasture.

'Fortress Europe'

New Zealand, which took a huge hit when the UK joined the European Economic Community, is still a big exporter into the European Union (and the UK), but only up to a tariff-free quota.

So while the UK consumes roughly the same amount of sheep meat that it produces, there is a more complex food market of surplus and exports at this time of year, and imports at other times.

Having been protected by the fortress Europe regime for agriculture, the UK has chosen to go outside said battlements. And at such levels of tariff, a no-deal Brexit at the end of this month is expected to lead to no exports at all.

What happens then? Britain will have an oversupply, which would drive down prices, making sheep farming non-viable.

One option is to develop new markets. That doesn't happen overnight. The next best market is likely to be in the Middle East and North Africa. Halal slaughter would be required, and there are animal welfare issues with that.

A UK government minister suggested sheep farmers could shift to beef, to replace Ireland's sales of beef into the UK. (He didn't offer suggestions on what Ireland's beef farmers should do.)

Beef will also face very high tariffs, as the UK government intends to continue keeping out cheap imports, and if it has to set a high tariff to keep out beef from the US, Brazil or Argentina, the World Trade Organisation rules dictate that it has to set the same tariff for Ireland and the rest of the European Union.

Unless, that is, there's a deal on reducing tariffs.

The farming experts I've been hearing from over recent weeks of looking into this also point out that shifting from sheep to beef is a lengthy process of buying and rearing stock, and some land simply isn't suitable for it.

Pig farmers have another distinctive issue. In Britain, we eat less than half a pig. The other bits have other uses. You probably don't want to know the details, but think "sausage meat". It is only by making maximum use of all the "fifth quarter" cuts of meat that pig farming can be viable.

'No questions asked'

A lot of this is exported, in what is known as groupage - lots of bits of pig in the back of a truck. In the single market, that can be trucked straight through to Germany's sausage factories, no questions asked. Outside the single market, each consignment within that groupage requires export certification.

So this is one part of the economy, and an important one for rural Scotland, watching closer than most as the two sides in Brexit talks struggle and so far fail to reach a deal.

As I've already detailed, those producing seed potatoes won't be allowed to export anything at all, even with tariffs, unless there's a new trading relationship.

Tariffs as a percentage are much lower on car parts, but such is the efficiency and inter-dependence of the auto industry supply chain that a failure to get a deal is estimated by manufacturers to carry a £55bn cost to that industry.

Fisheries remain a stumbling block, as the UK government seeks to keep its promises to a small number of coastal communities.

They made no such promises to the larger number of people who process and export fish, and those whose shellfish exports depend on quick, easy access to European markets. So they are the ones who would lose out if British exporters face tariffs or quotas.

And if there is a deal, bringing an end to the threat of tariffs? Returning to the sheep farmers, that would be a huge relief. But being outside the single market and customs union will still carry a significant cost.

Every export consignment of animal products, including meat and dairy, will have to carry an Export Health Certificate, signed by a vet who has to be qualified in the complex task of tracing supply chains.

(As things stand, a supermarket lorry loaded in Scotland and carrying numerous types of meat and dairy to a Northern Ireland retail outlet will need an export certificate for each one of them, because the province is deemed to be inside the single market.)

With carcasses loaded onto trucks, they head for the Channel ports. Each truck will need a pass to be allowed into Kent, where they could face long delays in lorry parks, at least until the new rules settle down.

Crossing to Calais, they will find it has no entry port (yet) for red meat, so it will have to be taken for checking up the coast at Dunkirk. Fish have to be taken down the coast to Boulogne, and if fresh, they lose value at a faster rate.

Limited licences

Arrival at customs will have to be pre-booked. Each truck's paperwork will have to be checked for tractor unit and trailer, and there will be a check that the consignment matches the lorry. There are a limited number of licences by British drivers allowed onto the continent.

Customs officers can check as rigorously as they wish. At present, inbound consignments from New Zealand face a low level of checking. From Brazil, the proportion checked is much higher.

It's not impossible that a rancorous UK departure from the EU will lead to lengthy checks and even longer queues. Suppose French fishing crews are in dispute over access to British waters, and you can see that Boulogne might not be a welcoming destination for a lorry-load of British fish.

And so it goes on. The practicalities of Brexit with a deal are much more onerous than at present.

The costs of Brexit without a deal are much higher still, and in agricultural goods, they will simply kill off large export markets. The stakes for steaks could hardly be higher.

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2020-12-06 16:33:00Z
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Brexit: Sheep farmers 'will get help' if UK-EU trade talks fail - BBC News

Sheep farmers will receive financial help if no trade deal is reached with the European Union, the UK's environment secretary has said.

George Eustice said sheep farming would need financial support "because it exports quite a lot to the EU".

The Welsh Government's Brexit minister said the Treasury "need to commit to that being available" because funding promises "have already been broken".

UK chief negotiator Lord Frost is continuing post-Brexit trade talks.

The UK left the EU in January but entered a transition period until the end of 2020 in which the trading rules remained broadly the same.

