Daily Archives: January 9, 2022

Labour has proposed introducing a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to fund the reduction of the average household energy bill to 200.The 6.6billion plan would include removing VAT on domestic energy bills for one year, the Guardian reports.

But Brexit campaigners have insisted this could not be done were the UK still a member of the EU.

Martin Daubney, the Deputy Leader of Reclaim and former MEP, highlighted that Brexiteers had long touted removing VAT on energy costs as a Brexit-bonus.

In a post on Twitter, he wrote: Labour want to remove VAT on domestic fuel, something Brexiteers argued for years would be a clear benefit of Leaving the EU.

Now both Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves who tried to cancel Brexit are making zero percent VAT a policy, which Britain could never have done as an EU member.

Ms Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, also an opponent of Brexit, said Labour would reform our broken energy system.

Mr Daubney joked that this has only become a policy of the Labour Party thanks to Brexit, which it opposed.

He wrote: The next time a Remoaner says to you name one clear benefit of leaving the EU!, you can reply: The ability to cut VAT on domestic fuel to 0 percent which is now a Labour policy.

After voting against Brexit in 2016, Sir Keir, then the Shadow Brexit Secretary, contradicted his leader, Jeremy Corbyn, by insisting that Brexit can be stopped.

READ MORE: Macron mocked as French furiously turn on him

It will do the work of the customs union, so it is a customs union.

He added: But will it do the work of the current customs union? Yes, thats the intention.

Later, he supported calls for a second referendum on Britains membership of the EU.

It was not until May 2020, after he had attained position of Labour leader, that Sir Keir said the Brexit debate was over.

At this time, he said Labour would not attempt to rejoin the EU if he became Prime Minister.

Mr Daubney was not alone in suggesting it was ironic Labour backed a policy made possible only because of Brexit.

Franco Volpe wrote on Twitter: Funny isnt it how anti-Brexit folk are calling for something ONLY possible because of Brexit.

Others suggested the claim had been overdone, noting that Spain recently cut its VAT tax rate on electricity bills form 21 percent to 10 percent despite being a member of the EU.

Continue reading here:

How ironic! Brexit-blocking Starmer pushes for 0% VAT - only achievable thanks to EU exit - Daily Express

PLANNING the garden for the year ahead is always fun. Seed suppliers and garden centres are brimming with our old favourites and exciting new possibilities, so well have lots of choices to make.

But shop early if youre set on a particular variety. Brexit is predictably causing delays and shortages. Phytosanitary regulations for the rest of the world are now imposed on seeds and plants from the EU. Products that were harmonised with UK standards till December 2020 may no longer be acceptable.

So petunias from the Netherlands now undergo 59 tests and this nonsense has added 8-13% to costs this year. The Horticultural Trades Association [HTA] estimates additional financial burdens amount to 30m 50m this year.

As a result of Brexit, seed and plants will be more expensive. But recent mail order mergers and takeovers will let them drive harder bargains with their poor suppliers and keep prices down. The global conglomerate, BVG, now owns Thompson & Morgan, Dobies, Suttons and the Organic Catalogue among others and it sources our seed from across the world: China, South America, Africa and India. Even smaller companies like Mr Fothergills and Kings do this rather than in Suffolk and Essex as previously.

I asked the HTA if they could recommend any firm that specialised or offered a significant amount of UK-grown seed, but they were unable to do so. The cost of land for production, a more favourable climate and longer growing season made overseas production more attractive. Im sure cheap labour is another compelling reason.

This is worrying. Over time, stock plants adapt to their new environment so seeds from a plant acclimatised to India may not enjoy life in Inverness.

This is all a bit negative but I do believe we should know what were buying and decide what to do about it.

If were very concerned, we could try to find small firms like Higgledy Garden [www.higgledygarden.com] who grow some of their own seed, import from Europe and aim to produce 75% of their own seed by 2023, or join organisations like Garden Organics Heritage Seed Library. But there is a membership fee and you get a small amount of a limited range of varieties to let you then save your own seed.

Seed varieties are either open-pollinated or F1 hybrids. F1s provide a consistently reliable crop of virtually identical plants maturing at much the same time. Harvesting is more staggered with open-pollinated ones. F1 seeds are developed by cross breeding different varieties. Unlike open-pollinated ones, they are only stable for one generation, are much more expensive and each pack contains a tiny pinch of seeds.

