BEST
FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE
Dear John,
Our first big milestone has arrived–we’ve reached Weekend Wire #50.
Since we can’t count on them to govern, we can at least console
ourselves with the fact that this Tory Government has given us plenty
of material in these past 50 weeks.
When Rishi met Emmanuel (and
accomplished very little)
The Prime Minister got the chance
to marvel at the existence and efficiency of France’s high speed rail
network when he travelled to Paris on Friday for the first France-UK
summit since 2018.
Sunak met Emmanuel Macron to discuss the continued European partnership
aiding Ukraine, energy security, preventing terrorism, and a new deal on precision weapons.
However, according to reports,
Macron had already privately rejected Sunak’s pleas for a bilateral deportation
agreement. The French President is said to be pressuring the PM to
open new safe routes to UK asylum.
In the absence of a deal that will
actually stop dangerous small boat crossings, the updated deal
will focus on patrols, build a new detention centre in France and
see the UK send France €541m over three years. Just don't get it confused with the deal signed in November which focussed on patrols but didn't work,
or the one Priti Patel signed, which focussed on patrols but didn’t
work, or the one Amber Rudd signed…
An illegal Bill on
migration
The Government continued its depressing and dangerous campaign of
shockingly cruel legislation toward immigrants, people seeking asylum,
and refugees this week with the announcement on Tuesday of a so-called
Illegal Migration Bill.
This policy would see tens of
thousands of people locked up in criminal detention and deported en masse
should they fail to arrive in the UK to claim asylum through one of
the extremely limited safe routes to the UK, the largest of which are
restricted to Ukrainians and Hong Kongers. With the Government
dog-whistling about ‘illegal migration’, it bears repeating that
seeking asylum is a right recognised by international law.
Critics have slammed the Bill’s cruelty and noted it had little
chance of beating judicial challenges in the UK or by the European
Court of Human Rights, which Suella Braverman herself admitted. The German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland,
conversely, said “Bravo” in a Facebook post.
Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith
said the Bill amounted to “little more than performative
cruelty”.
Out of the crisp fryer and
into the fire
With the Government seemingly
determined to transform the UK into an isolationist rump state with
their despicable Bill, the nation’s media grandees have all zeroed in
on the biggest outrage the UK has seen since, well, last week:
football legend Gary Lineker criticising the Government.
The BBC Match of the Day
presenter’s crime? Accurately expressing concern that the Government’s
rhetoric toward people seeking asylum has strayed into dangerous
territory reminiscent of 1930s Germany.
With Tories across the board
screaming for the dismissal of Lineker from the *checks notes*
football show, the matter of former BBC political presenter Andrew
Neil chairing a right-wing political magazine at the same time appears to
have been forgotten. One might even call it rank hypocrisy. Still,
Lineker announced on Friday that he would step
back from MOTD.
We’d close this bit out with a pun
about football, but Penny Mordaunt’s attempt has crippled us with so much secondhand embarrassment that
we’ll just say: Less scrutiny of Gary, more of Government,
please.
UKTBC tells Government to
follow the science
The announcement that the UK would
be allowed to rejoin the Horizon Europe science and research programme
as a result of the successful Windsor Framework negotiations was
greeted with joy from scientists around Europe, including the
UK.
Naturally, noted tech bro Rishi
Sunak responded to this news by…waffling on the purported scientific
reunion with Europe and intimating that reentry to Horizon was not on
the agenda. Instantly, a chorus of condemnation from scientists,
academics, and people interested in the UK not being shut out of all
international bodies resulted.
One of the strongest rebukes came
from the cross-party, cross-industry UK Trade and Business Commission,
for which B4B are secretariat. The UKTBC’s letter to the Prime Minister was written up in the Financial Times on Tuesday.
In their defence, five steps
is a lot
Glad to know last week’s show of
cooperation with the EU was just a brief
hallucination.
Last weekend, the New European
published an op-ed by your author on the next five steps for resetting the UK-EU
relationship after the Windsor Framework.
Among these were an immediate
rejoin of Horizon Europe and working in partnership with the EU to
establish new safe and legal routes to asylum. In both cases, the
Government has already done the opposite. We do have to give them some
credit for addressing the list so promptly–maybe the next Government
will actually follow it.
Georgians take to the
streets
This week, protestors marched in the streets across Georgia to voice their opposition to
a bill being advanced by the country’s ruling party which would
require a wide spectrum of independent media, political organisations,
and bloggers receiving funding from outside the country to register as
“foreign agents”.
The bill, similar to Russian
legislation, was advanced amid widespread reports of Russian
involvement. In response, thousands of Georgians, many waving EU
flags, hit the streets to demand its retraction and demonstrate
against any political moves that could disrupt the country’s accession to the EU.
As of this weekend, they have succeeded with their immediate aim–Georgia’s
parliament officially revoked the legislation on Thursday. Organisers
have said they will press on to achieve the reforms
necessary to make Georgia an EU member.
Worst Round Table
ever
Boris Johnson’s campaign to give
each of his mates a heraldic title hit a snag this week when outrage greeted his reported
plans to give his own father, who has been accused of both sexual
misconduct and domestic violence, a knighthood.
The former Prime Minister has
already given his brother a peerage among his allegedly triple-digit honours list. Sir Stanley Johnson, however, appears to be a sabre too far for top Tories, who have now joined
opposition voices in calling for Johnson to trim some of the
less-distinguished names from the list.
One Tory has cautioned that it
could put Rishi Sunak in the uncomfortable position of forcing Johnson
to cut it himself. To make the ceremony more BoJo friendly, we suggest
doing away with some of the stuffiness–maybe try firing peerage
certificates from a T-shirt cannon!
Are you breastfeeding,
formula, or arsenic?
Rejoice, babies of Britain!
Meddlesome bureaucrats from Brussels can no longer stick their noses
in your lunch. The fully sovereign UK will not have to comply with new
EU regulations…limiting the levels of arsenic in baby food.
Following studies on the toxic
metal’s carcinogenic effects, the EU has slashed the amount of arsenic acceptable in infant
formula and baby food by 80 percent. Babies in the UK, meanwhile, will
be consuming five times more than their European
counterparts.
With the potentially deadly health
effects of this regulatory divergence, it’s good that the UK has
stopped sending £350m per week to the EU and funded the NHS inst..*gets yanked off
stage by a vaudeville-style cane*
As it’s our golden issue, we’re
expecting to arrive at work on Monday to boxes and boxes of golden
trinkets and baubles gifted to us by you, dear readers. You guys sent
them, right?
Best
wishes,
Tommy Gillespie
Press Officer, Best for Britain