If a deal is not reached, from 1 January border checks and taxes will be introduced for goods travelling between the UK and the EU.

With more than 90% of Welsh lamb exports destined for EU markets, Mr Eustice said the sector "perhaps more than any other sector...is likely by to be impacted" if there is no trade deal.

"We have already developed potential interventions to support the sector in the short term should that be needed," he said.

"It's important to realise as well that demand globally is currently very high - lamb prices are some 15% to 20% higher than they were last year.

"So, we will keep a very close eye on this sector, and we'll be ready to intervene if needed, but it's not clear at this stage that we would need to."

Speaking on the BBC Politics Wales programme, Montgomeryshire's Conservative MP Craig Williams said: "Everyone around that [UK Government] cabinet table... has assured me that the cheque book will open instantly, regulations will be looked at and support will be put in place [for the Welsh lamb sector].

A chart showing where Welsh lamb is sold. Five per cent is sold in Wales, 55 to 60 per cent to the rest of the UK and 35 to 40 per cent is exported

"We don't want a no deal. Sheep farmers, especially, don't want a no deal.

"But let nobody the other side of the English Channel be in any doubt, we'll have it if they're not going to treat us like an independent sovereign nation, and we'll cope."

Ports

Earlier in the week, First Minister Mark Drakeford said plans for Holyhead Port show "just how shambolic" UK ministers have been on Brexit.

Mr Drakeford said the UK government was "in a scramble to resolve" issues around the Anglesey port as it entered talks to purchase a transport cafe near Holyhead for a customs site.

Responding to the first minister's comments, Mr Eustice said a phased approach to introducing checks was always the intention.

He added: "That meant that we didn't need to have all of that infrastructure in place at Holyhead."

But some customs checks will start on 1 January 2021 and therefore, until the site is operational, checks for lorries arriving at Holyhead Port will initially take place in Warrington.

As well as the joint site with the UK government in Holyhead, the Welsh Government is looking at two potential sites for food safety, and animal and plant health checks in the south west of Wales to deal with lorries arriving at Pembroke and Fishguard ports.

HMRC intends to conduct customs checks at the ports themselves in the new year.

The food and plant checks will start in July but the Welsh Government's Counsel General Jeremy Miles said: "We think there's a serious risk, both in north Wales and in the south west, that the arrangements won't be ready for July of next year because of the delay in getting the sites selected and those are choices the UK Government have made very recently."

Mr Miles also said he expected "disruption at the ports" following the transition period "because of new frictions at the border".

He added: "We have plans to provide stacking for traffic as it approaches Holyhead."

Dublin politician and Fine Gael European affairs spokesman Neale Richmond said the Irish capital's port has "now doubled in size" and would be ready for 1 January.

But he told BBC Politics Wales: "What we are seeing though, unfortunately, is a lot of exporters from Ireland... they are looking more and more at the direct shipping links.

"So, you would have seen last week the announcement of the new link from Wexford to Dunkirk.

"We're seeing new sailings to Santander, to Lisbon, to Zeebrugge and we hope to see a new one to Le Havre too because people cannot countenance possible delays, be it getting in and out of Holyhead or getting in and out of Dover."

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2020-12-06 15:12:00Z
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Marr mocks Boris for agreeing more talks - 'We had oven-ready deal - was oven unplugged?' - Daily Express

UK and EU negotiators have resumed talks in Brussels in a "final throw of the dice" as they try to secure a post-Brexit trade deal. Their return to the negotiating table follows an hour-long call on Saturday between Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in which they agreed on a final push to get an agreement. As he grilled Environment Secretary George Eustice on the latest developments, BBC One host Andrew Marr mocked the Prime Minister's over his famous election pledge of an "over-ready Brexit deal".

He said: "So much for the oven-ready deal. Has someone unplugged the oven?"

Mr Eustice attempted to defend the Prime Minister and his Government's Brexit position as he argued the oven-ready deal was in fact the withdrawal agreement signed with Brussels at the end of the first phase of the negotiations.

The Tory MP said negotiations on a post-Brexit free trade deal are now entering the "final few days" which will determine whether there can be an agreement.

Mr Eustice, however, hinted there would be a further extension to finalise the details if the "fundamental divergences" which existed could be overcome.

"I think we probably are now in the final few days in terms of deciding whether there can be an agreement," he told Marr.

"Of course if the ambience warms up again and actually great progress is made and it is just about sorting out the detail, then you can always find more time, you can always extend.

"But I think unless we can resolve these quite fundamental divergences at the moment then we are going to have to take a position in the next few days."

He also acknowledged there will be "some impact" on food prices if the UK fails to get a trade deal with the EU.

"There will be some impact on prices but the analysis that has been done by some of the economic modellers is that it is quite modest - less than 2 percent as a result of tariffs," he added.

"It would be higher on some things such as beef and pork but those make up a relatively small proportion of the overall family shop."

In a joint statement following their call, Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen acknowledged "significant differences" remained on the key issues of fishing rights, competition rules and the governance arrangements for any deal.

