Britain should be prepared to offer ‘mass asylum’ to thousands expected to flee Hong Kong as China imposes tough new security laws, an MP said yesterday.
Source: Tory MP Bob Seely calls for Britain to offer ‘mass asylum’ | Daily Mail Online
Tag: Britain
NHS Staff Will Able to Refuse Non-Emergency Treatment to Patients Being Racist or Sexist : Global Citizen
NHS Staff will able to refuse non-emergency treatment to patients being racist, sexist, or homophobic under new rules from April.
Source: NHS Staff Will Able to Refuse Non-Emergency Treatment to Patients Being Racist or Sexist : Global Citizen
EU irks Britain by calling Gibraltar ‘colony’ | Reuters
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain could get visa-free access to the European Union for its citizens even after no-deal Brexit but objected on Friday to language used in the proposed EU regulation which described Gibraltar as a “colony”.
The row highlighted strains over the territory on Spain’s southern coast as Britain quits the Union and the remainder of the EU states swing the bloc’s policies behind Spain, which is taking advantage of Brexit to ramp up its claim to “The Rock”.
The new regulation would let British citizens can visit the EU without a visa for up to 90 days even if there is no special withdrawal deal.
It made a new distinction between those living in Britain and those who are citizens of Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory which is now in the EU.
Diplomats said the British ambassador to the EU raised London’s objections to this in a meeting of EU envoys. A British spokeswoman said: “Gibraltar is not a colony and it is completely inappropriate to describe in this way.”
Source: EU irks Britain by calling Gibraltar ‘colony’ | Reuters
Beyond Burqas: The Issues Facing British Muslim Women We Should Really Be Talking About : Global Citizen
“I’m a Muslim woman who chooses to wear the niqab — and every day I have to plan ahead. ‘Am I going to be attacked today or am I going to be abused today?’” added Shamin, from the West Midlands. “But it’s my right to be wearing it.”
Under the hashtag #MyHijabMyChoice, women have been calling to be left to make their own, personal decision about whether or not they wear a veil, without the interference of politicians.
In total, there are around 2.7 million Muslim people in the UK. While there are no official estimates of the number of women who wear veils, it’sreportedly very few. In France, for example, which has a larger Muslim population than the UK, it’s no more than a couple of thousand women.
But this debate about burqas stretches significantly further. Against a background of Brexit, which has already divided the nation, it’s become about migration, integration, and Islamophobia — with some raising concerns that it has the potential to encourage violence.
Source: Beyond Burqas: The Issues Facing British Muslim Women We Should Really Be Talking About : Global Citizen
Stand up now for Brexit and Britain | Frederick Forsyth | Columnists | Comment | Express.co.uk
Two years ago we voted in a referendum on a very clear and single issue. Did we wish to continue as a subordinate member of the European Union (eight per cent of the vote in its council) or did we wish to leave it and re-establish a risky sovereignty?
The presumption by the high and the mighty was that our decision was a foregone conclusion. We were offered the referendum only as a sop, to get the issue out of the way for ever or at least a generation. That was the establishment presumption. Well, they were wrong. The high and the mighty, the bureaucrats and the tycoons, the fat cats and the wallet-stuffers, made the miscalculation of their lives.
We chose sovereignty over subordination, risk over obedient security. And for two years our clear voting majority has been comprehensively betrayed. More, it has been presumed that we will not really care, or at least not enough to fight. Those who sneer at us, whether Tory or Labour voters, from their plush offices, comfortable on our taxes, snooty in their grand titles, have presumed that our votes can be ignored and our wishes reversed with impunity.
We thought we were the Brits, the people who do not take kindly to threat, who have real objection to being lied to and cheated. We thought we were the descendants of the people who fought the Battle of Britain, who went up the beaches of Normandy and freed an entire continent from the foulest creed ever devised, who dropped on to the roofs of Arnhem. We thought we were those people or at least their children and grandchildren.
Source: Stand up now for Brexit and Britain | Frederick Forsyth | Columnists | Comment | Express.co.uk
Britain asks to join WTO procurement deal in latest Brexit step | Reuters
Staying in the WTO is potentially important so that British companies can still bid for government work in the United States, European Union and Japan. Britain is a member of the agreement now only by virtue of its EU membership.
In letters published by the WTO on Tuesday, the EU and British ambassadors said Britain would make an offer on the degree to which it was willing to open its own procurement markets in return for continued membership.
The 46 countries in the agreement have liberalised access to each other’s markets, with an estimated $1.7 trillion annual spend. China is hoping to join, which could add a further incentive for membership.
British officials have previously said that rolling over membership of the agreement should be relatively easy, since there was an incentive for other members to retain their access to Britain’s procurement market, too. But any negotiation in the WTO can be an opportunity to make new demands.