Although open-pollinated varieties like parsnips are only viable for a year, many others like peas and brassicas are long-lasting. Although firms must include seed packing date, they dont have to give a use by one, though many do. So if youre not sure about seed viability in older packets, check germination rates by first sowing some in a seed tray.

Im all for using heritage seeds but here, too, Brexit intervenes. It now costs between 2000 and 2500 euros to test one tomato variety, so its too expensive for EU firms to maintain varieties simply for the UK amateur market.

And individual open-pollinated ones each need lots of stock plants to ensure stability. I doubt this always happens. I prefer growing dwarf broad beans that dont need staking but Robin Hood is the only one now available and its becoming very unstable. Germination rates are around 60-70% and plants from the same packet range from 20cm to 50cm in height. But, if possible, Ill always choose open pollinated seeds.

Plant of the week

Hamamelis mollis Jermyns Gold is an early flowering witch hazel bearing clusters of large, broad-petalled, sweet-scented, golden-yellow flowers. Warmed by even weak winter sun the scent is captivating.

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Gardeners will be hammered by new Brexit changes, says Dave Allan - HeraldScotland

THE UK Government has been accused of throwing the fishing sector on the scrapheap with paltry schemes to compensate for Brexit losses.

New figures show the 23 million UK-wide Seafood Disruption Support Scheme (SDSS) which promised to cover up to 100,000 of losses for disruption to seafood businesses during January last year paid out just under 380,000 to 31 applicants.

A subsequent scheme the Seafood Response Fund (SRF) was also launched by UK ministers. According to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), both schemes have now paid out 16 million to 2300 businesses working out at an average payment of around 7000 per applicant.

In January last year the Scottish fishing industry was plunged into crisis after post-Brexit problems with health checks, IT systems and customs documents caused huge backlogs, leading to delayed and spoiled stock. It was estimated 1 million a day was being lost by Scottish seafood firms.

READ MORE:Boris Johnson hails return of pounds and ounces as 'key success' of Brexit

Deidre Brock SNP MP, Defra spokesperson at Westminster, said the SDSS fund had been a desperate attempt to clear up a giant mess created by the UK Government.

She said: Hard-line Brexiteers boasted of the opportunities that leaving the EU would create for fishers.Instead, theirsector hasbeen thrown on the scrap heap along with the rest of the UKs food and drinks industry, treated as expendable in the ideologically-driven pursuit of Brexit.

If the Tories think that with thispaltryfund theyre alleviating the enormous problems they created, their heads are buried in the sand and itll come at the cost of one of Scotlands most vital exporters.

The figures provided by Defra show taking into account devolved emergency support schemes, more than 22 million of financial support has been given to seafood businesses affected by both Covid and Brexit.

The Scottish Government said the SDSS which initially offered only limited support to food exporters and no support to fishing vessels had been badly misjudged.

It said any share of UK spending should be allocated to Holyrood directly to avoid similar errors of judgement in future and allow targeted support for businesses affected by a disastrous Brexit process.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: In response the Scottish Government launched our own scheme to support Scottish fishing vessels, an approach which, in turn, forced the UK Government to amend the terms of its own scheme to offer support to fishing vessels.

READ MORE:Alister Jack under fire over top adviser's Brexit claims

This demonstrates a worrying and continuing attitude from Defra and UK Government on what support the fishing and marine sectors in Scotland require and, regrettably we can see this applies across nearly all areas in which the UK Government seeks to directly spend in Scotland.

Jimmy Buchan, CEO of the Scottish Seafood Association, said he hoped the finalisation of a 100m UK Government scheme last month would bring more support for the industry but pointed it out it was a year on when it was first promised.

He said: It is great to grab headlines and get the industry to believe in you, but then your deliverance is not in keeping with what the industry expected.

The money has now been tabled and we just hope business can now draw down on that and get plans into reality.

The figures on the SDSS were revealed in a House of Commons parliamentary question asked by Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael.

