Category Archives: Brexit

The UKs cattle- and horse-breeding businesses could be at risk because of a government decision to cut funding for a Brexit inspection post for livestock at Portsmouth harbour, the local port, council and MP have claimed.

The local authority, which owns the port, has been left with a 7m shortfall for the facility, which will be necessary if it is to continue with the export and import of live animals after 1 July, when government border health checks come into force.

A council report, due to be discussed by the city council on Tuesday, said it was the only facility planned in the UK for vets to approve the import of live animals for breeding rather than slaughter, a business worth 10m a year.

The country needs Portsmouth to build this vital trading infrastructure, but this short-sighted government continues to withhold the necessary funding, said Stephen Morgan, the local MP and shadow armed forces minister.

Mike Sellers, the director of Portsmouth International Port, said it was a further 5m short of cash for the main border control post, which will conduct health checks on food and goods of animal origin, and another 2m-3m short on related projects.

It applied for 32m to build the two facilities but was allocated 17.1m after a 200m port infrastructure fund created by the government in the autumn was oversubscribed.

While other ports are privately owned, Portsmouth is in public ownership and the council will not seek to raise funds through local taxation. As a result, it has scrapped the plan for the live animal inspection post, something the National Farmers Union says could end the animal breeding business.

Were only doing these infrastructure projects because the government are requiring us to do so at Portsmouth, said Morgan.

Sellers said: About 9,000 racehorses come through the port every year as well as live animals for breeding purposes. But there is no business case to borrow funds. He said the only solution was for the government to stump up funds.

Morgan is also concerned about the shortfall in funding for the traffic-easing infrastructure, as the ports position is so constrained it is only 13 lorries away from the M275 arterial route.

Its a densely populated city with very few routes in and out of the city, so any sort of congestion as a result of infrastructure will have a devastating impact on Portsmouth levels of congestion and traffic flow in an area with high air pollution, said Morgan.

Brexit checks came into force on 1 January in the EU but are being phased in over six months by the UK to allow businesses to adapt, with the race now on to finish all border checkpoints.

A report for the Portsmouth council cabinet meeting on Tuesday cites NFU statistics showing that 30,000 breeding animals (pigs, sheep and cattle) are exported every year through Portsmouth, with a similar number imported, and without the control posts in the city a reciprocal post will not be built in Cherbourg, the corresponding port in France. This will threaten high-value exports including thoroughbred stud farming.

The NFU told the council: The absence of BCP facilities in the EU-facing port [Cherbourg] will mean that UK farmers are unable to export high-value breeding material to the EU.

The report says the governments infrastructure fund was substantially oversubscribed and after a deep-dive meeting with consultants and Cabinet Office officials, all bids were cut, including contingencies from 40% to 10%.

Sellers said the great irony was that Portsmouth was considered important enough to the nation to be a Brexit contingency route for medicine supplies by the Department for Transport, but not good enough for normal business by the Cabinet Office.

The government said the breeding sector was not wholly dependent on Portsmouth. It said infrastructure would normally be funded by the ports themselves and Portsmouth had received 17m from the fund.

A number of border control posts will be designated for live animal imports including Dover, Sevington (Eurotunnel) and Holyhead, which are the ports with the highest volumes of animal imports from the EU, said a government spokesman.

This article was amended on 2 February 2021. Dover is not privately owned as stated in an earlier version, it is a trust port.

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Brexit: Portsmouth port bosses accuse government of withholding cash - The Guardian

The EU Commission has recently been involved in a row with the UK and vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca over the supply of vaccines to the EU bloc.

In a step to protect the EUs supply of vaccines, the EU Commission suggested they would put in place export controls on vaccines produced within the bloc, with the UK left off the list of more than 120 nations exempted from the proposed controls.

The EU Commission has since rowed back on its proposal following claims it breached the withdrawal agreement as it effectively created a vaccine border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Whilst it appears the current impasse has been cleared, it highlights the potential for disruption to the supply of medicines into the UK and brings focus onto what steps are in place to ensure health and care providers are not left without vital medicines at the point of delivery.

Up until the 1 January 2021, the UKs trading relationship was unaffected under the terms of the transition period. However, now that the transition period has ended, new border and customs procedures will apply to all goods entering the UK from the EU, except for Northern Ireland.

General Trade Disruption

Border controls at UK ports are to be implemented over three stages to minimise disruption, but the Government still forecasts that the flow rates of goods coming into the UK will be down to between 60%-80% of pre-1 December 2020 flow capacity. This flow rate could be even lower at short strait border controls between the UK and France, at places such as Holyhead, Folkstone, and the much-publicised Dover Port.