A British trade official told Reuters in March that a draft offer had already been circulated, part of a strategy of trying to minimise the disruption of Brexit at the WTO.
The Geneva-based WTO is already in crisis because of a potential global trade war and a U.S. block on new judicial appointments.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said last year that Brexit was going to be “a bumpy road”, but just how bumpy would depend on many things, including negotiations with the EU.
British hopes for a smooth transition at the WTO have already been dashed by disagreement in agriculture, where major suppliers are unhappy with losing the flexibility they have enjoyed with the EU as one market of 28 countries.
Source: Britain asks to join WTO procurement deal in latest Brexit step | Reuters
Victorian diseases savage Britain as thousands are pushed to foodbanks : Welfare Weekly
Victorian diseases and medical conditions associated with hunger and malnutrition are making an unwelcome comeback in today’s Britain, as hundreds of thousands of families struggle to put food on the table and are forced to turn to foodbanks, recent figures suggest.
The number of hard-up people admitted to hospital due to hunger and malnutrition has more than tripled in the last 10 years, with Labour blaming Tory cuts to social security benefits and stagnant wage growth for a shameful rise in the number of people struggling to make ends meet.
Over the last year alone, the NHS treated 8,417 patients for medical conditions linked to malnutrition, compared to 2,702 in 2008.
This includes treatment for conditions like Scurvy, caused by vitamin C deficiency, which was once thought to have been all but eradicated in the UK. Shocking statistics show the number of people treated for this Victorian disease has more than doubled, from 61 to 128 cases.
Source: Victorian diseases savage Britain as thousands are pushed to foodbanks : Welfare Weekly
After hesitancy, France backs Britain over Russian role in attack : Reuters
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he shared Britain’s assessment that Russia was behind a nerve agent attack on a former spy living in England and vowed to take measures in response in the coming days.
Source: After hesitancy, France backs Britain over Russian role in attack : Reuters
‘Brexit is the FAULT of Brussels!’ German MEP LASHES EU with epic tirade at Eurocrats : The Express
GERMAN MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel blamed Brussels for Brexit saying they changed the game after Britain joined the EU.
By ABIGAIL MORRIS
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The MEP and former business chief said the European Union is to blame for Brexit as Brussels ramped up integration after Britain entered the single market.
Appearing on BBC News, the German MEP said: “It is our opinion and our conviction that Brexit is not only the fault, if you wish, of the British.
“No, I think it is the fault of Brussels because Brussels has always done much too much centralisation and harmonisation.”
Mr Henkel went on to question if the UK was the one that actually left, comparing Britain’s EU membership to joining a football club only for Brussels to change the game to golf.
He said: “It’s like Britain having joined a football club and then the club management decided to play golf, then I ask myself who has really left whom.”
The MEP also urged the EU to give the UK the type of deal envisioned by former PM David Cameron.
He added: “We are addressing Brussels and want Brussels to give a deal to Britain, a deal which Cameron wanted and I’m quite sure with such a new deal, the situation in Britain would also change.”
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He also said the bloc should break the “deadlock” and look for a different kind of deal.
He said: ““We have absolutely no illusions.”
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“However, I think the situation is so obviously wrong for both that it is necessary to try to change the situation.”
Britain is aiming to break the Brexit deadlock by making progress on the EU’s key Brexit issues – including the Irish border, the financial settlement and citizens’ rights.
Source : ‘Brexit is the FAULT of Brussels!’ German MEP LASHES EU with epic tirade at Eurocrats : The Express
Britain warns Boeing it might lose business over Bombardier row
BELFAST/LONDON (Reuters) – Britain told U.S. planemaker Boeing on Wednesday that it could lose out on British defence contracts because of its dispute with Canadian rival Bombardier which has put 4,200 jobs at risk in Northern Ireland.
The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday imposed a 220-percent duty on Bombardier’s (BBDb.TO) CSeries jets, whose wings are made at a plant in Belfast, following a complaint by Boeing (BA.N) which accuses Canada of unfairly subsidising Bombardier.
The ruling is a political headache for Britain’s minority Conservative government, which relies on support from a Northern Irish party to stay in power.
It also undermines the government’s assurances to Britons that free trade and London’s close ties with Washington will be pillars of Britain’s prosperity and global influence after it leaves the European Union in 2019.
“This is not the behaviour we expect from Boeing and it could indeed jeopardise our future relationship with them,” British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told reporters in Belfast.
“Boeing has significant defence contracts with us and still expects to win further contracts. Boeing wants and we want a long-term partnership but that has to be two-way.”
Boeing says it employs 2,200 people in the United Kingdom, which is one of the company’s biggest defence clients.
Source: Britain warns Boeing it might lose business over Bombardier row
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