Defra minister Victoria Prentis responded: In February the scheme received 119 applications across the UK with 31 applicants meeting the criteria for the scheme ... the total amount delivered through the scheme was 377,138.11.

A UK Government spokesman said: Last year we delivered over 22 million of financial support to seafood businesses affected by Covid-19 and new export requirements through UK-wide and devolved emergency schemes. Of that, 2300 eligible businesses have received a share of just under 16 million through the UK-wide SDSS and SRF schemes.

In addition, the UK Seafood Fund will provide a 100 million funding boost to help industry and coastal communities across the UK.

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'Paltry' schemes compensating Brexit losses throwing UK fishing on the 'scrapheap' - The National

THE economic prosperity of the island of Ireland shows the benefits of membership of the European single market, according to the SNP.

The Northern Ireland economy was outperforming the rest of the UK, according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in November.

Economic output in Northern Ireland in the third quarter of last year was only 0.3% below that of the final quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, performing better than any other in the UK.

It was ahead of the UKs overall economic recovery, which fell 2.1% over the same period.

The SNP said this pointed to it prospering under the Northern Ireland protocol which keeps it within the European single market, while the Scottish economy suffered a 6% hit over the same time.

READ MORE:'No plans' to stop Holyrood staff saying 'Brexit' after UK rule change

The party also highlighted statistics which show how the Republic of Ireland has become economically stronger after it joined the European Community in 1973.

Export figures from the Irish Central Statistics Office show in that year, Ireland exported nearly 55% of its goods to the UK. Now 90% of the countrys exports are to non-UK destinations.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Irelands GDP per person has gone from being 66% of the UKs in 1973 to over 200% in 2020.

Meanwhile, the country was ranked second in the world for quality of life in 2020, according to the United Nations Human Development Index.

Ireland moved up one place from the 2019 Index, overtaking Switzerland and second only to Norway.

SNP Northern Ireland spokesperson Richard Thomson MP said:These figures illustrate the benefits of being in the largest single market in the world a market around seven times bigger than the UK alone.

They also expose how the arguments of Westminster Unionists that Scotland should only rely on trade with one single state are not borne out by the reality of Irelands experience North and South.

They also show how member states of the EU are supported by the EU whilst Westminster ignores constituent countries. Ireland batted for Remain-voting Northern Ireland and the economic benefits can be seen.

Westminster ignored the people of Scotland and the economic damage they have caused can also be seen.

Scotland is paying an outrageouspriceforbeingignoredbyWestminsterfor aBrexitinflicted on us against our will. These figures mean crippling lost revenue for businesses across the Scottish economy and, in turn, that means lost jobs, lost income and hardship for families up and down the country.

READ MORE:Lord Frost sees massive backlash after congratulating Brexit team for honours

Meanwhile Northern Ireland has been insulated against the worst effects ofBrexitbecause they remain in the EUs single market.

These figures illustrate thatbeingcontrolled andignoredbyWestminsteris anything other than a disaster forScotland. How on earth can Scotland prosper and progress when it is cut off from the worlds largest single market in a UK that has the lowest GDP per head, worst economic productivity, highest poverty rates, and greatest inequality amongst its neighbours?

Only with the full powers of independence and as an equal partner to our neighbours can Scotland break this downward spiral and develop into a progressive, forward-thinking and prosperous nation.

The rest is here:

Success on island of Ireland in the EU shows what Scotland is missing - The National

It's not often that browsing the genteel aisles of Waterstones reminds you of madmen storming the Capitol in buffalo-horn helmets, but that's the buzz I got as I briskly scanned the History shelves. I happened on a slender volume called How To Stop Brexit,written by Nick Clegg. Id never heard of the book (a realisation that probably attaches to quite a lot of books by Lib Dem leaders) so I pulled it out, with curiosity. The text, I thought, must be a new thing, written since we finally Brexited and Clegg joined Facebook. But no: it was published in 2017. It seemsI was holding a kind of revolutionary pamphlet, advising Remainers how they might ignore Britains largest ever democratic vote, and get it reversed, thus evading the will of the people.

Ignoring and reversing a democratic vote is particularly piquant right now as the world remembers, much more vividly, what happened in Washington DC a year ago: when angry Trumpites marched through the American capital, intent on annulling the US presidential election, and reinstalling The Donald.

