FT say @biztradegovuk are planning to cut 40% of trade promotion jobs. 20% cuts have been confirmed in all-hands call. Confirmation later this year. This is pitch-rolling.
ft.com/content/be7be2…
What’s Saved: Potentially £8 million per year if 200 jobs are cut (based on a rough estimate).
What’s at Stake: Staff capacity for export promotion and inward investment, amid a backdrop of declining UK trade performance. UK trade 3.5% below pre-pandemic GDP share, goods exports down 20%.
What’s Planned: A leaner agency to attract investment, with no promised increase in headcount or services.... (yeah me neither....)
Apr 8, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Scottish Government kept releasing patients from hospitals to care homes without tests all the way up until the autumn(!). Nearly half a year after the issue was raised in England & Wales.
That decision dealt a death to far too many that was totally avoidable.
This was a direct consequences of the constriction of testing capacity and the closure of in-community testing by Public Health Scotland (and their namesakes in England and Wales). This limited the availability and so tests went only to symptomatic patients. This killed people.
Dec 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Apparently you're all chomping at the bit this Christmas to let chlorine washed salads into the country.
"We're in danger of forgetting those great scottish thinkers (of the Enlightenment) - the invisible hand of Adam Smith."
@BorisJohnson goes on to remind listeners that free trade has done more to lift billions out of poverty than any other idea in human history.
"Free trade is being choked... The Mercantilists are everywhere!"
Hear bloody hear! Boris says tariffs are being waved like cudgels! Attacks non tariff barriers too! 😍
Homemade lavender 