To provide some perspective of scale, in 2019 UK ports handled 486 million tonnes of import goods, with trade from the EU accounting for 41% of this total. This continued to make the EU the UKs largest trade partner.

The threat to the timely supply of medicines, including Covid vaccine doses, is therefore very real, and providers should be prepared for disruption, especially in the first three months of 2021 during the implementation of the initial stage of border controls.

Continuity of Medical Supplies

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has put measures in place to mitigate against, and prepare for, the new border controls and customs procedures.

The supply of Category 1 goods, which include medicines, medical devices, vaccines, nutritional specialist feeds and biological materials, has been protected following procurement of the Government Secured Freight Capacity. This will support the health and social care sector and will facilitate the transport of medicines via alternate, Government secured routes.

In addition to the secured freight capacity for medicines, the DHSC has retained the services of three specialist logistics providers who can support the urgent movement of medicines and medicinal products to providers and service users, including rapid air freight, if the more traditional trade routes experience extensive delays.

An example of rapid airfreight has been seen when military aircraft were used to secure the import of the Pfizer vaccine from Belgium to the UK, in accordance with the terms of the withdrawal agreement.

Buffer Stocks

As part of the Governments contingency plan, it has been advising UK medicinal suppliers to hold additional stock within the UK to protect against disruption. Providers and service users should not stockpile locally, however.

The DHSC continues to work alongside NHS Supply Chain to prepare a buffer of stock for fast moving clinical consumables and medical devices. In 2019, the DHSC said that it was on course to achieve its target of maintaining six weeks worth of buffered stock by the end of the transition period.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been limited reports of lorry drivers being turned away from ports for not having the correct paperwork. Whilst limited, this has caused concerns among logistics providers that more severe problems could occur as trade flow increases with the easing of Covid restrictions.

How this will directly affect the supply of medicines to UK medicinal suppliers, and onto front line providers, is not yet clear. The Governments reluctance to guarantee a level of supply does suggest that delays and strain to some extent are expected in the short term.

The DHSC is confident the buffering measures it has put in place will prevent an acute shortage of medicines to the health and social care sector, although some disruption is expected. Providers and service users are asked to have confidence in this procedure and have been discouraged from local stockpiling of medicines as this could cause shortages in other areas.

Shortage Management

Should a shortage of medicinal supplies occur because of the UKs new relationship with the EU then suppliers will raise this through the established routes.

The DHSC has stepped up its National Supply Disruption Response to assist with the demands on supply and they insist the usual business approach is suitable to address shortages following the end of the transition period.

If the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is of the opinion (following consultation with medical experts) that there is, or may be, a serious shortage of medicine then they can decide to issue a Serious Shortage Protocol. This will provide an exception to the rule that prescription medicines may only be supplied in accordance with said prescription.

A Serious Shortage Protocol is intended to speed up service user access to appropriate treatment by affording pharmacies the ability to dispense an alternate medicine to that prescribed in line with a protocol, without having to go back to the prescriber first.

Such protocols will be used alongside well-established processes for managing shortages in collaboration with manufacturers, suppliers, and clinicians.

Conclusion

The UK continues to import the Belgium-manufactured Pfizer vaccine and so any export controls could potentially affect the UK governments vaccination programme.

Notwithstanding export controls, the post-transition flow of goods was always likely to slow as new border control measures were put in place.

However, it appears the measures discussed above have so far prevented an acute shortage of medicines for health and care providers at the sharp end, whilst those providers should be aware of what the DHSC has put in place should a shortage occur.

As the number of people vaccinated nears 9 million (at the time of writing), the UK continues to import doses of the Pfizer vaccine tariff free and in accordance with the withdrawal agreement.

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Post Brexit Supply of Medicines - Lexology

Its been a month since the UK formally left the European Union and, for many consumers and small companies, the realisation of what Brexit actually means is hitting home. In this weeks cover story, Toby Helm meets the business owners who have realised that, in order for trade with customers in EU countries to remain viable, they will have to set up shop in the bloc at the expense of investing in the UK. As the complicated realities of post-Brexit life sink in for the public, will they also sink in for the politicians that pushed Britains departure?

We reported last year on the disaster in Manaus, the capital of Brazils Amazonas state, where nearly 100 people a day were dying of Covid. Sadly, the city is facing a second coronavirus disaster, with hospitals running out of oxygen and a new strain of the virus, which has already spread beyond the city. This week, Tom Phillips reports on the massacre in a city that has already suffered more than most. We also look at how a lockdown in Chad has become tangled with the politics of a presidential election, before Nick Evershed crunches the numbers on what the South African and UK Covid strains mean for the spread of the virus.