"Both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved," they said.

"Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved.

"We are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow in Brussels. We will speak again on Monday evening."

The call took place after Mr Barnier and Lord Frost announced on Friday that they were putting the talks on "pause" after the latest round of negotiations failed to achieve breakthrough.

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Lord Frost has now arrived in Brussels with a small team of negotiators to attempt to work through the remaining issues.

While in the past much of the focus has been on the differences over fisheries, British sources indicated they would be looking particularly at the so-called "level playing field" rules on issues like state aid for business.

Theresa May's former chief of staff Lord Gavin Barwell said he believes a deal on a post-Brexit trade agreement is "definitely still possible", although it will rely on whether or not both sides are "prepared to make the compromises necessary".

Lord Barwell told BBC Breakfast: "Both sides are going to have to compromise if we're going to get a deal from this situation."

Lord Barwell said: "We are now 25 days from the end of the transition period and business, both in the UK and in Europe, have no idea on what terms they're going to be able to trade with their nearest market from January 1.

"That is a pretty shocking failure."

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2020-12-06 12:10:00Z
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Britain 'can't be the only country that doesn't control its own waters': George Eustice on Brexit - The Telegraph

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2020-12-06 11:28:44Z
CCAiCzU5cXZBc2dLb2cwmAEB

Brexit: Talks in 'difficult position' but UK will keep negotiating 'until no point doing so' - Sky News

Post-Brexit trade talks are in "a very difficult position" but the UK is ready to keep negotiating "until there is no point doing so any further", Environment Secretary George Eustice has told Sky News.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge On Sunday, the cabinet minister said progress was being made but the EU had then "added a whole load of additional demands" which created problems and was a "setback".

Negotiators are returning to the table in a "final throw of the dice" to strike a deal, as former prime minister Gordon Brown warned of an "economic war" with Europe and the US if one cannot be reached and a shadow minister describes no deal as "catastrophic".

Mr Eustice said the UK is prepared to make some agreements on the so-called level playing field, but argued the EU must treat the UK as a sovereign power.

Arriving in Brussels today, the UK's chief negotiator David Frost said: "We will be looking forward to meeting our European colleagues later on this afternoon," and he added: "We will be working very hard to get a deal."

On fishing, a key sticking point, Mr Eustice accused the EU of making "ludicrous" demands over future fishing rights.

While the UK was prepared to offer a multi-annual deal of up to three years, the EU was insisting on access to British waters "in perpetuity".

He said: "The EU have suggested a very modest increase that they would tolerate the UK having of the fish in its own waters, but given that we only have half of the fish in our own waters now that simply wouldn't be possible.

"There is also the more important principle that you would not be able to give any guarantees for the long-term, otherwise you are effectively guaranteed access in perpetuity to our waters which is just not right under international law.

"We would be the only country in the entire world that could agree that, so such a suggestion really is quite ludicrous and not consistent with international law."

Pressed over whether the talks have in fact been a "charade", he said "we will find out in the next day or two whether it is an exercise the EU's engaged in" and "whether this is a choreographed thing on their part".

He said: "It is in a very difficult position - there is no point denying that.

"There was some hope early last week, some progress was being made, and at one point it looked like there might be a breakthrough but then the European Union added a whole load of additional demands after that which caused some problems.

"We will continue to work on these negotiations until there is no point doing so any further but there is no point denying that what happened late last week was a setback."

With time running out before the Brexit transition period ends at the end of the month, Britain's chief negotiator Lord Frost is reconvening talks with his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in Brussels to try to resolve "significant differences".

It follows an hour-long call on Saturday between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which they agreed on a final push to get an agreement.

Labour former prime minister Gordon Brown warned of "huge international implications" of failing to reach an agreement with the EU.

He told Sky News: "We would be in an economic war with Europe that would cost us very dearly. Food, drugs and everything else we'd find it difficult to get it into the country without tariffs and holdups.

"But we would also be in an economic war with America, because there would be no chance of trade treaty with America.

"Boris Johnson is going to end up as the most isolated prime minister in peacetime history with no friends around the world, because he has simply chosen a path of confrontation when everybody knows it is Britain's economic interest - maybe not in the Brexiteers' ideological interest - to get a deal and get a deal now."

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the UK "absolutely" needs a deal with the EU, although he refused to be drawn on how Labour would vote on any agreement and refused to rule out the opposition abstaining.

He told Ridge: "Clearly we need to see what has been agreed. I think that's a sensible, responsible position to take.

"But let's very much hope there is a deal because there seems to be two paths before us at the moment - a path of leaving the transition period without a deal and leaving with a deal, and we do know how catastrophic the no-deal outcome would be."

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2020-12-06 11:03:45Z
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Scotland's papers: 'Crunch time' for Brexit and the Union - BBC News

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2020-12-06 10:02:00Z
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Minggu, 06 Desember 2020

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'Fortress Europe'

'No questions asked'

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Ports

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