Monthly Archives: April 2022

At the 600-year-old Guildhall in the city of London, key players in a two-decade-old industry looking to remake finance are gathering.

Innovate Finances summit part of U.K. Fintech Week aims to showcase Britains financial technology sector and its global ambitions. Its profile has never been higher, with soaring demand from both customers and investors even if the latter are proving a little harder to find than in the U.S.

Investments in U.K. fintech companies more than tripled to $11.6 billion last year, according to figures published by Innovate Finance, a trade body for the industry. Thats not including the billions that more traditional banks and tech giants are splashing out to upgrade everything from current account apps to emerging uses for blockchain.

This weeks conference will discuss what the U.K. needs to do to remain the worlds preeminent financial services and innovation hub in the coming years, said Janine Hirt, chief executive officer of Innovate Finance.

The clock is ticking on this goal. Britain, where the wider finance sector makes up just under 10% of the economy, has some fintech success stories including Revolut Ltd., Monzo Bank Ltd. and OakNorth Bank that command multibillion-dollar valuations. However, few fintechs opt for London when it comes to selling shares on the stock market something the government is trying to change as it hunts for post-Brexit growth.

We take a dive into whos shaking up the U.K. fintech landscape, the unicorns to look out for, and the gender funding gap.

There are about 2,500 fintech companies in Britain, according to research by Deloitte. Most of these are based in London, which according to the accountancy firm is the third-biggest fintech hub in the world.

The term can apply to a wide range of businesses including online banks, technology to help apply regulations, price comparison websites and crypto exchanges.

British startups have attracted several blockbuster funding rounds in the past year.

Revolut, valued at $33 billion in its last funding in July, has more than 18 million customers worldwide on its app that offers services including money transfers, savings and investments. In December, digital bank Monzo completed its biggest funding round of $600 million, valuing it at $4.5 billion.

Copper.co., which helps financial institutions trade cryptocurrencies, has been in talks with investors to raise funds that would value it at around $3 billion.

Checkout.com, which processes payments for retailers, in January announced new funding that valued the business at $40 billion. In 2021, the company tripled the volume of transactions processed for the third year in a row.

Finance unicorn Starling Bank Ltd., whose backers include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is looking for fresh funding a year after its last round, Bloomberg News has reported.

Almost all of the investment is flowing into London and the south east of England, though $696 million went to firms outside this region during last year, according to Innovate Finance. In turn, the U.K. dominates fintech funding across Europe, which itself pales in comparison to the U.S.

The British government thinks it can go further. One untapped source of funding for fast-growing companies is pension funds, which account for about 12% of the venture capital funding in Britain, compared with 65% in the U.S., according to a 2019 report from the British Business Bank.

Chris Philp, Britains minister for technology and the digital economy, said in a February interview that investors are missing out on the returns opportunity provided by pre-IPO tech. Theres also a challenge matching small, unknown companies to large investors whod rather put cash into more established firms.

Late-stage funding also risks falling behind in Britain, which missed out on the craze for special purpose acquisition companies that brought a wave of firms to U.S. markets in the past few years. Money transfer platform Wise PLC achieved a direct listing in London, only to see its share price struggle since.

More than a third of privately funded U.K. fintechs expect to list within five years, according to figures from consultancy EY cited in last years Kalifa review. That review for the government recommended softening rules on areas such as founders stakes to entice fintechs to list here.

Another avenue for growth is collaboration with the so-called legacy banks. Consultancy EY and trade body Tech Nation launched a fintech pledge to increase the use of startups in the finance supply chain. All five major U.K. lenders have signed up.

Theres also still a long way to go for diversity. Kalifas report highlighted the importance of skills, access to global talent and strengthening the domestic pipeline to increase diversity and inclusion in the sector.

Seed stage companies across the U.K. technology industry have approximately 15% representation in the workforce of ethnic minority and other underrepresented communities, falling to 9% at more established firms, according to a report last year by trade body Tech Nation.

Women fintech founders in the U.K. receive 9% of all capital, and just 3% of venture capital funding goes to all-female teams, the report said. Entrepreneurs from Black, South Asian, East Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds receive in total 1.7% of VC investment.

