Daily Archives: July 4, 2022

LONDON -- Germany and Ireland have condemned the U.K governments move towards unilaterally rewriting parts of the post-Brexit deal with the European Union.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Irish counterpart Simon Coveney said there was no legal or political justification for overriding the agreed trade rules in Northern Ireland.

Writing in British newspaper The Observer on Sunday, the ministers say Britain will be breaking an international agreement just two years old which it hadn't engaged in with good faith.

The so-called Northern Ireland Protocol within the deal maintains an open border with EU member Ireland and free of customs posts.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons administration wants to remove the checks on goods such as meat and eggs arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., which protect the European Unions single market.

Lawmakers in London passed legislation which permits the move last week.

Johnsons critics, opponents and some members of his own party, along with European observers, have said the plan breaks international law. The government argues it is justified because of the genuinely exceptional situation.

Baerbock and Coveney said the bill wouldn't fix the challenges around the protocol.

Instead, it will create a new set of uncertainties and make it more challenging to find durable solutions, they wrote.

The foreign ministers also argued the move jeopardizes peace in Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement, which helped end decades of sectarian violence and has stood since 1998.

Johnsons government has hoped to pass the legislation, which will be debated again in Parliament on July 13 by the time its summer break begins later in the month. This could see it become law by the end of 2022.

The EU has threatened to retaliate against the U.K. if it goes ahead, raising the prospect of a trade war between the two major economic partners.

Separately, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told the BBC on Sunday it wasn't appropriate or right time for a poll on Irish reunification.

Varadkar said such a referendum, permitted under the Good Friday Agreement when a majority in Northern Ireland in favor of a united Ireland is considered likely, would be divisive and defeated at the moment.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, its devolved legislature, has been paralyzed for months over the implementation of the protocol, leaving it without a regional government.

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Germany, Ireland slam UK move toward overriding Brexit deal - ABC News

With an inflation rate just over 9%, the United Kingdom is more or less in the sameboat as the U.S. and the European Union.But the U.K.s cost-of-living crisis is having one unique effect:stirring up the 6-year-old cold war over Brexit. Opponents of Britains departure from the EU say support for the idea of reversing Brexit can only grow.

We see consistent polling at the moment showing a constant majority saying we should rejoin the EU, Richard Hewison of the small Rejoin EU party told Marketplace. I think things can only accelerate further in that direction.

Hewison said that the pressure on British household budgets had been intensified by the sharp fall in the British pound following the vote for Brexit, which made importsinto the U.K. more expensive. He said the remedy is obvious.

Sterling would gain dramatically against other currencies if we were to rejoin the EU, he said. That of course would take a lot of pressure off the cost-of-living crisis as the inputs into the system would drop in price.

But another keen EU supporter, professor Peter Holmes of the UK Trade Policy Observatory, pointed out that the opinion poll majorities in favor of rejoining are still too small to justify another referendum.

Theres no polling evidence that rejoining is an option that any cautious politician would want to embrace, Holmes said.

However, he certainlyhasnt given up hope of a return to the European fold.

There are some intermediate steps that we can take towards eventually rejoining the EU, he said.

Holmes has penned a paper suggesting a way of mitigating what he believes are the worst effects of the U.K.s departure from the European Union: the hassle and higher costs British exporters and importers now face when dealing with the bloc.

He points to a provision in theTrade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU that allows for a five-yearly review that could enable the U.K. to harmonize its regulations with Brussels in specific areas to reduce the bureaucratic burdens imposed after Brexit. Holmes believes that bit by bit, the U.K. could edge its way back into closer economic proximity with its largest trading partner.That shouldplease some rejoiners and could be palatable to some Brexiteers as well because it does not in the short term involve full integration.

But Brexit-supporting professor Patrick Minford of Cardiff Business School vigorously opposes any attempt to draw the U.K. back into the EUs regulatory orbit.

The whole basis of the Brexit vote was to get back to self-governance. That was really what Brexit was all about, Minford declared.

He also insisted that the cost-of-living crisis hasnothing to do with Britains departure from the EU.

It has all to do with COVID and how different economies responded to it, he said. The U.K. is actually well placed to curb inflation because it can scrap all the high tariffs that the protectionist EU imposes on imports from the rest of the world.

While its inflation rate is not significantly worse than those of the U.S. or continental Europe, the U.K. does appear to be facing a sharper economic slowdown.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has forecast that the U.K. will have zero growth next year, the worst performance for a developed country. Rejoiners blame Brexit.

