The Secretary of state confirms that there are no specific plans to deal with those EU, EEA, Swiss citizens and their families who miss the EU Settlement Scheme deadline and that they will be “liable to prosecution for unlawful residence”.
Boris Johnson has accused MPs “who think they can block Brexit” of a “terrible collaboration” with the European Union.
The prime minister said the EU had become less willing to compromise on a new deal with the UK because of the opposition to leaving in Parliament.
He said this increased the likelihood of the UK being “forced to leave with a no-deal” in October.
The EU has said the agreement struck by Theresa May is the only deal possible.
Speaking during a Facebook event hosted at Downing Street, Mr Johnson said he wanted to leave with a deal but “we need our European friends to compromise”.
“There’s a terrible kind of collaboration as it were, going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends,” he added.
“The more they think there’s a chance that Brexit can be blocked in Parliament, the more adamant they are in sticking to their position.”
Mr Hammond told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a no-deal exit would be “just as much a betrayal of the referendum result as not leaving at all”.
No 10 accused Mr Hammond of undermining the UK’s negotiating stance, and said he “did everything he could” to block preparations for leaving whilst he was in office.
The former chancellor rejected this suggestion in a tweet, saying he wanted to deliver Brexit “and voted to do so three times”.
Opposition to backstop
Mr Johnson has said he wants to leave the EU with a deal, but the UK must leave “do or die” by the end of October.
He wants the EU to ditch the Irish border backstop plan from the deal negotiated by Mrs May, which was rejected three times by Parliament.
But the EU has continued to insist the policy – intended to guarantee there will not be a hard Irish border after Brexit – must remain and cannot be changed.
Many of those who voted against the deal had concerns over the backstop, which if implemented, would see Northern Ireland staying aligned to some rules of the EU single market.
It would also see the UK stay in a single customs territory with the EU, and align with current and future EU rules on competition and state aid.
These arrangements would apply unless and until both the EU and UK agreed they were no longer necessary.
Media captionThe ex-chancellor says removing the Irish border ‘backstop’ is a “wrecking tactic”
Mr Hammond said the prime minister’s demand for the backstop to be entirely removed from the deal meant a no-deal was inevitable on the current deadline.
He said that agreeing to changes now would “fragment” the EU, adding: “they are not going to take that risk”.
“Pivoting to say the backstop has to go in its entirety – a huge chunk of the withdrawal agreement just scrapped – is effectively a wrecking tactic,” he told Today.
On Thursday Downing Street said it expects a group of MPs to try to block a no-deal Brexit by attempting to pass legislation when Parliament returns next month.
A No 10 source said they expected the challenge to come in the second week of September, when MPs are are due to debate a report on Northern Ireland.
The source assumes the EU will wait until after that date before engaging in further negotiations.
EU should show ‘common sense’ on BrexitPrime Minister Considers General Election To Force No-deal through///BBC NEWS
The EU should show “common sense” and agree to make changes to the Brexit withdrawal deal, Boris Johnson has told the BBC.
The prime minister said there was “bags of time” for the EU to compromise on the Irish border backstop plan before the Brexit deadline of 31 October.
He also warned MPs not to oppose Brexit, and to respect the 2016 referendum result.
The EU has said repeatedly the backstop arrangements cannot be changed.
Mr Johnson said the policy – designed to guarantee there will not be a hard Irish border after Brexit – would turn the UK into a “satellite state” of the EU if it came into effect.
Speaking during a visit to Oxfordshire, he said the arrangements would “keep us locked in EU regulatory orbit, locked in the EU trading system, unable to control our own laws”.
“We need change on that, once we get change on that I think we’re at the races, and I think there’s a good deal to be done.”
Theresa May’s deal has been rejected three times by MPs and as things stand, the UK will leave the EU on 31 October whether it has agreed a new one or not.
Many of those who voted against the deal had concerns over the backstop, which if implemented, would see Northern Ireland staying aligned to some rules of the EU single market.
It would also see the UK stay in a single customs territory with the EU, and align with current and future EU rules on competition and state aid.
These arrangements would apply unless and until both the EU and UK agreed they were no longer necessary.
