Liz Truss to meet with Joe Biden’s new trade team over US tariffs on Scotch whisky January 14, 2021 International trade secretary Liz Truss has told MPs today that she will meet with Joe Biden’s top trade negotiator in short time to discuss US tariffs on Scotch whisky. Speaking in the House of Commons, Truss said: “I have been clear with the United States and the European Union that we want to de-escalate this [...]
Johnson dismisses referendum talk despite polling January 14, 2021 Over half of Scots would vote in favour of Scottish independence if a referendum were to be held tomorrow, according to an opinion poll published today. According to the poll by Savanta ComRes, 57 per cent of Scots said they would vote in favour of independence, as opposed to 43 per cent who would vote [...]
China’s President Xi writes to former Starbucks chairman in push to improve trade relations January 14, 2021 China’s President Xi Jinping has written to Starbucks’ former chairman to promote trade, state media reported this morning. Xi asked former Starbuck’s tycoon Howard Schultz to promote trade and business relations between Washington and Beijing, urging Schultz to “continue to play an active role in promoting China-US economic and trade cooperation”, the official Xinhua news [...]
Leaning into lockdown – making the best of staying at home January 14, 2021 | Sponsored The arrival of not one, not two but three vaccines – which are being rolled out as we speak – has given us all a light at the end of the tunnel to look towards. It allows us to hope that life might soon return to normal, and with all of those things we took [...]
New Covid travel testing rules delayed until Monday January 14, 2021 Pre-departure testing will now come into force on Monday, three days later than initially planned. Transport secretary Grant Shapps tweeted the last minute change of plan was to give international travellers time to prepare. Shapps also reminded travellers to complete a Passenger Locator Form before travelling. The form helps to contact travellers if they have [...]
Donald Trump becomes first US president to be impeached twice January 13, 2021 Donald Trump has become the first US president in history to be impeached twice. A majority of the US House of Representatives tonight voted to impeach Trump, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection. Following hours of debate in Congress, Democrats secured enough votes to push through the impeachment. The final tally was 232 votes [...]
Boris Johnson vows to reimburse fishermen hit by Brexit ‘teething problems’ January 13, 2021 Boris Johnson has vowed to reimburse Scottish fishermen facing post-Brexit disruption and said current difficulties were only “teething problems”. The Prime Minister told a Westminster committee today that he understood “the frustrations of the fishing community” and that it will only be “a temporary frustration”. British seafood exporters have been hit by two weeks of [...]
‘Appalling’ sized children food parcels were in line with government advice January 13, 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has revealed that the miserly free school meals handed out to children this week by a private company were in fact in line with government advice. Starmer hit out at Boris Johnson for distancing himself from the fiasco as the size of the meals had been dictated by Department of [...]
UK vaccine rollout was ‘lumpy’ at first, minister admits January 13, 2021 The UK’s vaccine tsar has admitted the nation’s largest ever vaccination programme was “lumpy at the outset” as he faced a grilling in the Commons. Nadhim Zahawi told the Science and Technology Committee: “I now have line of sight of deliveries all the way through to the end of February and [am] getting more confident [...]
Labour’s Anneliese Dodds to call for ‘responsible fiscal framework’ in major speech January 13, 2021 Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds is set to make a definitive break from Jeremy Corbyn-era economic policies in a speech that will commit Labour to “responsible” government spending. Dodds will also urge Rishi Sunak to delay paying of fiscal policy cutbacks or tax increases until the UK’s economy has recovered from Covid, which has been the [...]