But the Brexiteers say, Stay tuned. Another debt crisis is looming in the eurozone. Were much better off outside the bloc.

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UKs cost-of-living crisis breathes new life into old battle over Brexit - Marketplace

Suella Braverman said some civil servants are resisting post-Brexit reforms as they cannot imagine life outside of the EU. Therefore, Express.co.uk is asking readers if YOU think officials are attempting to wreck Brexit.

Vote in our poll below and let us know more about your opinion in the comments section at the end of the article.

Our poll comes after the Attorney General blasted sections of the civil service for having a "Remain bias".

While the Brexiteer insisted many civil servants are "brilliant", she said others are unable to "conceive of the possibility of life outside of the EU".

In an astonishing claim, Mrs Braverman said some of the "biggest battles" she has faced in Government have been with civil servants rather than in the Commons.

She said: That was something I didnt expect, if Im honest."

CAN'T SEE THE POLL BELOW? CLICK HERE

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mrs Braverman added: "Ive learnt, not only during my time as Attorney but also during my time as a Brexit minister ... Some of the biggest battles you face as a minister are, in the nicest possible way, with Whitehall and internally with civil servants, as opposed to your political battles in the chamber.

There are thousands of civil servants. In large part, they are brilliant. They work really hard.

"Im supported, in particular, by a team of brilliant lawyers and officials... Dont take this as an opportunity to bash the Civil Service.

READ MORE:Andrew Neil unveils new Tony Blair plot to reverse Brexit

Mrs Braverman insisted Brexit was a "great" opportunity for the UK to unshackle itself from Brussels' cumbersome rules and bureaucracy.

She added that the Brexit Opportunities Bill is absolutely critical to pave the way for ministers to tear up retained EU rules.

The Attorney General's comments come after former Brexit minister Lord Frost said the civil service still "regrets" the UK's departure from the bloc six years later.

Speaking last month, the Tory peer told GB News: "I think it's still there, it's definitely been weakened since 2016, people have got used to the idea.

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Brexit POLL: Are civil servants trying to wreck UK's exit from EU? Vote HERE - Express

While giving his Sunday Sermon on TalkTV, Brexiteer and former leader of Reform UK Richard Tice noted how a second Scottish independence referendum would have far-reaching consequences for the other UK nations than Brexit itself. Due to its 300-year symbiotic relationship with the UK, Scotland could profoundly damage the rest of the UK, should it move ahead with IndyRef2 and become independent.

Speaking to TalkTV viewers, Richard Tice said: "There are all sorts of discussions about whether or not its right to have a referendum and what the Scots may vote. And Im thinking, well, hang on, folks. There are another 62 million people in the United Kingdom. And weve all been together for a while, in fact, over 300 years.

"And theres not enough chat about whats the impact on the rest of us of Scotland bailing out. Because let me tell you, that impact would make Brexit look like a walk in the park.

"It really, really would because over 300 years, weve become so intertwined.

Drawing an analogy between the UK and a human body, Mr Tice said: "Every sinew, if you imagine a human body, its like all the muscles that go everywhere: the sinews, the veins, the vessels, the muscles, the bones going through the body."

"If you chop off a limb of that body, its going to hurt the limb," Richard Tice said. "But its also crucially going to hurt the rest of the body. And thats how we should look at this for the whole issue of Scottish independence.

"And it seems to me that we should perhaps take a lesson out of those who wanted a second vote after the negotiations of the withdrawal agreement. You remember those folks, the people of 'The Peoples Vote' crowd who said: 'well, we didnt what we were voting for. So having negotiated the withdrawal agreement, then, lets have another vote, shall we?'

"So, surely the lesson to learn from this is lets negotiate the withdrawal agreement of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom before the vote. And then everyone knows what theyre voting for without any doubt whatsoever."

READ MORE:IDS slams elites for locking to Europe in plan to slash red tape

During the 2016 Brexit referendum, former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron put the UK membership to the EU to the British people without detailing what Brexit would entail in practice.

Though the referendum was legally non-binding, Mr Cameron resigned following the leave vote result and the two subsequent Prime Ministers, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, promised to implement the result.

Eventually, Boris Johnson did despite several persisting issues like the Northern Ireland conundrum and the repeated delays in checks on EU goods.

Now, Nicola Sturgeon is pressing ahead with a second Scottish independence referendum of which she has not given the exact details. If she succeeds in delivering on her promise, a number of issues will have to be sorted out such as a potential trade border between Scotland and England and the currency Scotland would adopt if it were to join the EU.