Donald Trump left the Oval Office last week and Joe Biden is the 46th US president. Suddenly things feel much calmer, at least until Trumps impeachment trial begins on 8 February. Richard Wolffe reports on the work Biden is doing in his first few weeks and who the key advisers surrounding him are. We also look at what the US rejoining the Paris climate accord means for the planet and Liesl Schillinger salutes the poetry of Amanda Gorman, who stole the show at Bidens inauguration with her recital of The Hill We Climb.

Away from the news, Tom Lamont asks an important question: has video assistance for referees ruined elite football? Since the introduction of VAR, discussions about the failings (or benefits) of the technology have dominated the discourse around the game as much as fans previously talked about real referees. Has a little bit of magic been torn from the heart of the beautiful game?

We also feature a great piece of reporting by Rolling Stone writer John Colapinto who injured his voice in a tragic, er, singing accident and in trying to repair his vocal cords went on a quest discover how vital our ability to speak is to our understanding of what it is to be human.

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The reality of Brexit - inside the 29 January edition of the Guardian Weekly - The Guardian

Further Education News

The FE News Channel gives you the latest education news and updates on emerging education strategies and the#FutureofEducation and the #FutureofWork.

Providing trustworthy and positive Further Education news and views since 2003, we are a digital news channel with a mixture of written word articles, podcasts and videos. Our specialisation is providing you with a mixture of the latest education news, our stance is always positive, sector building and sharing different perspectives and views from thought leaders, to provide you with a think tank of new ideas and solutions to bring the education sector together and come up with new innovative solutions and ideas.

FE News publish exclusive peer to peer thought leadership articles from our feature writers, as well as user generated content across our network of over 3000 Newsrooms, offering multiple sources of the latest education news across the Education and Employability sectors.

FE News also broadcast live events, podcasts with leading experts and thought leaders, webinars, video interviews and Further Education news bulletins so you receive the latest developments inSkills Newsand across the Apprenticeship, Further Education and Employability sectors.

Every week FE News has over 200 articles and new pieces of content per week. We are a news channel providing the latest Further Education News, giving insight from multiple sources on the latest education policy developments, latest strategies, through to our thought leaders who provide blue sky thinking strategy, best practice and innovation to help look into the future developments for education and the future of work.

In May 2020, FE News had over 120,000 unique visitors according to Google Analytics and over 200 new pieces of news content every week, from thought leadership articles, to the latest education news via written word, podcasts, video to press releases from across the sector.

We thought it would be helpful to explain how we tier our latest education news content and how you can get involved and understand how you can read the latest daily Further Education news and how we structure our FE Week of content:

Our main features are exclusive and are thought leadership articles and blue sky thinking with experts writing peer to peer news articles about the future of education and the future of work. The focus is solution led thought leadership, sharing best practice, innovation and emerging strategy. These are often articles about the future of education and the future of work, they often then create future education news articles. We limit our main features to a maximum of 20 per week, as they are often about new concepts and new thought processes. Our main features are also exclusive articles responding to the latest education news, maybe an insight from an expert into a policy announcement or response to an education think tank report or a white paper.

FE Voices was originally set up as a section on FE News to give a voice back to the sector. As we now have over 3,000 newsrooms and contributors, FE Voices are usually thought leadership articles, they dont necessarily have to be exclusive, but usually are, they are slightly shorter than Main Features. FE Voices can include more mixed media with the Further Education News articles, such as embedded podcasts and videos. Our sector response articles asking for different comments and opinions to education policy announcements or responding to a report of white paper are usually held in the FE Voices section. If we have a live podcast in an evening or a radio show such as SkillsWorldLive radio show, the next morning we place the FE podcast recording in the FE Voices section.

In sector news we have a blend of content from Press Releases, education resources, reports, education research, white papers from a range of contributors. We have a lot of positive education news articles from colleges, awarding organisations and Apprenticeship Training Providers, press releases from DfE to Think Tanks giving the overview of a report, through to helpful resources to help you with delivering education strategies to your learners and students.

We have a range of education podcasts on FE News, from hour long full production FE podcasts such as SkillsWorldLive in conjunction with the Federation of Awarding Bodies, to weekly podcasts from experts and thought leaders, providing advice and guidance to leaders. FE News also record podcasts at conferences and events, giving you one on one podcasts with education and skills experts on the latest strategies and developments.