No confidence vote
The Prime Minister’s comments come amid growing speculation that opposition MPs will table a vote of no confidence in the government in a move to try and stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour will table a no-confidence vote at an “appropriate” time, once MPs return from the summer break in September.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson’s senior advisor at No 10, Dominic Cummings, has told MPs even losing such a vote could not stop the PM taking the UK out of the EU on 31 October.
He reportedly said Mr Johnson could call an election for after the deadline, with Brexit taking place in the meantime.
On Wednesday, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he would expect Mr Johnson to step aside if he lost a no-confidence vote.
“No prime minister can sustain themselves in office when they no longer have a majority in the Commons”, he said, speaking at the Edinburgh Festival.
“I don’t want to drag the Queen into this, but I would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to Buckingham Palace to say ‘we’re taking over’.”
Asked whether he would resign in those circumstances, Mr Johnson said MPs should ensure Brexit takes place by the end of October.
“What MPs should do and what they’ve already voted to do, when triggering Article 50 and reconfirmed several times, is honour the mandate of the people”, he said.
On Tuesday cabinet minister Michael Gove accused the EU of “refusing to negotiate with the UK” over a new Brexit deal.
The European Commission said it was willing to hold further talks, “should the UK wish to clarify its position”.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is bracing for a rocky opening on Wednesday, as concerns about the on-going trade war between the US and China persist
As of Wednesday morning, Dow’s future losses indicated a staggering drop of 500 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed towards a sharp drop
Earlier in the week, Beijing let the yuan breach that 7-per-dollar level for the first time in 11 years, shortly after President Trump threatened to impose more tariffs
The modest adjustment in global exchange rates appeared to have a seismic effect on Wall Street, prompting an anguished response from Trump
Despite the yaun stabilization, investors were still provided with a nail-biting preview of what an escalating trade war might entail
The US stock market dropped sharply Wednesday with the Dow plunging 500 points on opening and government-bond yields tumbling around the world as concerns about the ongoing trade war between the US and China continue to decimate Wall Street confidence.
Following one-day of respite, the panic over trade seemed to reignite all over again with the 10-year US government bond yield tumbling to a near three-year low of 1.6298 percent, as investors poured money into bonds out of fear the trade war could slow global growth.
As of Wednesday morning, Dow’s futures losses indicated a staggering drop of 2.3 percent. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also down 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
When asked about recent market volatility on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump said: ‘I think the market reaction is to be expected. I might have expected it even more. At some point, as I said, we have to take on China. They’ve been taking us to the cleaners for 25 years.’
When asked about recent market volatility on the White House lawn on Wednesday, Trump said: ‘I think the market reaction is to be expected. I might have expected it even more’
Despite the fallout, gold appears to be winner of the chaos as investors sought safe assets. Prices edged toward $1,500 an ounce for the first time since 2013 – up nearly 17 percent this year and rising 1.4 percent on Wednesday.
Shares of technology companies, including Apple Inc and chipmakers, were higher before the bell. The iPhone maker’s shares rose 0.8 percent, while those of Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp gained more than 1 percent.
At 9.57am ET, the Dow was down 461.62 points, or 1.77 percent, at 25,567.90, and the S&P 500 was down 42.25 points, or 1.47 percent, at 2,839.52. The Nasdaq Composite was down 96.50 points, or 1.23 percent, at 7,736.77.
With the second-quarter earnings season winding down, about 73% of the 426 S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far have topped earnings estimates.
As the sun slips into the horizon these winter evenings, we linger outside to soak in the orange splendor. A bird in silhouette flaps silently across the orange and gold sky and an owl emerges high up in a tree to survey the approaching night. There’s nothing tempting us to go inside in a hurry: no electricity which means no lights to switch on, no computer or TV, no hot bath, no batteries left for mobile phones, no fridge, stove, cooking, ironing. Without these distractions there is no choice but to contemplate everything that is going on in our country and wonder how on earth we are going to survive it this time.