The philosophical similarities between the two enterprises, thwarting a referendum and thwarting a US election, are obvious. In October 2019, Remainers even did their own enormous march on the UK parliament, demanding a 'second vote' (ludicrously re-named a 'peoples vote', as if 33 million people didnt vote in the first one). And yet, for some reason, we happily forgive and forget this anti-democratic scheming, even as we revile and remember the MAGA hat wearers. Why? Is there some fundamental difference, beyond the absence of nooses and QAnon conspiracies on this side of the pond?

One way some Remainers tried to justify their anti-democratic actions, at the time, was via the claim that the Brexit vote was somehow 'advisory': little more than an opinion poll, which would then somehow 'inform' our political approach to the EU, or not. This is specious drivel, and we know this because the prime minister told us so. Here is David Cameron, speaking at Chatham House, in 2015. It is worth quoting him at length, because he is so perfectly explicit:

'Ultimately it will be the judgment of the British people in the referendum... You will have to judge what is best for you and your family, for your children and grandchildren, for our country, for our future. It will be your decision whether to remain in the EU on the basis of the reforms we secure, or whether we leave. Your decision. Nobody elses. Not politicians. Not Parliaments. Not lobby groups. Not mine. Just you. You, the British people, will decide. At that moment, you will hold this countrys destiny in your hands. This is a huge decision for our country, perhaps the biggest we will make in our lifetimes. And it will be the final decision.'

Piquantly in the light of what unfurled after June 2016 Cameron goes on to say this:

'So to those who suggest that a decision in the referendum to leave would merely produce another stronger renegotiation, and then a second referendum in which Britain would stay, I say: think again. The renegotiation is happening right now. And the referendum that follows will be a once in a generation choice. An in or out referendum. When the British people speak, their voice will be respected not ignored. If we vote to leave, then we will leave. There will not be another renegotiation and another referendum.'

Apart from saying, 'Nick Clegg, dont write that stupid book' or 'Keir Starmer, dont repeatedly ask for a second vote' (which Starmer did, when he was shadow Brexit secretary), then it is difficult to see how Cameron could have been clearer. The Brexit vote is final; the Brexit vote, whichever way it goes, will be respected. Yet it was not.

Does any of this matter? Well yes, it really does. And to get a sense why, heres a thought experiment. Imagine if the Scots had voted Yes to independencein 2014. Imagine if, after that, a group of Scots had decided to ignore this vote and force another to overturn it; imagine if some had gone even further and suggested Scotland simply revoke the Yes vote (the official Lib Dem policy on Brexit in the 2019 General Election). The result would, firstly, have been a total collapse in democracy in Scotland, as people realised it was not worth participating in elections; it could also have resulted in civil disorder, as Scottish Nationalists realised they had no democratic route to independence, and any Yes vote could simply be upended. Some would surely have turned to violence.

Is the wider UK somehow different to Scotland? Of course not. Which means the Remain campaign from 2016-2019 was, indeed, a polite, elongated British version of what unfolded in Washington DC a year ago. It was a stupid and dangerous assault on democracy. We just skipped the buffalo-horn helmets.

Here is the original post:

What the Capitol riots and the plot to stop Brexit have in common - Spectator.co.uk

YOURcorrespondence interlocutions about Brexit (The Cumberland News, December 31) brings us full-circle to the man who sparked it with his education x3 universities-for-all policy: step forward the newly (and controversially) knighted Sir Tony Blair.

Like it or not, he has had more influence on modern Britain than other post-war prime ministers, along with Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher and did win three successive elections with overall majorities, which proves that you CAN fool most of the people all of the time.

Before Blair became PM net migration to Britain had never exceeded the tens of thousands: its peak had been 77,000 in 1994.

But one year into Blairs term it leapt to 140,000, and when Labour left office in 2010 it was a quarter of a million a year, which the Con-Lib coalition was unable to reduce and which, does anyone doubt, was the prime motivation of Brexit?

Contrary to the alarmist Remainerpredictions there were no long lorry tailbacks at ports, empty supermarket shelves or financial markets panic, just a (worldwide) staff shortage, exacerbated here by a surfeit of uni undergrads.

