@DavidGHFrost ON EU-UK relations reached a “Low equilibrium, a somewhat fractious relationship...it need not always be like that. Fixing NI protocol is a prerequisite for getting to that better place.”
Linkage with NI Protocol fix and better relations../2
@DavidGHFrost Despite problems with Paris: "Always look to have a constructive relationship with France"/3
@DavidGHFrost Hard Brexit...was essentially “the only form of Brexit which allowed us freedom to experiment and freedom to act.” /4
He says a "hard #Brexit" was "essential" to free the UK -- this is true -- but it was also done at the expense of Northern Ireland. It was a choice - @theresa_may chose a different path/2
@theresa_may So it's more truthful to say -- to quote Kate Hoey, a Brexiter from Northern Ireland, that the province "sacrificed" for a clean-break Brexit. /3
So @BorisJohnson will use #CPC21 speech to define 'levelling up'...but can it be more than a slogan? Can he change the social and economic geography of Britain?
If you fancy going beyond the bloviation, check this five-part series by brill @FT writers/1
@BorisJohnson@FT We look at four big areas, and interrogate if there is the money, the ambition and the courage to make a difference
- Net Zero
- Skills revolution
- Science Superpower
- Immigration reform
Each throws up a unique set of challenges, but each has real possibilities/2
@BorisJohnson@FT The question -- and the one that I found much more debated at #cpc21 fringes than the polices themselves -- is whether @BorisJohnson has the chops to deliver them in a joined up way. To govern strategically and not -- as @MichaelBarber9 calls it -- "government by spasm" /3
So @GeorgeFreemanMP is talking at #CPC21 event on #brexit and regulation. He wants “convergence” for existing industries so boardrooms won’t leave. And “divergence” for future industries…without asking why what works for one, wouldn’t work for the other?? /1
He says he backed remain because no-one in Life Sciences wanted to #brexit, but now sees deregulatory future “dynamic, agile” etc.
E-scooters data test bed is his example. U.K. sets standard and then export internationally…but to what standard? 🤯/2
He then lionised the Medicines and Medical devices regulator @MHRAgovuk and it’s boss June Raine for delivering #Covid_19 vaccine. Not mention of why cutting 20%-25% of MHRA jobs /3
“I don’t think there will be much risk at Christmas time,” member of @BorisJohnson administration tells @ft…but that’s the kind of complacency that has industry wondering if govt really gets how tangled up things are - globally and domestically. So… /1
So as Alan Williams of @daviesturner freight forwarders explains, #COVID19 totally scrambled the world supply chains by shutting down bits of the economy in different orders. The result is a nightmare of rising costs and congestion. /2
Look 👀 at those shipping rates… 14 times pre pandemic levels. And shipping times doubled. So big chance Christmas lights start arriving in January …lots of summer stock landed late. /3
@CER_Grant@hilarybennmp@lisanandy@JennyChapman So @lisanandy says not realistic that labour campaigns on rejoining customs union and single market...and @JennyChapman wants to rebuild the relationship 'bit by bit'...but doesn't want to engage with the 'ratchet' that leads to a 'Norway for Now' relationship./2
@FT It's easy to dismiss @BorisJohnson but do so at your peril...he's a political alchemist and opportunist, who wins 80 seat majorities when no-one thought that was possible.
But the first two years of his premiership have been sucked up by #Brexit and #Covid-19. But what now?/2
@FT@BorisJohnson Recall the dreadful "levelling up" speech last July that everyone trashed on left and right that, as one senior Tory tells me and @GeorgeWParker was delivered because “the PM just wanted to say something — anything — about levelling up” /3