Its a sign that the upheaval promised by the industry is yet to come to pass. For Marieke Flament, change isnt coming fast enough.

While fintech was instrumental in improving financial services for consumers, it didnt really disrupt things in a revolutionary way and the space has become very crowded and mainstream, said Flament, the chief executive officer of the NEAR Foundation, a nonprofit that oversees the development of a blockchain.

Some are disillusioned by this and feel as though their work life is in mid-life crisis mode and they need to reboot, she said.

The solution is for fintech itself to be disrupted, she says, arguing that web3 the catchall term for new online concepts including decentralized finance will be the opportunity for developers to inject adrenaline and true disruption into the industry.

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Post-Brexit London races to keep its head start in fintech - The Japan Times

When Doug Bannister told his family he would be joining the Port of Dover as its chief executive, weeks before the original March 2019 Brexit date, his father-in-law voiced what many might have thought: Are you mad?

The softly spoken American clearly isnt one to shy away from a daunting task, including taking over at Britains busiest port during what he calls the once in a generation change in the countrys trading relationship with its closest neighbours.

As negotiations dragged on, Brexit was delayed for another year, but when it came, the change was seismic. It was such a significant transformation that the nation was going through, and Dover is the epicentre of that activity. And I did sign up for that, Bannister says.

Even if, on arrival, he was pleasantly surprised at the ports preparations for Brexit, he never could have forecast the other storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Covid repeatedly disrupted traffic on Britains busiest trade route, halted most leisure travel for two years, and even saw France close its border in December 2020 to all travellers, including truck drivers, from England.

The drop-off in traffic put pressure on the finances of the port, run by the Dover Harbour Board, which was granted a royal charter in 1606. It does not have any external shareholders, and its trust port status prevented it from tapping investors or going to the capital markets to raise cash during the pandemic.

Freight traffic has largely returned to pre-Brexit, pre-pandemic levels at the UKs most important ro-ro port (so named because vehicles roll on and roll off the ships), Bannister says, although leisure travel has been recovering more slowly. A third of all the UKs trade in goods with the EU is handled by Dover, according to the latest figures from consultancy Oxera, which translates to a value of about 144bn. About 10,000 lorries travel through it each day 31% of all the HGVs that visit UK seaports.

Age 57

Family Married with four children, three of whom live with him in Kent, while his eldest daughter lives in the US.

Education BA in economics at St Lawrence University in New York state; MBA at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Pay Basic salary of 300,000. In 2020 he was paid an additional 122,000 in bonuses, pension contributions and benefits.

Last holiday Devon, last summer: It was glorious.

Best advice hes been given Go into any change positively. He believes an early positive attitude about change, combined with early engagement, generally leads to a better outcome.

Biggest career mistake I think I was not a good father to my first daughter. I was spending so much time working and travelling around the world for work that I missed her childhood. I have a very good relationship with her now.

Word he overuses I probably use the word wicked a lot.

How he relaxes Spending time with his children and in the garden.

Bannister says he fell into his long maritime career after taking a job with small shipping group Trans Freight Lines in the US, following a degree in economics. The 57-year-old would go on to work at P&Os container shipping division before it merged with Dutch line Royal Nedlloyd and was subsequently bought by the Danish giant Maersk.

His latest challenge has arrived out of a clear blue sky: as we pulled up outside the passenger cruise terminal, an enormous symbol of it hove into view. P&O Ferries hulking Spirit of Britain hasnt travelled anywhere since the company sacked 800 workers on 17 March. The 213-metre-long ferry, one of the largest operating in Europe, would usually only dock briefly at Dover during its five daily round trips between Kent and northern France.

We were looking forward to increasing passenger trade as Covid travel restrictions eased off, and so it is going to be difficult to handle that having the P&O ferries off the route. We hope they get them back sailing again in time for Easter, if not in time for the summer, Bannister says.

While P&O Ferries ships remain tied up, rival operators have scrambled to take extra passengers, with the port helping coordinate. Despite this, Bannister appears reluctant to pass judgment on the firm whose chief executive effectively admitted breaching employment law by dismissing his staff without notice or on the wider issue of rates of pay for international seafarers.