It is true worldwide trade benefits have yet to appear, but that can partly be explained by historicalaversions, for instance the Irish-descended American president (remember his last-but-one predecessor threatening us that we would be last in the queue if we votedLeave and the former French ambassador to the UKs only half-joking recent observation that Anglo-French relations were the worst since Waterloo?).

Nevertheless, at least one excellent thing has emerged from Brexit: yesterday (Thursday January 6) the Environment Secretary was to announce to the Oxford Farming Conference Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes to rewild Britain, with farmers paid tohalt the decline in biodiversity in place of EU subsidies.

The popularity of countryside excursions during the lockdowns indicates that this means more to most people than unsustainably cheap food.

Richard Lennox,Henry Street,Langholm

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'Newly-knighted Blair was the one who really sparked Brexit' - News & Star

Britains departure from the European Union has caused a number of changes to be implemented. Among these, Britons may need to use separate lanes from EU, EEA and Swiss citizens when queueing at border control.

Sam Gad Jones, Financial Times journalist in Switzerland and Austria tweeted a picture of his experience at an airport recently, which showed a considerable queue for non-EU arrivals.

The queue appeared to be for passport control, and many of those in the line sported facemasks in addition to carrying large bags.

The journalist described the delays experienced as a manifestly cretinous event.

Accompanying the image, he wrote: I know were all supposed to be accepting about Brexit now, but for those of us who regularly travel and have lives beyond the narrow confines of decaying Britain, it is still a manifestly cretinous event.

In a tweet to his 118.7k followers, Brexiteer Richard Tice issued a retaliation to Sam Gad Joness comments.

He claimed that Britains departure from the trade bloc was a very fine thing.

The leader of the Reform party added that Brexit had helped millions due to an increase in wages.

He said: For millions of lower paid Brits living in Britain, receiving good pay rises thanks to Brexit stopping unlimited low skilled immigration, it's a very fine thing.

READ MORE:Spanish rage at EU membership over Gibraltar: 'We have no weight!'

And S Coast Steve added: I have travelled numerous times since Brexit and, apart from Covid checking in some European countries, have not noticed any significant change.

I did enjoy flying into Berlin and finding no one in the Non-EU passport queue while 100s were waiting at the EU gate.

Following Brexit, tourists do not need a visa for short trips to EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.

Tourists are permitted to stay for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

There are also different rules for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania whom each have their own separate 90-day limits.

In addition, new travel rules mean there are restrictions on taking meat and dairy products into the EU.

There are some exceptions, for example, certain amounts of powdered infant milk and infant food are allowed.

Tourists could also face data roaming charges as the guarantee of free mobile phone roaming throughout the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway has ended.

Read more here:

Tice brutally shuts down Remainer claims over Brexit: 'A very fine thing for millions' - Daily Express

Researchers at the University of Bristol have created high-performance sodium and potassium ion batteries using sustainably sourced cellulose. Scientists at the Bristol Composites Institute use what they call a novel controllable unidirectional ice-templating strategy capable of tailoring the electrochemical performances of next-generation post-lithium-ion batteries.

The results open up the market for low-cost, sustainable and vastly available alternatives that could one day be used to power electric vehicles.

The teams groundbreaking achievements, developed in collaboration with Imperial College, are set out in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials.The performance of the new ion batteries has been proven to outperform many other comparable systems and makes use of cellulose, which is a sustainably sourced material.

Corresponding author, Steve Eichhorn, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol, said: We were astounded with the performance of these new batteries.

There is great potential to develop these further and to produce larger-scaled devices with the technology.

He added: In light of these findings, we now hope to collaborate with industries to develop this strategy on an industrial scale and to explore whether this unique technology can be easily extended to a variety of other energy storage systems such as zinc, calcium, aluminium and magnesium-ion batteries, thus demonstrating its universal potential in next-generation energy storage systems.

The study has been published at a time when the world is witnessing a rapidly increasing demand for sustainable, ethical and low-cost energy storage.

JUST IN:Brexit LIVE - Truss holds talks with Coveney TODAY

"The main route is through electrolysis of sodium chloride solution (salt solution or seawater).