We have over 150 education podcasts on FE News, ranging from EdTech podcasts with experts discussing Education 4.0 and how technology is complimenting and transforming education, to podcasts with experts discussing education research, the future of work, how to develop skills systems for jobs of the future to interviews with the Apprenticeship and Skills Minister.

We record our own exclusive FE News podcasts, work in conjunction with sector partners such as FAB to create weekly podcasts and daily education podcasts, through to working with sector leaders creating exclusive education news podcasts.

FE News have over 700 FE Video interviews and have been recording education video interviews with experts for over 12 years. These are usually vox pop video interviews with experts across education and work, discussing blue sky thinking ideas and views about the future of education and work.

FE News has a free events calendar to check out the latest conferences, webinars and events to keep up to date with the latest education news and strategies.

The FE Newsroom is home to your content if you are a FE News contributor. It also help the audience develop relationship with either you as an individual or your organisation as they can click through and box set consume all of your previous thought leadership articles, latest education news press releases, videos and education podcasts.

Do you want to contribute, share your ideas or vision or share a press release?

If you want to write a thought leadership article, share your ideas and vision for the future of education or the future of work, write a press release sharing the latest education news or contribute to a podcast, first of all you need to set up a FE Newsroom login (which is free): once the team have approved your newsroom (all content, newsrooms are all approved by a member of the FE News team- no robots are used in this process!), you can then start adding content (again all articles, videos and podcasts are all approved by the FE News editorial team before they go live on FE News). As all newsrooms and content are approved by the FE News team, there will be a slight delay on the team being able to review and approve content.

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Jobs boost for Brits in construction sector Brexit bounce back - FE News

The UK left the European Union on 1 January 2021 and the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI) said every third company that regularly exports its products reports considerable problems in supplying the British market since Brexit.

Almost 10% of German confectionery exports go to Great Britain, making it the second most important export market for the German confectionery industry. Within the German food industry, the confectionery industry is the most important exporter to Great Britain and represents a fifth of the export value of German food to the UK, according to the BDSI.

"The negotiated rules of origin for confectionery deviate considerably from the previous rules of origin and contribute to further complicating duty-free deliveries," said Dr Carsten Bernoth, General Manager of the BDSI.

"The EU Commission and the member states may protect many interests in the field of agricultural products, but they are doing this clearly at the expense of the medium-sized processing industry, which ensures the highest added value for the EU, but can now fall back on no uniform rules of origin for its export activities and is drowning in bureaucracy.

With several deliveries of goods via the English Channel every week, 58% of the companies say the very complex new customs formalities are the greatest challenge for a smooth process in logistics.

The BDSI reports almost one in 10 (9%) of its members completely stopped supplying the British market at the start of the year. It also said approximately 15% of companies fear their products will not be available, temporarily, on the shelves of UK grocery stores due to the logistics problems.

The German confectionery companies named driver shortage and health entry restrictions (especially due to the coronavirus crisis) as further major challenges.

Tracey Hughes, managing director of leading UK ingredients distributor Henley Bridge told this publication:The main problem weve had is that our European suppliers have underestimated the lack of consistency with documentation across different customer clearance agencies and transport companies.

"Weve found ourselves completing the paperwork for a supplier, only to find that they have switched to another haulier for a subsequent shipment, so weve had to start the paperwork from scratch. There has been a lot of additional paperwork to complete, which has delayed some shipments, but, fortunately, we pre-stock built as part of our Brexit contingency plan, so it hasnt really impacted us.

Freight volumes in general moving between the UK and EU were down 38% in the third week of January compared with the same week a year ago, according to latest truck movement data.

Ben Fletcher, Policy Director of Make UK, which represents British manufacturers, including the food and drink sector, said importers and exporters have been unable to move supplies because of new red tape.

A survey by its member shows 60% of companies that said there were ready for Brexit now experience disruption and are also finding supply chains significantly impacted.

There is real anger and incredible frustration for people who either import or export that they are simply not able to move stuff. It is just incredibly difficult to get the paperwork right and there have been very low levels of support from government, he said.

British high street store, Marks & Spencer, reported the problems with Percy Pig confectionery, which is made in Germany, imported to the UK and re-exported to the Republic of Ireland (which is still in the EU), making them liable for import tax and causing a shortage in shops.

Hughes said:There have also been issues with importing goods into the UK which we then had to ship to Northern Ireland and, from there, were being shipped into the Republic of Ireland, which was resulting in an additional tariff charge and therefore having a financial impact on customers.