Assessing wages for crew is not always straightforward as frequently international seafarers dont pay any income taxes, because they are not a part of any particular nation, Bannister says. Some routes are different, like domestic routes like the Isle of Wight or maybe up in the Scottish islands. Its not necessarily a straight apples for apples comparison, but I do think it is right that people should get paid for the work that they do in the best way that they can be.

Even before the P&O scandal, port traffic had been repeatedly disrupted during the first weeks of the year, including by the introduction of new EU import controls, increased freight traffic, roadworks and a reduction in ferry services as vessels were refitted.

Traffic was flowing freely on the day the Observer visited, and there was no sign of the queue of lorries frequently seen snaking up the A20 road, which winds down to the coast. Bannister believes this is partly due to traders and hauliers getting used to new requirements, which include time-consuming passport and paperwork checks.

He concedes a consequence of Brexit is longer processing times at the border. There will be improvements which are made. People will get slicker at reading passports, get slicker at lodging paperwork and checking paperwork. But we are in a different trading regime.

An impending change, which could again lead to queues at the port, is also weighing on Bannisters mind. In September, the EU intends to introduce airport-style biometric checks at its external borders. This would affect Dover because of juxtaposed controls, where travellers clear French entry requirements before leaving the UK, and he has called on the British government to work with the EU on a solution.

To date, no process has been identified for a carload of people transiting a busy ferry terminal on a dark stormy night, he says. It would force people to exit their vehicles in busy moving traffic, which would be dangerous. We couldnt allow that to happen.

Over the centuries, Dover has capitalised on its geographic advantage of being located just 22 miles across the Channel from France. Bannister is convinced the recent bounceback in trade highlights the success of the short straits: the shortest distance between the UK and the continent. The market has chosen, he says. We have three different ferry operators operating from the port, two ports in France to go to, and then the Eurotunnel running alongside us.

Bannisters career has taken him on a circumnavigation of the globe from his home state of New Jersey to the island of Jersey where he ran the airport and harbours via Rotterdam, Australia (his favourite place to live and work) and New Zealand. Now, he clearly gets a kick out of working for an organisation as rich in history as this one, despite the varied challenges since he took up the role in Dover.

Itd be nice if there were a few less disruptions, he says. This business has been around for 400 years; its got incredible heritage. Itll be here for another 400 years.

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Doug Bannister, head of the Port of Dover: Were at the centre of Brexit. I signed up for that - The Guardian

Nigel Farage says 'Brexit means Brexit' as he sips a pint

Since the UK left the EU in January 2021, Remainers have noted numerous areas where Brexit Britain is worse off. Now, a Leave voter has praised Brexit for strengthening the UKs trade deals and soft power, while also helping its response to Ukraine.

Twitter user Gully Foyle,@TerraOrBust, posted a fiery rebuttal to the now cliche give me one tangible benefit to leaving the EU line from Remain voters.

His first point was to note that from a trade deal perspective, the UK previously had access to around 40 trade deals, as part of EU membership - which it paid billions a year for.

He noted: We have replicated all but 3 of those deals (Bosnia, Montenegro, Algeria) so no longer have to pay s each year for them.

According to the Governments website as of March 31, the UK has struck trade deals worth a combined 188.753 billion.

Trade agreements with Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greenland and Montenegro are still in discussion.

Mr Foyle also noted since leaving the EU we have improved the rolled over deals with Japan and Singapore as well as striking completely new deals with Australia and New Zealand.

He added: We would not have these deals right now, if we had stayed inside the EU.

Since Brexit, the UKs trade deal with Japan is valued at 24.444 billion, while Singapores is at 16.118 billion.

The UK signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand on February 28 2022, but it is not yet in force

Australia and Britain signed a free trade agreement in December 2021, for the first new UK trade deal signed since Brexit.

READ MORE:Brexit LIVE: Macron plot proves 'Brexiteer movement right all along'

In his Twitter thread, Mr Foyle also said that since leaving the EU, the UK soft power rating has increased, and is now second only to the US.

According to the Global Soft Power Index 2022 from Brand Finance, Britain is the second placed soft power nation, up from third and above Germany to lead Europe, while still behind Europe.