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'Make Brexit look like a walk in the park' IndyRef2 threatens UK's economic strength - Express

Brexit red tape is posing an existential threat to years-long efforts to save several endangered animal species including cheetahs, monkeys and cockatoos from extinction, zoo keepers have said.

Transfers of animals for conservation programmes involving Ireland, Britain and the European Union have plunged from 1,400 in 2019 to just 48 last year, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) said.

The group is demanding that Taoiseach Michel Martin and British prime minister Boris Johnson urgently broker a side deal to overcome bureaucratic hurdles which are making transfers impossible in cases as a result of the UKs decision to pull out of the European Union.

Dublin Zoo, Fota Wildlife Park and Belfast Zoo, all members of BIAZA who have a leading role in international breeding programmes to protect endangered species, are signatories to a letter to Mr Martin and Mr Johnson urging action.

Schemes at risk include efforts to save the critically endangered citron crested cockatoo and the geoldis monkey at Dublin Zoo, cheetahs and lechwe an antelope found in the wetlands of south central Africa at Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, as well as colobus monkeys and francois langurs at Belfast Zoo.

Eight years after Scotland said no to independence in its 2014 referendum, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon now wants to put the issue back at the top of the agenda. In a speech to the Scottish parliament last week, the first minister set out the route map for holding a vote on the issue on October 19 next year. The question put to Scots would be the same as in the 2014 referendum  Should Scotland be an independent country? But holding a second referendum is shrouded in legal problems and theres no certainty it will even happen, as London Editor Denis Staunton explains.

The zoos say they are struggling to cope with incredible challenges because of the lack of alignment between the EU and the UK, leading to excessive and prohibitive regulations.

Conservation relies heavily on the transfer of endangered species across international borders. Programmes are also in place to protect the survival of orangutans, lemurs and parrots.

In the letter to Mr Martin and Mr Johnson, the zoos warn the excessive (and in some cases prohibitive) regulations between Britain and the EU is an existential threat to these carefully co-ordinated breeding programmes.

Not only are transfers between zoos in Britain and Ireland (and Northern Ireland) being prevented but animals can now no longer be transited through Britain on onward journeys into the EU which previously allowed for the fastest (and hence best possible welfare) journeys, they wrote.

This is completely undermining the conservation impact of BIAZA member zoos, in all these nations.

Both the Taoiseach and prime minister have been asked to strike an EU-UK sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, which the zoos say could return the transfer of endangered zoo animals to levels seen prior to Brexit.

Nicky Needham, senior manager at BIAZA, said it was hugely frustrating that the transfer of animals, from langur monkeys to cheetahs has been made so much more difficult following Brexit.

He added: Our zoos now face impossible hurdles and delays to partaking in international breeding programmes. We urge the Irish and UK governments to move to protect the world-leading conservation efforts of our zoos and aquariums.

Other signatories to the letter include Ardmore Open Farm, Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium, Galway Atlantaquaria, Secret Valley Wildlife Park, Tayto Park, Tropical World Alcorns, Exploris Aquarium and WWT Castle Espie.

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Brexit bureaucracy posing threat to endangered species, say zoo keepers - The Irish Times

4 July 2022, 18:22

True blue Brexit believers are on the back foot, Andrew Marr has said.

Opening LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter addressed opinions on how Brexit has gone after a YouGov poll revealed 61 per cent of people think the government has handled Brexit badly.

"Another recent poll asks how well Brexit has gone and 54 per cent said 'fairly' or 'very badly', just 2 per cent said 'very well," Andrew said.

"Brexiteers are, it seems, are blaming anyone but themselves. Suella Braverman said Brexit is being wrecked by pro-EU civil servants. People the Sun today calls 'the new enemy within'.

"Others blame the BBC or the EU itself, or Labour, even though it's out of power. Interestingly, there are Tories who blame Boris Johnson for not having sufficient grip."

Watch Tonight with Andrew Marr exclusively on Global Player every Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 7pm

Andrew continued: "The Labour leader Keir Starmer finally laying out his policy towards the EU after Brexit. This is of massive concern to the Tories as they contemplate the possibility to losing power in due course, perhaps to a Lib-Lab coalition government.

"There are few more powerful voices on the right of politics than the veteran Sun columnist Trevor Kavanagh and today he warns the prime minister to get a grip, or it's the end of the Tories.

"Worried about Tony Blair's influence in the background, he says a Labour alliance with the Lib Dems would mean scrapping our voting system, a dagger aimed at the heart of the Conservative Party and Brexit.