There are various ways to extract potassium too, some recent ones are 'green' processes from feldspar a common mineral.

Prof Eichhorn added: Its true that the UK has lithium, but its mining is not without environmental cost wherever the extraction takes place.

Batteries have two electrodes and a separator, plus an electrolyte between them that carries the charge.

Use of lithium results in a number of problems, including the build-up of the metal inside the devices, which can lead to short circuits and overheating.

Alternatives to lithium, such as sodium and potassium batteries have not historically performed as well in terms of their rate performance and the ability to use them lots of times.

The inferior performance is due to the larger sizes of sodium and potassium ions, and their ability to move through the porous carbon electrodes in the batteries.

However, Jing Wang, lead author and a PhD student in the Bristol Composites Institute, believes she and his colleagues may have hit upon a solution.

She explained: We proposed a novel controllable ice-templating strategy to fabricate low-cost cellulose nanocrystals/polyethylene oxide-derived carbon aerogels with hierarchically tailored and vertically-aligned channels as electrode materials, which can be utilised to well-tuning the rate capability and cycling stability of sodium- and potassium-ion batteries.

Benefiting from the renewability of the precursor and scalability at relatively low cost in the environmentally benign synthesis process, this work could offer an appealing route to promote large-scale applications of sustainable electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage grids in the near future.

Originally posted here:

Brexit Britain win: Experts 'astounded' by discovery of cheap lithium battery alternatives - Daily Express

Jenny chose a classic Parisian look for a recent Christmas concert in Torrox Costa. / SUR

in the frame

Many people will already be familiar with the name Jenny Mandera: either through her career as a professional singer and dancer on the Costa del Sol; or because they follow her social media pages on fashion, body positivity and mental health.

Jenny has been in Spain since 2003, when she saw an advertisement for a job as a dancer, having decided "spontaneously" to leave London, where she had been living for three years.

The job wasn't quite what she expected: "It turned out to be for something like Go-Go dancers on the beach in Marbella," she recalls.

"That really wasn't what I was after. I was a bit shocked to be honest," she laughs.

However, she decided to stay and did find work as a singer and dancer; she has also worked in the world of language education, while keeping her interest in fashion alive, largely through social media, and collaborations with photographers, make-up artists and other fashionistas.

Jenny, 44, is originally from Helsingborg in Sweden. Her maternal grandparents were Polish, but moved to the Nordic country after the Second World War and before Jenny's mother was born.

"My grandparents adapted completely to Swedish life. My Grandmother had been in Auschwitz and my grandfather had fought in Austria, Italy and eventually ended up in a camp in Finland," Jenny explains.

"I come from a family of strong women," she adds, reflecting on the hardships endured by her grandparents' generation. "We have a strong European sense in the family and my grandparents spoke a lot of European languages," she adds.

She puts her own keenness to travel and live in other countries down to her family's background and in 2000, after finishing her studies at a performing arts school in Sweden, Jenny moved to London, where she really felt she "belonged". "Brexit has ruined my life and I'm not even British," she laments.

After leaving London in 2003 to come to Spain, Jenny always thought that at some point she would always be able to return to the UK capital to pursue a career in the performing arts and combine it with her other love: fashion.

However, with Brexit making it very difficult for Europeans to move there and get work permits, Jenny recognises that, as a freelancer, it would be difficult to go back.

"I love England, but I can't just go there, make contacts and build up work. I would probably have to do a job that I didn't like just to earn enough money to get a visa and the pandemic has taught me that I want to live my dream."

Jenny's dream has always been to pursue a career in the performing arts and fashion. At the age of 14 she and some friends started copying looks from fashion magazines.

"I went ballistic with fashion when I was 14. I wanted to wear things that nobody else was wearing and I've never stopped."

Jenny started a fashion blog in 2014, but it was during the lockdown in 2020 when she really started to "treat it like a job".

As well as writing about fashion, she also wrote about body image and her own struggles with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

Like many, Jenny also uses Instagram. "I'm not the typical skinny 20-year old influencer, but I love fashion and I want to show women my age that they can break the rules and wear what they want," she explains, adding, "But in the end, people have to feel comfortable in what they wear.