David Haigh, Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance, said of the report: Whilst the long-term impact of the UKs withdrawal from the European Union is still to be seen, the immediate result has been that of finally introducing some clarity and stability to the political and economic situation following years of conflict and uncertainty.

Consequently, contributing greatly to its overall result in the Index, the UK has seen an improvement in the Governance pillar, from 9th to 4th, driven by the positive change in the politically stable and well-governed metric.

The Global Soft Power Index by Brand Finance is an entirely survey-based annual research study on perceptions of nation brands, capturing opinions of over 100,000 respondents worldwide on 120 nation brands.

Mr Foyle also said of Britains improved soft power ranking: This is seen to be due to being able to speak openly to our allies with our own voice, and leverage our own diplomatic heft instead of as a slower and more flaky collective.

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Mr Foyle also touted Brexit in the UKs response to the Ukraine invasion, saying: Our independence from the EU has allowed the UK to take a leading role in the support of Ukraine.

Though ultimately the EU member states have mostly followed suit, they have done so weeks later, which couldve been the difference between winning and losing for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Boris Johnson is helping more than other leaders in the resistance against Russia.

The president said Britain is definitely on our side and is not performing a balancing act, but he declined to say whether the UK wants to end the war quickly at any cost.

When told the Prime Minister has been keener than Frances President Emmanuel Macron in sending weapons, Mr Zelensky responded: Yes. To be honest, Johnson is a leader who is helping more.

The leaders of countries react according to how their constituents act. In this case, Johnson is an example.

It comes after Mr Johnson suggested that the Czech Republic taking the EU presidency later in 2022 from France could lead to more pragmatic discussions of Brexit issues.

Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, is believed to be sympathetic to the UKs vote to leave the EU, and said in 2016 during the Brexit referendum: If I were British, I would consider Brexit.

There is no doubt that the EU needs fundamental change.

EU diplomats downplayed any ideas that the Czech presidency would lead to a change of stance, with one saying to the FT: There is no Czech policy on Brexit, just an EU policy.

Separately, the Czech government said it would continue with the current policy on Northern Ireland.

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Trade, power, Ukraine: Leave voter lists his top three Brexit benefits 'We have a voice' - Express

A production of Phantom of the Opera has been brought in from China to tour the EU rather than a production from the UK due to costs and red tape after Brexit, the boss of a theatre company has said.

Jessica Koravos, president of the Really Useful Group, which promotes the shows of Andrew Lloyd Webber around the world, told MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee about the complexities of staging British productions in the EU in the wake of Brexit.

Ms Koravos said it was more straightforward and less expensive to bring in a production from China.

She told MPs: Under the current circumstances, I would not dream of sending a UK production into Europe.

"I have in fact just made a decision to take a production that has been out together in China of Phantom of the Opera and bring that into the EU because it's more straightforward and less expensive."

Asked why it is more straightforward to bring a production from thousands of miles away in China, she added: "Because you can put it together as a unit touring company where its a single application for the company that goes into the Schengen Area and you get one permission for the whole production instead of having to deal with a series of individuals."

Read more:

Brexit: 'Real dividend' Leaving the bloc unshackles UK outlook on crop production - Express

Anita Leviant, President of the Israel-Britain Chamber of Commerce

(Calcalist)

Brexit is a very controversial thing, and of course presented a lot of difficulties for people and businesses who used to work with Europe via the UK and vice versa, said Anita Leviant, President of the Israel-Britain Chamber of Commerce. But generally speaking, I believe Brexit represented a great opportunity for UK-Israel relations and I think that the great demonstration of that is the new free trade agreement that is, as we speak, being established between the two countries.

In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to depart from the European Union and formally left in January 2020. Since then, it has allowed countries to individually collaborate with one another without navigating the bureaucratic or diplomatic tape of a larger bloc. [The agreement] will reflect things that were not there before, like instead of just goods also services, which is very supportive for tech companies, innovation, and better terms for the parties.

You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.

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Brexit represented a great opportunity for UK-Israel relations | CTech - CTech

Brexit: We must do right by Northern Ireland says Davis

The Conservative Party peer explained how Northern Ireland's executive has formed the basis of the peace settlement for the past 24 years. With the Assembly election due to be held on May 5, Lord Hannan said Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has one month to act.

