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Faisal Islam Profile picture
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16 Mar, 7 tweets, 2 min read
Punchy response to PMs Integrated Review aim for UK “science superpower” from biggest UK private science funder ⁦@wellcometrust⁩ : research/ aid cuts/ no clarity on post Brexit Horizon research funding threaten to damage and eclipse ambition: wellcome.org/news/science-s…
“Aid cuts mean UK scientists will have to abandon work they’ve already started, often in partnership with academics in developing countries. It is unprecedented to not honour existing commitments..will damage our national reputation & flies in face of ‘global Britain’ ambitions”
On post EU Horizon research Wellcome warns of effective £1bn cut:
While “welcoming decision to continue participation in Horizon... they will be immensely frustrated, with good reason, if it’s going to be paid for by cuts to other research. We urgently need reassurance on this.”
Seems rather laser guided attack from foremost UK science funder on integrated review’s rhetoric on “first pillar” - re science, aid, global Britain... complete with stats showing plans to raise R&D spend/GDP..countries with global ambitions such as this are investing even more
UK will “associate to” EU horizon scheme/already encouraging scientists to continue applications below - Wellcome querying that money will come from existing research budgets rather than from approx £350m a week gross, £200m net no longer paid to EU - ukri.org/our-work/colla…
Greg Clark asks Dominic Cummings about precisely this - says he tried to separate science from overall Brexit deal...

“We had a moral obligation that Brexit would not take a penny away from existing funding... British science should not lose a penny...” - after Wellcome warning
Very interesting point made about top UK universities... but Cummings says top researchers fear the Nobel prizes of the past are being used for branding purposes, without putting in place the infrastructure for the future..

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More from @faisalislam

Faisal Islam Profile picture
12 Mar
NEW
First month in new post Brexit trading arrangements sees UK exports to EU down 40.7% and imports down 28.8%: official ONS figures....

Some shifted in to Dec stockpiling, & lockdown a factor

GDP also fell 2.9% in Jan, much less than first lockdowns

ons.gov.uk/economy/nation…
Monthly figures can be erratic, and the Govt argued yesterday that some of this has normalised in port lorry flow data on February, but even taking all that into account that is still a significant fall. Important to see trend now over next few months.
ONS: “External evidence suggests some of the slower trade for goods in early January 2021 could be attributable to disruption caused by the end of the transition period. In addition, we also need to consider the stronger November and December stockpiling trade figures”
Read 4 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
11 Mar
NEW:

Govt delays post Brexit import paperwork checks due next month and in July... until October, and into next year
Govt: “we have not seen generalised disruption... however recognise scale and significance of challenges” in adjusting to Brexit changes at same time as Covid impacts:
Written ministerial statement from CDL Gove here:

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statem…
Read 15 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
10 Mar
Made point before - issue was EU at first insufficiently protective of its own exports, possibly as a result of listening to some of the bigger pharma companies, not controlling for example even some of the first vaccines it funded... unlike UK with govt funded and brokered AZ-Ox
consequence however of political pressure EU under here - is next time, or if ongoing need for an EU originating vaccine/treatment/component - they’ll find a way to insist on domestic first supply, as UK has... thread from a few weeks back explaining:
In general though, in context of AZ-Ox being distributed via India around developing world at cost price, difficult to sustain argument that UK has been vaccine “nationalist”... perhaps initially vaccine protective....

EU firms have made billions from these exports to ROW.
Read 5 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
10 Mar
Former top Treasury mandarin says test & trace “most wasteful and inept” public spending in history - and links acceptance of that in Govt to Bank of England effectively printing the money to fund it...
Can occasionally be forgotten that an adjustment made for the output of the test and trace system notably boosted Q4 GDP figure ...
Full report here... from cross party @CommonsPAC

key charge: didn’t achieve aim, that justified £37bn cost, of preventing further lockdowns..

& initially centralising this mistaken when local health officials have expertise here, like in Germany

committees.parliament.uk/publications/4…
Read 5 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
9 Mar
Manston Airport no longer required for customs checks on cross channel freight exports...
OBR’s updated traffic data confirm flow of lorries in Dover was in early Feb back to 2020 levels. “normal” says Govt (tho below 18/19 - 6,100 trucks a day) accords with Govt management data, shows worst case scenarios didnt materialise, but hit to actual trade yet to be revealed
But former PM Theresa May had some pretty sharp comments on the Budget -

“Every prospect Brexit will have continued impact in reducing the size of our economy”... expresses concern that the stimulus is entirely capital allowances not R&D tax credits “get on and do something..”
Read 6 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
9 Mar
Former Chancellor George Osborne speaking to the IFG very interesting currently defending corporation tax cuts - really big revenue raising comes from VAT, NIC, income tax - “the idea you can raise C-tax with no consequence is a mistake...” before adding “if it does go ahead”...
Osborne revealing to IFG that Cameron overruled his suggestion to introduce an extra two bands of council tax for expensive houses and use the proceeds to cut higher rate of tax to 40p. DC did not want a mansion tax though, and thought 40p taking cuts too far....
Asked Osborne about Sunak turning around decades of orthodoxy on low C-tax rates raising revenue, he replies:

- Everyone assumes that low tax is the driving force of Conservative thinking, but its fiscal responsibility that is the driving force...
Read 6 tweets

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