Glasgow-based Bradfords Bakers is a family-owned e-commerce company that deliver gifts UK wide and into Europe.

Brexit has complicated the way in which it conducts business with suppliers and with the added pressure of lockdown due to the coronavirus.

Director James McGoldrick said:"Nothing has changed on our end we still create our traditional hampers. What has changed is our suppliers regulations in relation to delivering to us the packaging we need, which accounts for 60% of all the packaging we use in the business.

"There are suppliers in Europe that ship worldwide, who are not facing issues like ours are. When the UK left the EU and regulations changed, these suppliers started delivering products to the UK the way they normally would to the USA, for example. Those rules and regulations were already in place for them, they just had to apply them to their customers in the UK. However, they are still facing some delays from the customs check points.

"Our suppliers in Italy and Germany, however, are accustomed to delivering products to Europe. They are still grappling with how they can make sure our needs are met, because there are brand new procedures in place that were not before. They need to complete customs declarations and paperwork that they never needed previously to ensure that our orders can be imported correctly. They need to receive new training on how to make declarations to ensure everything is done properly."

Some German companies fear that further tightening of the coronavirus-related entry regulations will cause additional problems for a smooth logistics process.

The BDSI said problems at the border with the UK will persist even after the coronavirus crisis has ended and customs clearance has been brought in: German-British trade will continue to be characterized by high administrative hurdles, it said.

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Brexit: import and exports of confectionery hit as EU and UK firms grapple with new rules - ConfectioneryNews.com

The citizens rights watchdog set up to protect the rights of EU nationals living in the UK is conducting its first survey to understand the level of public concern about living in Britain after Brexit.

Kathryn Chamberlain, the chief executive of the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens Rights Agreements (IMA), said on Monday (1 February) that the IMAs survey was one of a range of intelligence-gathering exercises we are carrying out to protect citizens rights.

I want to hear from as many people as possible. Their responses, along with the complaints we receive, help us to build a bigger picture of the issues facing EU citizens, Chamberlain added.

The IMA was set up in January under the terms of the UKs Withdrawal Agreement with the EU at the end of the UKs post-Brexit transition period. Its chairman is Ashley Fox, a former Conservative MEP.

The watchdog is responsible for addressing complaints from EU citizens living in the UK who feel that their rights are not being upheld.

Around 5 million EU nationals have applied for residence in the UK under its new Settled Status scheme. Of those, 97% were offered settled status, which grants indefinite rights to remain in the UK, or pre-settled status, which offers a five year stay, which the option to apply for settled status at the end of it.

The UK government says that the Settlement Scheme is more generous than that offered to Britons by many EU member states but research by a series of campaign groups has suggested that thousands of EU citizens are either unaware of the settled scheme or do not know how to access it.

For its part, the UKs Home Office says that it has a dedicated team of more than 1,500 people working on the EU Settlement Scheme.

However, the system has had many teething problems. The Home Office does not have clear data on precisely how many EU nationals are living in the UK. There has also been confusion over whether citizens with pre-settled status enjoy the same rights to welfare benefits such as universal credit and housing benefit as those with settled status.

A ruling by the UKs Court of Appeal in December confirmed that those with pre-settled status must be treated on an equal basis with other claimants.

We are receiving increasing reports that EU citizens and their families are having difficulty acquiring and proving the rights they are entitled to, said Maike Bohn, Co-founder of the3million, a campaign group seeking to safeguard the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.

[Edited by Frdric Simon]

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New rights watchdog to survey post-Brexit fears of EU nationals - EURACTIV

Brexit: Johnson discusses ban on hoover EU fishing trawlers

In a clear signal that Boris Johnsons Government is keen to use Brexit to step up efforts to protect wildlife in British seas, the Marine Management Organisations (MMO) has launched a formal conservation which could see so-called bottom trawlers barred from operating in four offshore Marine Protected Areas. Meanwhile, the announcement has been given a cautious welcome by environmentalists, who stressed much work remains to be done.

The Marine Management Organisation, the executive, non-departmental body which looks after British waters, is seeking views on proposed bylaws for the following four offshore Marine Protected Areas: Dogger Bank Special Area of Conservation (East of England); Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge Special Area of Conservation (The Wash approaches, off the Lincolnshire and North Norfolk coasts); South Dorset Marine Conservation Zone (South West - Dorset); and The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone (South West Offshore).

The proposed bylaws will aim to prohibit the use of bottom towed fishing gear in all four sites and additional restrictions for static gears over sensitive features in two of the sites.