Lord Hannan, writing in The Telegraph, said: "Britain has every right to adjust the Protocol in a way that respects the interests of both communities in Northern Ireland, by ensuring that the North/South border and the East/West border are fully open. Indeed, not just the right the duty.

"If the Protocol is in force after the 5 May election, there is no prospect of restoring the devolved government that has been the basis of the peace settlement these past 24 years. That gives Liz Truss, whose responsibility all this has now become, a month to act."

The former MEP added that to act would require primary legislation to put in place watertight procedures to address the EUs public concerns about goods standards.

He warned that such legislation may be opposed especially by "irreconcilable Remainers" in the House of Lords who are less interested in having a cordial relationship with the EU than trying to show Brexit was a failure.

Lord Hannan said: "If so, the government will have no option but to face them down even if that requires the creation of hundreds of new peers, as Asquith proposed during the 1910 crisis."

He cautioned the EU might hit back with trade restrictions - despite the war in Ukraine, energy crisis and a fragile world economy - but all Britain could do is "carry on being a responsible neighbour".

The protocol grants Northern Ireland special status to remain in the EU Single Market for agri-foods and manufactured goods.

At the same time, the province stays within the UKs customs realms, meaning it still stands to benefit from any post-Brexit trade talks the UK agrees with other countries.

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Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis has said 200 businesses in Great Britain are not trading with Northern Ireland due to the post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Talks between the UK and EU over the protocol have yet to result in a deal.

Mr Lewis told MPs that over the past six to nine months he has not seen the pragmatism or flexibility from the EU which would allow a deal.

Lord Hannan said the protocol has "smashed like a wrecking ball" through Ulster's intricate politics.

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He added: "The assembly election campaign is now in full swing there but, as things stand, there is no chance of power-sharing being restored.

"Not one Unionist MP or MLA regards the current deal as acceptable, and you can see why."

Lord Hannan listed Northern Ireland's detachment from Great Britain for regulatory and tax purposes as among the problems.

He claimed: "The delicate web of compromises on which the 1998 Belfast Agreement rests compromises that Unionists accepted with difficulty, involving, as they did, the release of IRA prisoners and the abolition of the RUC has been shredded."

The peer continued: "Dropping the most obviously destructive parts of the protocol would in no sense be unfriendly.

"Rather, it would be a proportionate measure aimed at preserving the Belfast Agreement.

"Britain is entitled in law to make such an adjustment. And, since it is putting in place unique and binding measures to prevent the leakage of goods across the Irish frontier, the EU will find it difficult to point to any harm it has suffered in consequence."

Unionists have voiced strong opposition to the protocol, regarding extra checks on goods at Northern Ireland's port as a border in the Irish Sea.

DUP MP Ian Paisley challenged Mr Lewis, saying the talk is very strong but he thought most people were wondering when action would be taken.

Mr Lewis said the UK Government has not yet triggered Article 16, which would suspend some elements of the post-Brexit arrangements, because ministers want to find an agreement for better stability and certainty for businesses.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin told an audience in Londonderry on Friday that Brexit continues to "bedevil" politics in Northern Ireland.

Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney had to abandon a speech to the Hume Foundation in Belfast following a security alert recently when a van driver was threatened by two gunmen and a hoax bomb placed in the vehicle.

Police linked loyalist paramilitaries to the incident.

Mr Martin said: "The Irish government will never dismiss genuinely held concerns around the Protocol and we are working very actively with our EU partners to listen and engage on them, but any opposition must always be peaceful. That is simply fundamental.

"There are democratic and lawful means for all concerns to be raised and resolutions worked through. That is where our focus must remain."

Stormont collapsed in 2017 when the DUP and Sinn Fin split in a bitter row over the former's handling of a green energy scandal.

A draft deal to restore the country's government, published in January 2020, was accepted by both parties, paving the way for power sharing to be restored.

However, division remains with DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson suggesting on Sunday that Sinn Fein was fixating on bringing about a united Ireland when it should be focused on issues affecting families in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty said the region's biggest unionist party wanted to make the election about the Protocol and was not interested in real delivery for people.

The claims were made ahead of two significant pre-election events for the parties.

