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14 Jul, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Breaking 🚨

- there are over 700 workers at Nissan Sunderland - the UK’s largest car factory - self-isolating right now after being pinged by Covid app

- business groups warning that some companies are missing 20% of their staff

ft.com/content/560613… via @FinancialTimes
Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland Foods, said that Covid-related absences were “growing exponentially. Within a week or two they’ll be the highest ever.”

“This will be a shit show for business”.
The bars, restaurants and pubs sector is facing a similar labour crisis, according to Kate Nicholls, head of UKHospitality, who said that up to *a third* of staff were being forced to stay at home in some of the worst cases…
the number of people having to self-isolate is going through the roof

news.sky.com/story/covid-19…

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More from @PickardJE

Jim Pickard Profile picture
13 Jul
BREAKING:

- government wins aid cut vote by 333-298 after substantial Tory rebellion

- result: Rishi Sunak's £4bn annual cut to Britain's international aid will continue for at least 5 years
WaterAid chief Tim Wainwright:

“Chancellor’s cynical move to balance Britain’s books on the backs of the world's poorest people will cost 100s of 1000s of lives. To cut aid for lifesaving water and sanitation in the middle of worst pandemic for 100 years is unconscionable."
ActionAid chief Frances Longley:

“Today the government has chosen to pull up the drawbridge and leave behind millions of the poorest women and girls around the world. This is unforgivable at a time when the pandemic has already rolled back women’s rights by a generation."
Read 5 tweets
Jim Pickard Profile picture
21 Jun
a question for supporters of High-Speed 2, given the price tag has now risen from £33bn to over £106bn:

is there any price at which it's not worth doing? and if so what is that figure?
bear in mind that the cost of the scheme has risen by £1.7bn - equivalent to EIGHT trade yachts - in just the last 9 months

ft.com/content/510f2a…
I ask as someone who is studiously neutral on the issue
Read 4 tweets
Jim Pickard Profile picture
17 Jun
what many people won’t know is that the Tory 2019 manifesto promised to legislate for flexible working - ie before the pandemic:

“We will encourage flexible working and consult on making it the default unless employers have good reasons not to.”
this pledge was made before anyone had even heard of covid-19
- question is whether government will just give everyone the right to "ask for flexible working" (you already get this after 26 weeks at a company)

- this is obviously not the same thing as an automatic right to work from home

- that will be part of consultation later this year
Read 4 tweets
Jim Pickard Profile picture
8 Jun
turns out Boris Johnson’s intention to build his new trade yacht in the UK is set to fall foul of a World Trade Organization agreement struck by his own government last year

ft.com/content/c77b7a…
- in October Liz Truss signed the WTO’s “global procurement agreement”

- she said GPA would allow UK companies to keep bidding for state contracts worth £1.3tr globally

- overseas groups could still bid for UK public sector contracts “delivering better value for UK taxpayers”
- but item 47 of annex 4 of UK schedule of GPA says procurement of “ships, boats & floating structures, except warships” must be advertised internationally & awarded without discrimination.

- by contrast US, Japan, Australia have exempted non-military ships from this obligation
Read 7 tweets
Jim Pickard Profile picture
9 May
- remember how companies have been promised close to zero import duties by setting up in Boris Johnson's 8 new freeports?

- turns out there are clauses in post-Brexit free trade agreements (FTAs) with 23 countries which effectively negate those benefits

ft.com/content/625d19…
shadow trade secretary @EmilyThornberry says the clauses could have been excised in trade talks:

“On the surface of it, this looks like a catastrophic blunder by a minister stuck in her silo....as a result, I fear that manufacturers....risk missing out on access to key markets."
these are the 23 trade deals which have clauses prohibiting “duty drawback”
Read 4 tweets
Jim Pickard Profile picture
30 Apr
- Johnson was apparently astonished that Bill Crothers had simultaneously worked as a civil servant and for Greensill Capital.

- was he oblivious to the fact that his most senior aide was working for two property companies?

ft.com/content/4382aa… via @financialtimes
tonight @RachelReevesMP has written to cabinet secretary Simon Case about Lister’s double-hatting
out of several glaring potential conflicts of interest this is the most eye-catching, original scoop by @Gabriel_Pogrund
Read 5 tweets

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