Having heard the @MarosSefcovic press conference and read the @DavidGHFrost statement, it is clear that the decision by @BorisJohnson whether to trigger Article 16 and start a damaging trade war with the EU will almost certainly be a purely political one by him, because...
Sefcovic and Frost are working to ease the friction on trade between GB and Northern Ireland, with the flow of medicines a priority. All will depend on two issues: whether Johnson regards it as a matter of overwhelming importance that the European Court of Justice should...
have no role in adjudicating on Northern Ireland European single market trade disputes, since the EU will not budge on this; and whether the putative domestic political benefits to him of having yet another punch up with the EU outweigh the inevitable economic costs of a trade...
war combined with the diplomatic damage of a further deterioration in diplomatic relations with our near and dear neighbours. What I can't judge is whether Frost's more emollient language today and agreement to continue talking is a genuine de-escalation or a lull before...
the storm. I slightly assume the PM, who is hearing differing representations on this from his MPs and the Tories' erstwhile allies in the DUP, hasn't made up his mind

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Robert Peston

Robert Peston Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Peston

13 Nov
I am wondering whether I've been naive in thinking that the COP26 draft cover declaration will keep 1.5 degrees alive, and whether I have attached too much weight to paragraph 29 that "requests" countries toughen up their commitments to reduce emissions before 2030. My...
concern, reinforced by the US agreement with China, is that China will feel under little pressure to bring forward its commitment that its greenhouse gas emissions should peak by 2030. And unless China becomes more ambitious, there is no prospect of global warming...
being limited to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Much will depend therefore on how paragraph 29 is implemented. There will be a huge and heavy burden on @AlokSharma_RDG, as COP president for a year - and by implication on @BorisJohnson too - to be guardian and...
Read 5 tweets
31 Oct
There has been a notable breakthrough on climate change at the #G20Italia meeting of the 20 most powerful world leaders in Rome, with a statement in the communiqué that pledges they will take further action to formulate, implement, update and enhance…
commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases “ahead” of 2030. According to an official, this sets up #COP26 to “to deliver a short term acceleration [in greenhouse gas emissions] through the negotiations”. Several officials tell me…
that for them this is a much better G20 outcome than they expected even yesterday. Which may tell you something about the poverty of ambition of world leaders when it comes to climate change. And it gives a following wind to the idea I discussed yesterday that this COP…
Read 7 tweets
25 Oct
The national living wage is set to be increased from £8.91 per hour to £9.50 I understand, on the advice of the Low Pay Commission. The recommendation has been put to the business secretary, @KwasiKwarteng, who is the minister responsible for the Commission. The 6.6%...
increase in what is the minimum wage for all those over 22 years old has been accepted by Kwarteng. It will be formally announced by the Chancellor, @RishiSunak, in the budget on Wednesday. The rise is inflation-busting, and will go some way to compensating the low paid...
for recent significant rises in the price of energy, petrol and food, at a time when the £1000 a year top-up to Universal Credit has been (controversially) removed. The rise will increase employers' costs directly and probably also via an upward ratchet of the wage rates of...
Read 7 tweets
22 Oct
I pointed out three months ago that daily dashboard infection figures don’t include anyone infected for a second time, and that I thought this unfortunate, because by definition it means those daily figures are not the whole Covid19 story. These daily figures…
still don’t include re-infections, even though a SAGE paper published today confirms that previous Covid19 infection provides “less protection against infection with Delta than against previous virus variants”. See attached. And this lessened protection will only…
increase with the passage of time, as antibody protection wanes. So today’s infection total of just under 50,000 is an understatement. It might be only a small understatement, of perhaps a couple of percentage points (which would be the magnitude implied by other surveillance…
Read 5 tweets
26 Sep
Standing ovation for Margaret Hodge speech about rooting out antisemitism through Labour Party rule changes. The change to disciplinary procedures, which will give more power to NEC, very significant. Feels as though a very important reform is coming
If the reform passes, there would be a new internal disciplinary process with independent oversight for cases about antisemitism, Islamophobia, other forms of racism, sexual harassment, and discrimination on the grounds of disability, sexual orientation…
age, religion or belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership. For these complaints, the role of the national constitutional committee will be take by an independent complaints board (ICB) with 12 members with time-limited terms…
Read 4 tweets
24 Sep
Under the “supplier of last resort” scheme to protect customers of failed energy companies, every rescued customer of a failed energy company costs the rescuing company £600 to £700 to “on board”, which they have the right to reclaim over 15 to 24 months from every…
energy customer in the country. In other words the costs of customers’ mistakes in buying energy from fragile businesses are “socialised”. As I said earlier this week there has to be a debate about how fair it is that all UK households will pay a big price for failed businesses…
and whether this is a grotesque failure of a regulatory system imposed by the Conservative government. These socialised costs are already significant - around £40 per customer just on the basis of the handful of firms (Avro, Green etc) that have failed…
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(