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Brexit fury: Brexiteer warns Liz Truss has a month to act over Northern Ireland Protocol - Express

Government plans to waive border checks on goods from the EU including food and livestock will put the country at risk of importing devastating infectious diseases such as African swine fever and compound serious damage to UK trade caused by Brexit.

The double warning has been issued by the British Veterinary Association (BVA) as ministers consider yet another postponement of post-Brexit inspections because of fears that checks will slow supply chains, add to bureaucracy and increase prices in shops at a time when UK consumers are already facing a cost of living crisis.

The already much-delayed rules, including a requirement for veterinary certificates and potential spot checks after arrival, were due to be phased in from 1 July.

Tough new rules on imports were initially hailed by Brexiters as examples of how leaving the EU would allow the UK to take back control of its borders.

But now, amid growing evidence that Brexit is harming trade, senior figures in government, led by the minister for Brexit opportunities, Jacob Rees-Mogg, have changed tack and decided that less control rather than more is needed over imports in order to speed the flow of goods and reduce costs.

But the relaxation of animal safety standards is worrying both UK vets and many in the farming community.

James Russell, the senior vice president of the BVA, told the Observer he would be raising the alarm when he gives evidence this month to MPs on the international trade select committee.

Russell said that dropping checks would not only endanger animal health and have serious consequences for the UKs biosecurity but also compromise the UKs reputation for high standards on animal and food safety, which in turn could damage the trust that overseas businesses have in UK produce.

He said: If these controls are dropped there is a potential risk of an incursion of African swine fever which is spreading rapidly and has already had a catastrophic impact on animal health and agricultural industry in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Official veterinarians working at the border act as the countrys first line of defence of biosecurity, and we feel it would be deeply misguided to push back the need for these vital checks even further and in so doing weaken this layer of protection for both animal and public health.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, African swine fever is responsible for massive losses in pig populations and drastic economic consequences and has become a major crisis for the pork industry in recent years. Currently affecting several regions around the world, and with no effective vaccine, the disease is not only impeding animal health and welfare but has also detrimental impacts on biodiversity and the livelihoods of farmers.

Russell added that if food substances were imported into the UK with no records of their origins and were then included in a hybrid product such a pizza that product would become more difficult to export into markets such as the EU where full details of product origins are needed.

A further delay is, however, sure to be welcomed by many UK businesses which are already struggling with food supply chain issues made worse by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink, told the Financial Times last week that a decision to delay checks again would, however, infuriate UK exporters who had had to deal with mountains and paperwork and extra costs since the UK left the single market on 1 January last year.

Theres no doubt this will stick in the throat of a lot of exporters who are now 15 months into navigating a tsunami of paperwork that our EU competitors are not facing.

Ministers are conscious that the UKs trade performance failed to recover from the pandemic nearly as fast as other leading economies according to recent data, with many blaming Brexit. The Office for Budget Responsibility has stuck to its prediction that leaving the EU will result in total UK imports and exports being 15% lower than if it had stayed inside the bloc. Last week the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, told the Treasury select committee that the UKs poor trade performance compared with other G7 countries might well be due to Brexit.

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Swine fever risk if UK waives checks on imports from EU, say vets - The Guardian

The head of the foreign policy think tank Chatham House has said that improved relations with the EU will help to strengthen European security as well as indirectly support economic trade between the UK and the EU.

According to the Guardian, Dr Robin Niblett has advised the UK to work more formally with Brussels on foreign policy and defence, including issues such as cyber, intelligence and disinformation.

Europe and other NATO countries have pulled together to impose harsh sanctions on Russia following Putins invasion of Ukraine, however, the impact of Brexit risks the UK being excluded from deeper defence, industrial and technological cooperation within the EU.

Dr Niblett said: The risk remains that allowing these areas of dispute and friction in the economic sphere to persist, and possibly fester, will undermine both sides desire to forge a closer relationship on foreign and security policy - as is now even more critical.

Dr Niblett has suggested the UK could embed itself, along with the US and Canada, in the parallel processes to develop a new NATO strategic concept and the EUs strategic compass.

He continued: A more specific UK-EU dialogue on security could also emerge from the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

That could include the establishment of a sanctions review group that would ensure alignment on the timing and targets of sanctions, as well as conditions for their lifting.