The consultation runs from February 1, 2021, to March 28, 2021, and follows a call for evidence, which closed in December 2020, during which time the MMO sought additional evidence and views on the draft assessments and management options for the four offshore MPAs.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: Now that we have left the Common Fisheries Policy, we are able to deliver on our commitment to achieve a healthy, thriving and sustainable marine environment.

The UK has already established an impressive Blue Belt covering 38 percent of our waters and our Fisheries Act has provided us with additional powers to go further to protect our seas around England.

This proposal to introduce bylaws to safeguard four of our precious offshore Marine Protected Areas shows how we are putting these powers into action.

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Tom McCormack, Chief Executive Officer of MMO, said: This consultation is a big step forward in agreeing measures that will help protect and revive important marine habitats, vital to the unique and vibrant marine life that live within them.

We are ambitious for Englands seas and want to hear as many views as possible in order to create benefits for people and the economy, while protecting our precious marine environment for future generations.

Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, Principle Specialist in Marine Protected Areas at the Marine Conservation Society, commented: Youd think that Marine Protected Areas are, in fact, protected.

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However, just five currently ban bottom trawling, which has been shown time and again to damage the fragile sea floor.

Whilst in the past the UK has had to get full agreement from other EU member states for bans on fishing, now we can act independently with the powers provided by the Fisheries Act.

This announcement today - whilst only for 4 of a possible 74 areas of protection - is an encouraging start.

After years of heavily degrading our seas are we finally starting to see measures that can provide the green shoots of recovery?

Chris Thorne, an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, added: We need to see the detail of these proposals, but if the Government is indeed considering a total ban on bottom trawling in these four protected areas, then its good news.

However, all of our sensitive marine areas must be properly protected, not just four.

Months after we created a 50 square mile bottom trawler exclusion zone in the Dogger Bank by building an underwater boulder barrier, ministers have finally woken up to their responsibilities.

There were still hundreds of other marine areas which were open to all forms of destructive industrial fishing, Mr Thorne said.

He added: Action in these four sites is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the scale needed to solve the crisis facing our oceans.

This process shows that the Government is prepared to use its new Brexit powers to properly protect our seas.

It must deliver on its aspiration to be a world leader in marine protection, and use these new Brexit powers as a matter of urgency.

If the Government choses to follow this consultation approach for a handful of marine protected areas at a time, it will be many years before the entire network is properly protected. Our oceans cant wait that long.

Continued here:

Brexit VICTORY: Britain to crack down on destructive trawlers in UKs protected seas - Express

Theresa May confused "stubbornness with heroism" while trying to pass her doomed Brexit deal in Parliament, Philip Hammond has said.

In a damning interview about his former boss, Lord Hammond said Mrs May had a romantic notion of charging into the valley even though you know youre going down to certain defeat as she tried to pass her Brexit agreement amid hostility from her own party.

The former Chancellor recalled how Mrs May battled Tory Brexiteers, who voted her agreement down in successive rounds of parliamentary votes, ultimately forcing her resignation.

She sometimes confused stubbornness with heroism, he said.

In an interview with UK in a Changing Europe, a think tank, Lord Hammond accused Mrs May of launching what was almost a coup against her Remain-leaning Cabinet ministers in her 2016 Conservative Party Conference speech.

During that speech, the Prime Minister ruled out a Norway or Switzerland-style Brexit, committing to leave with a bespoke new deal - what Lord Hammond says was Brexit in the hardest possible terms.

I just remember focusing my entire energy on maintaining a rictus half-smile, and trying not to show any reaction at all, and then get out of the room without speaking to any journalists, he recalled.

I was completely and utterly horrified by what I felt was almost a coup: a definition of Brexit without any proper Cabinet consultation at all.

The speech amounted to a 20-foot hole and Mrs May from that moment onwards, cupful by cupful of earth at a time, was trying to fill it in a bit so that she wasnt in such a deep mess, he said.

Lord Hammond's intervention lays bare the anger in Mrs Mays Cabinet over the proposed terms of her deal and demonstrates the extent of ministers division over the best way forward.

Eighteen months after the conference speech, Mrs Mays Chequers plan lost her two of the hardest Brexiteers in her Cabinet: David Davis and Boris Johnson.

Describing the battle between Mrs May and the hardline European Research Group as like the First World War, Lord Hammond said his former boss would move a few paces in the direction of pragmatism and then give up 90 per cent of the ground to the Brexiteers.

His remarks are his first major criticism of Mrs May since he left Government at the end of her tenure in July 2019.