We are again learning to live a completely abnormal life in Zimbabwe. A fortnight ago the Minister of Finance released Statutory Instrument SI 142 that banned transactions in US dollars and all other foreign currencies and announced that with immediate effect all trade was to be in Zimbabwe Dollars only. On that day the bank exchange rate was US$1 = Z$6.28. Until that day almost everything had a US Dollar price or the equivalent Zimbabwe Bond dollar price and you could pay whichever you could afford. We had been earning and trading in US dollars and South African Rand since February 2009, joined by ZW Bond dollars in 2015, in a multi currency system.
SI 142 came without any warning. With immediate effect it was illegal for me to buy my medication in US dollars for say US$10, now I had to pay for them in Bond dollars for whatever rate the pharmacist was using on that day. Assuming this was the bank rate (which it never is) the same medicines were Z$62.80 on the day SI 142 was promulgated. Every day since then the bank exchange rate for US to Bond dollars has gone up; as I write this letter it is US$1 = Z$8.68. So that same packet of medicines, a fortnight later, is now priced at Z$86.80. It is now illegal for that pharmacist to accept payment in anything except Zimbabwe Bond/RTGS dollars and because he can only speculate what the USD$:ZW$ rate will be in a week or months time, he pushes his prices up and up to protect his investment because every single thing he sells is imported using US dollars and has to be sold in ZW dollars. This one example can be extrapolated to every sector, every business, every producer.
Economic technocrats are popping out of the woodwork every day to bombard us with statistics and tell us that SI 142 is the backbone of a brilliant economic policy but they say nothing about 98% inflation; no confidence in the market in ZW dollars; Z$400 million Bond notes currently being printed by the government; the irretrievable loss of everyone’s savings and pensions in Feb 2019 when US dollars were converted to Bond dollars; the catastrophic damage of 15 hour a day electricity cuts to businesses and producers; the incalculable loss of man hours spent queuing every day for fuel. Worst of all the technocrats say nothing of the human factor: pensioners who can’t afford life sustaining medicines; teachers and nurses who can’t afford to get to work; doctors who have no equipment to perform operations; employees whose month’s salary only lasts 10 days; parents who can’t afford enough food for their families. Frankly we are left wondering which Zimbabwe these economic technocrats live in because it’s not the same one as the rest of us.
While all eyes and calculators have been on the reality and impact of SI 142 the following events have gone almost un-noticed in Zimbabwe:
There is a backlog of almost 300,000 passport applications and people are being told to come back to collect in 2022. There is no passport paper or ink for printing and no US dollars to import it. Tempers rise as desperate people wanting to travel to the Diaspora to earn money to send home to their families are now trapped here.
The Minister of Agriculture, Perence Shiri, announced that 15,000 hectares of farm land is to be prioritized for allocation to war veterans: 1,000 hectares in Manicaland, Mashonaland East, West and Central; 2000 hectares in Midlands and 3000 hectares in Masvingo, Matabeleland South and North. The Minister added: “in the event of land disputes, under no circumstances should a war veteran have his or her offer cancelled.” He did not say if it was a requirement that said war veteran knew how to farm or had the resources to do so.
The government banned the private sale and purchase of maize (corn). All maize now has to be sold to and purchased from the state owned GMB at a government stipulated price. A ban was also put on transporting more than five, 50kg bags of maize unless it is being taken to the GMB. This means that one family member may no longer transport more than five bags of maize to his starving relations and friends in another area of the country.
At the same time as the maize movement and sale ban, FEWSNet (Famine Early Warning Network Systems) issued warnings of a widespread food crisis in the country between July 2019 and January 2020. They say worst affected areas are likely to be: Kariba, Binga, Hwange, Gokwe North, Mbire, Mudzi, and Chipinge. FEWSNet issued a map of Zimbabwe with approximately 70% bright orange, indicating crisis, and 30% yellow, indicating stressed.
For information on my new books “FINDING OUR VOICES,” and “WHEN WINNERS ARE LOSERS,” and other eye witness books about life in Zimbabwe: “SLEEPING LIKE A HARE,” “MILLIONS, BILLIONS, TRILLIONS,” “CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS,” “INNOCENT VICTIMS” “AFRICAN TEARS”, “BEYOND TEARS” ”RUNDI,” and “IMIRE,” please go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/CathyBuckle2018 or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this letter, contact cbuckle.zim@gmail.com (Pictures of images described in this and other letters can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/cathybuckleafricantears)
