BEST
FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE
Dear John,
We’ve finally got a deal in
Northern Ireland, and with it, the political landscape has seen a
major shift. Anyone thinking this would also involve the Government
suddenly ditching their incompetence, sadly, has already been proven
misguided. Details below.
Sunak’s Windsor
workaround
On Monday, after numerous false
starts, false dawns, false hopes, and false promises, the Prime
Minister and the President of the European Commission finally
unveiled the Windsor Framework, hopefully ending the diplomatic impasse
between the EU and the UK over the Northern Ireland
Protocol.
While the DUP has yet to signal their all-too-important approval and the
agreement still needs to be put to a parliamentary vote, politicians
and commentators across the political spectrum have hailed the terms
of the agreement and called for MPs to support it.
The agreement includes a limited
role for the European Court of Justice, red and green lanes for goods
exported from Great Britain to Ireland to reduce checks, and a
significant “Stormont backstop” that will allow Northern Irish
politicians veto power on certain EU laws applied to the province, but
shrewdly, only if there is a functioning government there.
Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith
appeared on ABC Australia and LBC with Shelagh Fogarty to discuss the deal.
New
Horizons
The Government’s newer, more grown
up approach to negotiating with the EU immediately began paying
dividends when, during the press conference announcing the deal at
Windsor, von der Leyen declared that negotiations to bring the UK back into the Horizon Europe
programme as an associate member would immediately reopen.
The UK’s previous sabre-rattling at
the EU with the law-breaking Northern Ireland Protocol Bill had
resulted in the EU locking the UK out of the bloc’s flagship
scientific research funding and exchange programme, despite some
non-EU members being included.
Surely something to welcome given
the UK’s disrupted membership had halted vital scientific research and sent
scientists emigrating from the UK in droves. But not so fast, the
Prime Minister reportedly remains “sceptical” about the benefits of the programme. Glad
that bit of sensibility was just a blip!
Sad boi
Boris
In a Westminster speech on
Thursday, Boris Johnson found himself at the bottom of a conundrum, a
farce, and a psychodrama all in one.
In a stream of consciousness that would have William Faulkner screaming
to get to the point, Johnson admitted fault for issues in the Northern Ireland Protocol, that he
hoped Sunak’s plan would work but then said that he would have a hard time voting for the Sunak’s deal
nonetheless.
With such incisive speaking skills,
it’s a wonder how he wasn’t able to negotiate a better Brexit
deal.
Lockdown files
fracas
Fans of terrible people fighting
each other were dealt a welcome surprise when hundreds of thousands of
WhatsApp messages from Matt Hancock during his tenure as Health
Secretary during the pandemic were leaked to the Telegraph by lockdown sceptic and
self-styled journalist Isabel Oakeshott. Fans of having a Government
that responds competently and without pathological selfishness to the
most disruptive pandemic in a century were, once again,
disappointed.
The most damning revelation from
the ‘lockdown files’ was just how blatantly Hancock ignored scientific advice telling him to test all people entering care
homes–a decision that contributed to thousands of unnecessary deaths
in care homes. Other lowlights include Hancock begging George Osborne for favourable write-ups in the Evening
Standard, private couriers taking Covid tests to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house during shortages, and
Hancock and Gavin Williamson claiming that teachers “really really do just hate work.”
Hancock reacted to the leaks with
his trademark graciousness: he whined about the breach of an NDA and allegedly left Oakeshott a
threatening message in the wee hours of the
morning.
Layla Moran MP, chair of the
All-Party Parliamentary Group on
Coronavirus (for which B4B
act as secretariat) appeared on LBC to discuss the revelations (beginning at timestamp
8:58).
Gray days ahead in
Westminster
You know when you move up a year in
school, and you’re dismayed to find that the sternest teacher has
moved up a year with you?
The Partygate offenders at the head
of Government must be feeling that feeling ever since it was announced
that Sue Gray would be joining Keir Starmer’s team as chief of staff. It
would be ironic, given that Boris Johnson himself appointed her to lead the Partygate probe, but a
sense of irony departed the Tory party long ago.
Tories have reacted with fury at
the hiring, and pledged to block it, with Jacob Rees-Mogg logging it in his longstanding crusade to rid Britain
of the civil service. Labour have signalled they may delay the appointment until after
the next election should they be advised.
Shocking crash in
Greece
On Tuesday night, a train between
Greece’s two largest cities, Thessaloniki and Athens, crashed head-on
into a freight train. The crash resulted in 57 deaths, many of them
students returning to the capital following a holiday weekend,
making it the nation’s deadliest-ever rail disaster..
This week, following the crash,
demonstrations broke out around the country after charges of
negligence from the Greek transportation department. Anger swelled
after it was revealed that the train’s driver had been told to proceed
through a red signal, sparking two 24-hour strikes from the country’s
rail and metro workers.
Best for Britain expresses its
deepest sympathies for the lives lost and uprooted by this
disaster.
UK vs France: the
re-re-re-re-redux
The longstanding mediaeval (or
ancient, if we’re going back to the era of Gaul and Britannia)
situationship between the UK and France received an excellent write-up
in the Financial Times this week, and, despite the positive steps of
this week, the verdict wasn’t so encouraging for this side of the
Channel: France is becoming the new
Britain.
Simon Kuper details the UK’s
previous supplanting of France on the world stage up to the 2000s,
highlighting how our two countries are perhaps more alike than any
others, despite how vigorously both sides would likely
protest.
However, following the 2008
financial crash, a combination of nation-specific factors, austerity
and then Brexit on our side, has now, in Kuper’s view, placed France
above the UK in the geopolitical pecking order, now with better public
services, higher incomes, and more promising prospects. The piece
makes for intriguing if sobering reading–give it a share.
With that, we’ve suddenly got a
whole new slate of talking points to argue, agonise, and drive
ourselves mad over. Get at it while the iron’s hot!
Best
wishes,
Tommy Gillespie
Press Officer, Best for Britain