Mr Johnson, her successor, then suspended the Tory whip from Lord Hammond after he voted against the Government on a motion to block no deal.

Accusing the Conservative Party of becoming an extreme right-wing faction run by unelected advisers, entryists and usurpers, he stood down in the 2019 election.

His political service was rewarded with a peerage in February 2020.

In his interview, Lord Hammond also suggested Mrs May had little personal belief in Brexit as a political project.

On taking power in 2016 she was essentially a pragmatic politician rather than an ideologue on Europe, he said.

I think that she will have been she was very conscious of the fact that she had been nominally a Remainer, although extremely reluctant to put her head above the parapet, he said.

Theresa has always been, country and party first, ideology very much second.

A spokesman for Mrs May declined to comment.

Read more here:

Theresa May confused 'stubbornness with heroism' during Brexit process, says Philip Hammond - Telegraph.co.uk

LONDON (AP) Trucks owned by U.K. shellfish firms descended on Britains Parliament Monday to protest the Brexit-related red tape they claim is suffocating their businesses.

More than a dozen large lorries one bearing the words Brexit carnage! drove past the Houses of Parliament in central London and parked outside Downing St., home to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Police spoke to the drivers, who could face fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions by making non-essential journeys.

British fishing communities were among the strongest supporters of leaving the European Union, because it promised the chance for the U.K. to leave the blocs complex system of fishing quotas and regain control over who is allowed to fish in British waters.

But now some in Britains fishing industry say they are facing ruin because of new barriers to shipping their catch abroad. Last week, one Scottish fishing boss threatened to dump his rotting catch on politicians doorstep if the situation did not improve.

Fishing rights became a major sticking point in the trade negotiations that followed the U.K.s political departure from the bloc in January 2020, as European nations sought to retain access to waters where they have fished for decades or even centuries.

Under a new post-Brexit U.K.-EU trade deal signed last month, the EUs share of the catch in British seas will be cut by 25% over a 5-year transition period. After that, new quotas will have to be negotiated.

At the same time, Britains exit from the EU means new costs and red tape for exporters a major problem, since Britain exports most of the fish its boats catch.

Some fishing companies say the new restrictions have made it impossible to ship their catch to Europe. Some British fishermen have begun landing their catch in EU member Denmark to keep it in the bloc.

If this debacle does not improve very soon we are looking at many established businesses coming to the end of the line, said Alasdair Hughson, chairman of the Scottish Creel Fishermans Federation.

From seabed to plate, this is not an easy business. People put their heart and soul into making it work, with ridiculously long hours, he added.

Johnson has called the issues teething problems and promised to compensate firms for losses that are due to bureaucratic delays.

But he also claimed fish firms problems were due in part to restaurants being closed during the coronavirus pandemic. And he said there are great opportunities for fishermen across the whole of the U.K. to take advantage of the spectacular marine wealth of the United Kingdom.

Fishing is not the only part of the British economy to experience a bumpy start to 2021 because of Brexit.

The trade deal that took effect Jan. 1 allows Britain and the EU to trade in goods without quotas or tariffs. But that is a far cry from the seamless, hassle-free trade the U.K. enjoyed while it was part of the EUs single market. Companies face customs declarations, border checks and other barriers when they ship goods to and from the bloc. The change has led to shortages of some goods on supermarket shelves as firms reduce the number and amount of shipments they make.

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UK seafood trucks protest at Parliament over Brexit red tape - PBS NewsHour

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John Lichfieldis a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspapers Paris correspondent for 20 years.

PARIS Brexit has become the tale of the Emperors New Clothes in reverse.

Britons have finally understood (five years too late) why the European Unions single market and customs union are important: They make EU internal borders invisible.

Rather than a tale of a ruler who discovers he is naked, this is the story of a country that is discovering the importance of benefits it had taken for granted because they could not be seen.

Invisible benefitsare easy to forget and hard to sell politically. They are also easy to dismiss and easy to lie about. But the cost of abandoning them can be steep.

Since Britain de facto left the EU on January 1, these invisible advantages have become visible disadvantages even calamities.

From the rotting fish on Scottish quaysides to the empty shelves at Marks and Spencer stores in Paris, Dublin and Prague, Britain has discovered what it means to wall yourselfoff from your nearest and most important market.

The lesson could be useful in other EU countries France especially where the European single market is remarkably little understood and frequently misrepresented by both the hard right and the hard left.