He noted that the UK had been at the forefront of arming and training the Ukrainians, but had lagged behind in terms of providing aid, moral hypocrisy, human rights and economic performance.

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There will be no more precious asset in the future for Britains influence in the world than a reputation for consistency.

A report recently released examines the implementation of the UKs year-old landmark integrated foreign and defence review.

It says that the Governments inconsistencies on policies such as human rights and climate change have opened the Government up to damaging accusations of hypocrisy and are out of step with the UKs role as a champion of liberal democratic governance.

It also says that the UK has stepped back from tackling global health and poverty challenges over the past year due to aid cuts.

Read the rest here:

Brexit Britain must repair relationship with EU in face of Ukraine crisis, says expert - Express

EXPERTS have warned there is a battle against time to deal with rising tensions in Northern Ireland over the fallout from Brexit.

Protests over the post-Brexit protocol which keeps the country within the single market for goods and requires EU checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland have been on the increase.

The beginning of the campaign for the council elections has been marked by a bomb threat and smashing of windows of a constituency office.

Dale Pankhurst, teaching assistant and PhD candidate at Queens University Belfast, warned there is a battle against time to prevent the situation escalating.

The longer the problem persists, the more agitated sections of the population will become, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence returning to Northern Ireland, he said. There are a range of issues that cause grievance amongst the Unionist community.

READ MORE:Brexit protocols, 'sabotage and collusion': What is happening in Northern Ireland?

Many Unionists view the protocol as an assault on the fabric of the Union and a violation of the principle of consent within the Belfast Agreement. Many see the Protocol as a stepping stone to a united Ireland as it forces businesses to strengthen trading ties with the Republic of Ireland due to the difficulty to trade the Protocol brings between Northern Ireland-Great Britain trade.

Last week Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie linked an attack on his constituency office in which a window was smashed to his announcement he would no longer attend protests over the protocol.

He added: Somebody can smash my window but I can fix it, but the first time that someone gets injured, the first time that someone gets killed, there is no going back on that.

We are in a spiral of violence that I do not want to get us into. This is nothing to do with the election, this purely to do with protests around the protocol, which I do not think we should get involved in to raise tensions.

Beattie also linked the increasing political volatility to an upsurge in paramilitary activity, including a bomb hoax at an event attended by Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney in north Belfast. That incident, in which a van driver was hijacked at gunpoint, has been blamed on the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

READ MORE:DUP threats over Brexit 'may see Northern Irish devolution collapse forever'

Prominent politicians from other Unionist parties, including DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and TUV leader Jim Allister, have addressed recent protocol rallies, and defended them as peaceful protests.

Brexit has led to anger on both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland.

Pankhurst said: When there was a prospect of a hard, physical border returning along the Irish Border, nationalist politicians highlighted this would motivate resistance, both violent and non-violent, against border installations. Likewise with the onset of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Unionist politicians have highlighted that armed loyalist resistance may also materialise.

Last week Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis (above) said the protocol is not sustainable in its current format, saying 200 businesses in Great Britain are not trading with Northern Ireland due to the post-Brexit trade arrangements. Talks between the UK and the EU over the protocol have not yielded a deal.

Pankhurst called for both sides to become more aware of how precarious the situation is now becoming in Northern Ireland and to move quickly towards a resolution.

He said: The longer this sore festers, the more intractable the likelihood of reaching a settlement becomes due to increasing entrenchment and polarisation.

This problem will not be resolved simply through placing a physical border here or there.

The UKs withdrawal from the European Union is the first time the bloc has faced this scenario.

The border lines between the UK and the EU now lie along the fault lines of one of the worlds most intractable ethnic conflicts. Both sides must realise the seriousness of this fact.

Speaking at a conference last week on the UK constitution, organised by thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, Katy Hayward, professor of politics at Queens University in Belfast, said: Unionism is in a difficult place and I think the British Government need to think seriously about how it is handling all of this.

The Stormont powersharing executive collapsed earlier this year when the DUP withdrew Paul Givan as First Minister in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Hayward said the Assembly had performed remarkably well just before it broke up, introducing progressive legislation such as paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

She added: We are coming into a huge cost of living crisis, Northern Irelands standard of living is below the rest of the UK and yet this election could well be dominated by the issues of the protocol.