"I break the rules all the time and tell women in their forties for example that it's OK to wear a miniskirt. I follow some amazing fashion bloggers in their 60s who always look great."

Another of Jenny's concerns is the waste involved in the fashion industry with so much 'fast fashion' ending up in landfill.

"I wear a lot of vintage. I love mixing old and new but I think fewer items of each style should be sold. I can't say that I don't go to Zara. Of course I do, but I don't buy as much as I used to. In the past I would go to the sales and go ballistic. Now I use apps like Vinted and shop in vintage stores."

Jenny sees Malaga as an exciting place to be at the moment in terms of fashion. She's also hoping to start singing again after a seven-year break and says, "Someone told me recently that Malaga is 'so on the map'. There's a lot of opportunity for some exciting collaborations."

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'Brexit has ruined my life and I'm not even British' - Surinenglish.com

Rangers received a club-record fee from Everton for 20-year-old full-back Nathan Patterson

Nobody in Scotland needs a statistic to back up the gobsmacking difference in the spending power of the Premier League in England and the top flight in this country, but here's another one in any case.

When Nathan Patterson signed for Everton the other day, the fee of 10m-plus was the most money the Ibrox club had ever received for a player in its history. For Everton, it wasn't even the most money they'd spent on a player this week.

In bringing the young Scotland international to Goodison Park, Patterson became Everton's 20th most expensive signing - in the past five years. Add it all up and it comes to half a billion, give or take the price of a Jean-Phillipe Gbamin or a Cenk Tosun or a Moise Keane.

This one looks like a good deal for Everton given, for them, the money involved is chicken feed. It's less than half a Ben Godfrey and a third of an Alex Iwobi.

But in a world where freakonomics doesn't exist - Scotland - that kind of cash for a 20-year-old with bags of potential but only limited exposure to first-team football, a multi-million pound fee with extras possibly to follow, is good business for Rangers. They're naturally sorry to see him go, but they've done well out of him.

There's a reason for that - and it doesn't begin and end with Patterson's age and promise. Since Brexit, the English clubs who have been previously minded to hoover up the best young talent from around Europe and the rest of the world are a touch stymied in that pursuit. It's much harder to get playing permits for these English clubs to get young foreigners now, unless they're teenage sensations with first-team experience and possibly international caps to boot. Those players come at a premium, of course.

It's why clubs in England - the Premier League and the more monied ones in the Championship - may be paying more attention to the clubs north of the border nowadays. If getting tyros from overseas is now a bureaucratic nightmare for them it stands to reason they'll look closer to home for prospects, as Everton did with Patterson, as other clubs are said to be doing with Aberdeen's Calvin Ramsay and Dundee United's Kerr Smith.

Aberdeen have not put a price on Ramsay's head, as has been stated. It would be daft to do so. Why set a ceiling when they don't know what a wealthy club is prepared to pay. Brexit has changed the picture. If English clubs want Ramsay or Smith or Josh Doig or any other talented young player in the Scottish leagues then the selling club is holding a few more aces now.

Aberdeen, who don't need to sell, are entitled to tell all-comers that the price is not 4m as has been reported and is more in the Patterson ballpark. They should feel emboldened by the alterations in the political landscape. Every Scottish club should be thinking about how effective their academy is, now more than ever. Dundee United are well-placed on that front.

There is talk at a number of Scottish clubs about the ramifications of Brexit. If an English club wants to bring in a player - a youngster or an unheralded older player with promise - who doesn't have the required number of points to gain a playing visa, then what do they do?

Could they sign the player and place him with a Scottish club as a form of clearing house, a device used to circumvent employment law? The Scottish club gets a talented player until he has earned his visa and moves south to the club that bought him.

FIFA has strict rules on what they call bridging transfers, and government wouldn't be slow in clamping down either, but these conversations are being had at certain Scottish clubs where the restrictions don't exist to anything like the same extent as they do down south. These Scottish clubs are looking into how Brexit can work for them.

Of course, there's a far easier way of doing all of this. If you're Celtic you just sign three fascinating players from Japan in quick order. No messing about. January is normally a time for endless faffing and bad decision-making at Celtic. It was in the previous five January windows they signed - on loan or permanently - Patryk Klimala and Jonjoe Kenny, Vakoun Bayo and Marian Shved, Oli Burke and Timothy Weah, Andrew Gutman and Manny Perez, Jeremy Toljan and Charly Musonda, Marvin Compper and Eboue Kouassi.