The post-Brexit trade deal struck by London just before Christmas allows tariff-free trade across the North and Irish seas. Britain insisted, however, on abandoning the intricate machinery of EU laws that allows barrier-free trade across internal EU borders (and also with Norway and Switzerland). As a result, goods entering and leaving the U.K. from lobsters to airplaneparts, cars and fresh sandwiches suddenly faced new demands for paperwork, health checks and tariffs on components or ingredients from outside the EU.

As a result, British exporters are predicted to face 28 billion in losses this year alone as a result of reduced EU demand and increased frictions and barriers at the EU border.

There isso much complexity, Adam Marshall, the director general of theBritish Chambers of Commerce, told Bloomberg. Its like an onion the more you peel, the more you cry.

Its hardly surprising, in hindsight, that the benefits of the EUs single market set-up have been so misunderstood. Although the single market was largely a British creation pushed in the late 1980s by Margaret Thatcher and conceived in detail by a British EU commissioner, Lord Arthur Cockfield the British public was never really taught to understand what it was all about.

British tabloids and right-wing media, including a young correspondent in Brussels called Boris Johnson, mocked the EU laws harmonizing widgets or appealed to xenophobic fears about EU rules on the free movement of people.

Although some outlets ran counter-arguments on the value of a barrier-free single market from Ireland to Hungary, they were scarcely heard above the misleading guffaws about EU regulation on the shape of bananas or prawn cocktail crisps or condom sizes.

In the run-up to the June 2016 Brexit referendum, some of the most senior British politicians spoke of the single market as if it was just a free trade area.

There is a European free trade zone from Iceland to the Russian border and we will be part of it, Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, claimed on its website. It failed to mention that this free trade zone was the EUs single market (which also meant free movement of people, obedience to EU laws and paying into the EU budget).

Boris Johnson, then one of the leaders of the Brexit campaignfamously told the Sun newspaper after the vote: Our policy is having our cake and eating it.He meant that Britain could have all the economic advantages of being in the EU single market and customs union while being outside them.

In December, Johnson, now prime minister, repeated this monstrous lie, telling the BBC anti-Brexiteershad wrongly warned that you couldnt have free trade with the EU unless you conformed with the EUs laws.

That has turned out not to be true, Johnson said. I want you to see that this is a cakeist treaty.

Tell that to Marks and Spencer food addicts in Paris (both British and French) who have been faced with empty shelves for the last two weeks.

Tell that to Daniel Lambert, a British wine importer whose 26-tweet thread, explaining the layer upon layer of problems that he now faces, went viral over the weekend.

Tell that to Scotlands fishermen, one third of whom have been forced to tie up their boats since January 1 because of lengthy delays in what used to be frictionless overnight sales of fish and shellfish to France and Spain. A dozen trucks that usually carry shellfish from the U.K. to the Continent were parked in protest near Downing Street in central London on Monday.

Thepro-EU, pro-single-market argument was always difficult to sell in Britain. Because trade barriers had vanished within the then EU28, it was easy to forget that they had once existed and by what mechanisms the convenient status quo was being enforced.

Whole industries had grown up or expanded because it had become as easy to trade between Birmingham and Bremen as between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Many forgot, or else lied about, the fact that this was not a conjuring trick or a normal state of affairs but something achieved through a network of EU agreements, regulations, common health standards, technical harmonization, customs accords and the free movement of people and capital.

These invisible EU borders are only invisible because the work of regulation and protection shifted to the European level. This is the wonky but essential stuff that journalist Johnson and other Euroskeptics have constantly mocked and misrepresented as EU over-regulation or bureaucratic interference from Brussels or laws imposed undemocratically.

Even now British ministers are dismissing the cross-border foul-ups as teething problems. Some of them may be. Others are the inevitable, and permanent, consequence of leaving the single market.

This wilful ignorance is far from just British.

Frances favorite hard-right commentator, Eric Zemmour, published an op-ed in Le Figaro last week in which he claimed that Britain had won the battle of Brexit. Great Britain will have access to the big European market without customs duties and without submitting to European law, he explained.

Zemmours argument pure Johnsonian cakeism, orgteauisme misrepresented the barrier-free nature of the big European market and air-brushed awaythe costly difficulties facing U.K.-EU trade post January 1.

Some of those post-Brexit problems will doubtless be resolved with time. Others wont, leaving the U.K. with a permanently flat tire rather than a broken wheel.

It remains to be seen whether the false promises of Brexit will remind voters in other EU countries starting with the French, who will cast their ballots in presidential elections in the spring of 2022 that the EUs invisible benefits are not so invisible if you open your eyes.

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A Brexit lesson: EUs benefits, largely invisible, hurt to lose - POLITICO.eu