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Brexit protocol creating a 'spiral of violence' in Northern Ireland - The National

For the last two years our focus may have been on Covid and now Ukraine but our relationship with the European Union continues to be of importance. The signs are that the Conservatives want to make Brexit a major issue again by the time of the next general election.

This, in large part, reflects the fact the Conservative Party has little else to say. The coalition that voted Tory in 2019 had more in common on cultural issues than on economics. Every fiscal event exposes the lack of cohesion in the Conservatives economic thinking. In a low-growth economy, it will be impossible to achieve falling borrowing, low taxes and the promised additional funding for public services, as Rishi Sunak is discovering.

On boosting economic productivity, the Chancellor is asking some of the right questions and has a three-word slogan Capital, People, Innovation but has only got to the stage of asking businesses what he should do. It is hard to see how this will translate into anything that will make a tangible difference by 2024.

There is no obvious agenda on public service reform. Boris Johnsons big idea this week was that if pupils fall behind in English and maths schools should intervene and help get them back on track.Perfectly sensible but not exactly breaking new ground.

To be fair to the government, it has been consumed by two crises the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine but this does not mean it will get a free pass for lacking a record of achievement or exciting new ideas. Its best bet may be to play a variation on an old tune: Keep Brexit Done.

We saw signs of this in the Prime Ministers speech to the Conservative Party spring conference when he claimed that the Brexit vote was an example of the freedom-loving nature of the British people, who shared this characteristic with the Ukrainians resisting the Russian invasion. For those of us Johnson-sceptics who thought that his handling of the Ukraine conflict had been broadly adequate, it came as a reminder that he does not have what it takes to be a war leader that can unite the nation.

This particular speech was so egregiously crass that even many Brexit-supporting commentators condemned it but there is evidence that it is part of a strategy. The Times recently reported that David Canzini, the Prime Ministers new deputy chief of staff, told No 10 staffers that the number one priority was delivering on the promises of Brexit. Keeping the Leave/Remain divide alive appears to be the plan.

One obvious problem with the strategy is that Brexit, as an economic project, is evidently not going well. In its Spring Statement assessment, the Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed its previous assessment that Brexit has cost us 4 per cent of GDP (twice the long-term hit of Covid) with none of the supposed benefits resulting in any material economic contribution. The economic damage has been caused by a decline in trade with the EU, which Sunak was forced to admit was unsurprising when you change a trading relationship with the EU and that a change in our relationship will obviously have an impact. Unsurprising to those who thought Brexit would be costly would be more accurate. Sunak also maintained that the UK was not becoming a less open economy which, given the trade numbers, is obviously nonsense.We have not even implemented import checks yet and may have to delay them further.

The Prime Ministers solution to falling trade, by the way, is characteristically vague, boosterist and ignorant. There is no natural impediment to our exports, it is just will and energy and ambition, he told the Liaison Committee.

The mounting evidence of the economic damage caused by Brexit ought to be a worrying vulnerability for the government, with Labour pushing the line that the reason taxes are having to go up is because economic growth is so weak. It is a very good point.

Pointing out that growth is low is one thing but setting out a convincing explanation that growth would be higher with a change of government is another. There is, of course, an oven-ready solution to low growth, which would be to repair our economic relationship with the EU. Some of the 4 per cent hit to GDP caused by us leaving the single market and customs union could be recovered if we were to move closer to these institutions.

Labour, however, is reluctant to reopen the issue for much the same reason that the Conservatives are keen to talk about Brexit. Both parties assume that if our relationship with the EU is a prominent issue at the next general election, this will favour the Conservatives.

It is a curious state of affairs. The government wants to boast about a policy that is damaging growth; the opposition is keen to show that we are growing slowly but is frightened to explain why. Both parties are being evasive.

We are starting to see a debate about how we restore strong economic growth but both main parties want to discuss anything but the inadequacy of our trading relationship with the EU. This does the country no favours. If we want a stronger economy, this has to be addressed.

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Brexit has been disastrous but neither Labour nor the Tories want an honest debate - The New Statesman