Dear John,

Grab the (more expensive) popcorn and wrap yourself in bubble wrap so you don’t need medical treatment anytime soon – it’s time to see what the world of Westminster has been up to this week....

Brexit balloons grocery bills

The sunlit uplands are starting to look more like sunlit upcharges.

On Thursday, LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance published new data revealing that food prices have increased by an average of 6% in the last two years, to the tune of £210 per household.

Increased import duties and added costs from Brexit red tape were cited by one coauthor, who urged the Government to address non-tariff barriers to reduce the pressure on the public. Overall, the study estimated that the post-Brexit rise has gobbled up £5.8bn from UK consumers’ pockets.

Read the response to this study from Hilary Benn MP, Co-Convenor of the UK Trade and Business Commission, here.

Tony’s two cents

This week, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (IGC) published a comprehensive report on the current state of Brexit. Their verdict? Comprehensively cack.

Amid news that ⅔ of voters across the political spectrum want a closer relationship with the EU in the medium term, the IGC’s report laid out a sensible vision for improving diplomatic relations, prioritising regulatory alignment for business trading abroad, and sorting out the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Government, ever on the pulse of public opinion, has instead pressed ahead with their Retained EU Law Bill and ruled out a Swiss-style relationship with the EU. Hot on their heels, Keir Starmer slapped down any Swiss talk and nipped any talk of a return to free movement in the bud.

Tories clash on turbines

Wind turbines caused a major headache for Rishi Sunak this week.

A motion by Simon Clarke to end an effective ban on new onshore wind farms has the support of Labour alongside a large contingent of net zero-backing Tories, but fears of rebellion from shire Tories have the Prime Minister treading lightly on the subject and preferring to pivot discussion to offshore wind.

BEIS Secretary Grant Shapps denied reports of a row on wind, stressing that the Government was focused on maintaining stipulations requiring local consent for the building of wind farms. With opinion polls widely in favour of wind farms across the country, yet another of Sunak’s leadership pledges could be set to go whirring round and round.

Chinese protests reach boiling point

Protests that erupted in the western Chinese city of Urumqi on 24th November after strict lockdown measures delayed firefighters’ response to a fatal fire have continued to spread across the country.

Demonstrators, many holding white paper, have called for an end to the government’s ‘zero covid’ policy, with some even calling for premier Xi Jinping to step down. The scale and pointedness of the protests have not been seen for years in the country, with some comparing them to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. On Sunday, one BBC journalist was arrested while covering protests in Shanghai and held for several hours before being released.

The protests have triggered authorities in China to begin lifting restrictions in some cities, and some commentators even predicted they could signal the beginning of the end for Xi.

Home Office ignored diphtheria warnings

Refugee advocacy groups are calling for an inquiry after reports revealed this week that the Home Office took weeks to act on warnings from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) about diphtheria spreading at Manston and other overcrowded detention centres for weeks.

On the back of earlier warnings from UKHSA and other bodies, the Home Office received the ECDC bulletin on 6th October about spread of the disease among people seeking asylum that stressed the danger of a “severe outcome” in overcrowded detention facilities. The ECDC urged the Home Office to ask people arriving if they had been vaccinated against the disease and set up inoculations at Manston and other centres, which were more than 2x over capacity. However, they failed to act until November.

An outbreak of diphtheria began in Manston in October, with over 50 confirmed cases, and one man has tragically died of the disease, thought to be contracted there. On 31 October, however, Suella Braverman accused those raising concerns about disease of “using inflammatory language” and “creat[ing] alarm unnecessarily”.

B4B’s Naomi Smith: Tories can’t be trusted on the economy

ICYMI, last Sunday, our fearless leader Naomi Smith published an op-ed in The Guardian skewering the myth that the Conservatives are the party of sound economic stewardship.

In the op-ed, Naomi notes the remarkably poor economic record of Conservative Chancellors from Nigel Lawson to Jeremy Hunt, taking them to task for anaemic GDP growth, crashing the value of the pound, ballooning unemployment, and unleashing wanton austerity on the citizenry and public services.

The op-ed further explores the disastrous effects of Brexit and George Osborne’s regime of austerity on the UK’s economic performance, pointing out these respectively cost us £31bn and £100bn every year.

Have a read, share your thoughts in the comments, and try not to scream!

You get a strike! You get a strike!

This is looking to be the best Christmas ever, so long as you don’t use the mail, ride on trains, attend school, and have never gotten sick.

Posties are set to strike this month ahead of a real-terms pay cut, with the Royal Mail accusing the CWU of intimidation and reportedly paying agency workers more than their longtime employees. Meanwhile, train strikes are still set to go ahead after RMT boss Mick Lynch traded words with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last week.

Teachers have balloted for national strike action after the new year following another real-terms pay cut. Meanwhile, the NHS is set for likely its largest industrial action ever on 20th December, with ambulance medics and hospital support staff joining nurses on the picket line over years of pay cuts and dangerously understaffed hospitals since Tory rule began in 2010. The Government is in talks with the unions about how to ensure care continues safely over the strike day.

Bloomberg released this graphic showing a uniquely depressing advent calendar: strikes taking place every day up to Christmas.

I’ll be shopping for Christmas

There’s still time to get your hands on Best for Britain's Christmas merch collection! Many items have already sold out, so act fast!

We’ve had our eye on the ‘I Love Brussels’ mug and ‘snowflake and proud’ ornaments, so you’d better make moves on them. Any orders made by 13th December will be shipped in time to make it down the chimney.

With strikes, Brexit embarrassments, crises, and parades of incompetency piling up faster than the gifts under the tree, make sure you take a moment to breathe and laugh at the cosmic irony of it all. Stay safe, have a great weekend, and see you soon!