BEST FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE
Dear John,
The Best for Britain team is made
up of news junkies and political know-it-alls. So we thought you might
be interested in what we think of the week's news, the things we
spotted that you might have missed and the things we found
surprising.
This new Weekend Wire should
get you up to date and prepped for another week. We hope to keep you
up to date, and as in-the-know as we are. Read on...
Big week ahead for fans of
ping pong
Their Lordships are ploughing
through this Government’s authoritarian legislation next week, with
the Policing Bill back with Peers on Tuesday after MPs removed their amendments. Lords now have the
opportunity to put their amendments back in and send it back to MPs
again. Unedifying as this process may be, we do get to call it ‘ping
pong’ as the Bill ricochet’s back and forth between the
chambers.
Best for Britain’s very
reasonable amendment to allow us to continue to be able to apply
legally for demos in Parliament Square is being fought against by
Government Ministers because they say large gatherings block
'vehicular access to the parliamentary estate'. Given that most big
demos happen at weekends when Parliament isn't sitting, we can only
conclude that the Government is prioritising the delivery of wine and
beer to their many on-site boozy establishments over our democratic
right to protest…
Elections Bill
go-slow
Peers are also going through the
Elections Bill line by line next week and the Government
may be worrying about how long it’s taking them to do so. Over 200
amendments have been proposed to this alarming Bill so
far…
Long Covid’s long
shadow
Members of the Coronavirus APPG, Layla Moran MP (Lib Dem), Dan Poulter MP
(Con) and Debbie Abrahams MP (Lab) have secured a debate in the House
of Commons on the impact of Long Covid. Best for Britain provides
secretariat for the Coronavirus APPG so we’ll be watching the debate
and listening closely to what the Government says it will do to help
those living with the long term effects of Covid. You can watch it too
from around 2:30pm here.
Deltacron has entered the
chat
Which brings us to the latest Covid
strain, Deltacron, a variant which as the name suggests is
carrying genes from both the Delta and Omicron strains of Covid-19.
It’s going woefully underreported because of Ukraine and because it’s
an inconvenient truth for the government.
In the UK, cases are up 50% on last week, and hospitalisations are up
2000 in a week. Remember also that hospitalisations are lagging that
47,000 uptick in cases so we will expect those to rise over the next
fortnight too. 1 in 20 are currently dying in Hong Kong (their line
has gone vertical). Meanwhile, England’s free mass testing
programme will end on April 1 - what fools we are.
Not making any
friends
Liz Truss is yet again threatening to trigger Article
16 of the Northern Ireland
Protocol, undermining the Good Friday Agreement, setting back
relations with the EU and giving Biden yet more reasons to avoid
agreeing a US-UK trade deal.
American’t for
Johnson
That might be why Trade Minister
Anne Marie Trevelyan is going to Maryland next week, looking to do trade deals with
US states one by one. Bring us back some cookies Anne Marie! And
Johnson has so far not been invited to next week’s EU/US meeting. Leading the
world indeed.
Darroch on the
airwaves
Best for Britain’s Chair, Lord Kim
Darroch, though, has been on Times Radio talking about renewing friendships around
the world in light of Ukraine, showing this government the way out of
the situation it’s created for us.
And on ITV’s Peston drawing on his
experience as a UK Ambassador and National Security Advisor to suggest
that a week when they executed 81 people perhaps wasn’t the best time for the PM to travel to Saudi
Arabia.
Going further for
refugees
Chaotic planning and risks for vulnerable
refugees who could be put
in unvetted homes is blighting the government’s new refugee
policy. We’re still calling for them to waive visas for Ukrainian
refugees, just like the rest of Europe and you can use our Hey-MP tool
to send a message to your MP
here.
Did Brexit poison our
refugee response?
An interesting take from Alf Dubs who's also written a piece about Priti Patel’s Nationality & Borders
Bill. Lord Dubs came to the
UK on Kindertransport in WW2 and has long been an advocate for refugee
rights.
And some good
news!
Read this statement by Tulip Siddiq on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's homecoming,
saying Richard Ratcliffe has 'set the bar high' for husbands. And
another nice clip - the moment BBC presenter Joanna Gosling choked up on air when she heard Nazanin was coming home.
Welcome home Nazanin!
Keep up to date and keep
checking our messages. All of us at Best for Britain thank you for
being with us, and for supporting the work we do together.
Best wishes,
Cary
Mitchell
Director of Operations, Best for
Britain
PS. It's really easy to support Best
for Britain's campaigns and be first to know what's going on. £10 per
month will make you a Best for Britain Fellow Traveller. Join now.
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