You can also listen to the podcast Tonight with Andrew Marr only on Global Player.

"Trevor finishes: 'It is a lethal recipe for perpetual coalition and the end of the Tories as the most successful political party in UK history.'

"These are arguments you're going to hear up to and during the next election campaign, whenever it comes, and whoever is leading the Conservative Party by then."

He added: "The Chris Pincher sex pest scandal isn't, to be honest, the biggest story of the year, but it's piling new pressure on the prime minister and that has the effect on his future, on voters, and one day, perhaps, on our relationship with the EU.

"This is politics, and everything connects."

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Andrew Marr: True blue Brexit believers are on the back foot - LBC

A reduction in food business inspections and the delay in full import controls are two major issues identified by a recent report on food standards.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS)report covers 2019 to 2021, a period when the United Kingdom was affected by leaving the European Union and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A fall in the number of inspections of businesses is due to resourcing pressures faced by local authorities. The delay in establishing full UK imports controls for high-risk food like meat, dairy and eggs from the EU has reduced the ability to prevent unsafe food entering the UK market. These checks should be in place by the end of 2023.

Findings come amid plans to cut the number of civil servants to 2016 levels in three years, a loss of full access to the EUs Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and losing a place in the Heads of Food Safety Agencies, agroup of EU bodies that meet to share good practices.

Positive findings but challenges remainFSA chair, Susan Jebb, said the report provides reassurance that high food standards in the UK have been upheld during a tough period for the food system.

We are under no illusions that there are major challenges ahead. Establishing full UK import controls on food from the EU by the end of next year is a priority. The longer the UK operates without assurance that products from the EU meet our high food and feed safety standards, the less confident we can be that we can effectively identify potential safety incidents, she said.

As the report also points out, local authority inspections declined during the reporting period. Even though there are signs of improvement, particularly on hygiene inspections, local authorities continue to face resourcing constraints which could affect progress.

The FSA and FSS said that food safety standards havelargely been maintained in the period. However, thepandemic disrupted regular inspections, sampling and audits,reducing the amount of data to assess business complianceagainst food law. It also changed patterns of consumer behavior.

About 40 million tons of food are imported from abroad each year. The EUremains the biggest supplier, accounting for over 90 percent of beef, dairy, eggsand pork products imported into the UK and nearly two-thirds of all foodand feed not of animal origin.

British Lion Eggs urged retailers and foodservice operators to use domestic eggs instead of importing them.

Andrew Joret, British Egg Industry Council chairman, said: There have been ongoing food safety issues associated with non-UK eggs for many years and it is essential that effective food safety controls are in place for imports to ensure British consumer are protected from any potential risks, particularly vulnerable groups. This report confirms that the current controls on the import of eggs are not sufficient and until they are, any operator choosing to sell imported eggs is taking a gamble with the health of their customers.

Picture of incident reportingAnalysis of compliance in import controls between 2020and 2021 shows there has not been any meaningful change in the standard ofimported goods due to the pandemic or Brexit.

There was a rise in reports of contamination by microorganismsfrom 360 in 2019 to 584 in 2021, as a result of more advanced surveillance such as Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to track the source ofoutbreaks and Salmonella in breadedchicken products. Therewas a nearly three-fold increase inpoultryrelated incidents following aseries of Salmonella outbreaks in breaded chicken from Poland in2020 and 2021, which affected more than 1,000 people.

There was a fall in incidents related to food allergens from 355 in 2019 to 272 in 2021. Ethyleneoxide in sesame seeds from India accounted for many reported cases of chemicalcontamination in 2020 and 2021.

There were 100 disruptions of criminal activity in the supply chainreported by the UKs two food crime units in 2021. Five cases in Scotland havebeen referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, with three being considered as seriousoffences. Last year also saw the first prosecution after an investigationby the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU), related to the sale of 2,4 dinitrophenol(DNP) and other offences linked to controlled drugs and prescriptiononly medicines.

The growth in e-commerceis creating complexity by increasing the number of online businesses. Online marketplaces are not inherently risky, but they allow new businesses to pop up very quickly, with the associated risk that many may beunregistered and operating without adequate oversight or inspection.

FSS chair, Heather Kelman, said the reports findings were encouraging but the effects of Brexit and the pandemic are still being felt, and will continue to impact food systems for years to come.

This joint report comes at what we believe is a make or break juncture for food quality and safety, as we transition into a post-pandemic landscape and take on new responsibilities following our departure from the EU, she said.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here.)

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UK reviews COVID and Brexit impact on food standards - Food Safety News