Now they've got Daizen Maeda, the joint leading scorer in the J-League last season with Yokohama Marinos, and Reo Hatate, a player so versatile that he started his campaign at the champions Kawasaki Frontale as a left-back, then moved up to left wing-back before being named in the team of the season as a forward.

They also signed Yosuke Ideguchi, a Japan international midfielder with a pedigree. All of them are at an excellent age and all have been recruited for small money.

"Frontale and Marinos fans, in particular, would be justified in feeling as though their clubs have been robbed in broad daylight," wrote Dan Orlowitz in the Japan Times on Tuesday.

It's still incredible that given the sophistication of scouting networks in Europe no club in a more glamorous league saw what Ange Postecoglou could see in Kyogo Furuhashi, a revelation since his move to Celtic in the summer. The way he settled in so quickly and reached icon status so rapidly was astonishing.

Everybody in football is looking for gems and Postecoglou found one in Furuhashi. What are his chances of finding another three? Furuhashi's success - coupled with Postecoglou's triumphs in Japan - illustrate that the Celtic manager understands the psyche of these players. Their culture is entirely different, but Postecoglou gets it. The progress of his three new men from the east will be intriguing to observe.

For many reasons, the second half of the season promises to be absorbing. Rangers experienced turbulence - and an eruption from Connor Goldson - but Giovanni van Bronkhorst settled them down the minute he walked in the door as Steven Gerrard's replacement. Gerrard's exit might yet prove a blessing. Rangers look solid and focused again. They lead the league by six points.

Celtic's recruitment has been breakneck - and it's probably not done yet - while Rangers are still easing themselves into it. James Sands, the versatile American, completed a loan deal on Wednesday, and Andreas Skov Olsen, of Bologna and Denmark, appears to be near the top of their priority list too.

Skov Olsen is an attacking, right-sided midfielder with plenty of international experience even though he's only 22. He's classy and he won't be cheap, but what a prize they're playing for this season. Barring a major turnaround, the champions of Scotland will go straight into the Champions League group stage. This is a 30m title.

We're less than week into the window and all sorts of things are already happening. Shaun Maloney's first signing as Hibs manager is Elias Melkersen, a 19-year-old who scored prolifically in the second tier in Norway last season. They've also got the American wide midfielder, Chris Mueller, coming in. So far, Maloney's focus has been on strengthening an attack that looks good on paper but doesn't deliver nearly often enough in reality. Celtic's fine young winger, Ewan Henderson, is said to be another on Maloney's list.

Their city rivals have made one significant play in the signing of Australian right-back Nathaniel Atkinson, one of the stars of his country's victory over Argentina and their narrow loss to Spain in the Olympics last year. Atkinson is 22 and highly regarded.

All of those clubs are thinking of Europe. At the other end, the only thing on St Johnstone's mind is surviving. At the halfway point they're rock bottom. The Cinderella story has ended and it's a horror tale now. Their last transfer window was a catastrophe with the twin totems of the team, Jason Kerr and Ali McCann, leaving on deadline day.

The club did awfully in trying to replace them. They seemed to be gripped by indecision and panic and here they are. Their situation is serious but salvageable. Daniel Cleary looks a decent beginning to their rebuild, an honest centre-half from Dundalk in the League of Ireland. Saints have lost their last eight games. They need some steel in there.

Davidson has also brought in left-back Tony Gallacher - once of Falkirk, then of Liverpool and Toronto - in a bid to bolster an awful defence. On Wednesday, in an attempt to create an attack where only a barren wasteland exists right now, Davidson dug up Nadir Ciftci, the former Dundee United and Celtic player.

Quite what Ciftci has going for him these days is hard to know. In a fast-moving opening week of the transfer window, with Dundee United attempting to fast-track Tony Watt's capture from Motherwell, Ciftci's reappearance on the scene was the most bizarre story of all. There will be others, nothing surer.

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Freakonomics, Brexit and the bizarre - why Scotland's January window could be so influential - BBC News