The latest episode of Guido Talks is available now both here as a video and on all good podcast platforms. In this week’s edition, recorded yesterday, the team discusses some of our favourite stories from the last seven days. Guido Talks is also available as a podcast.
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See a list of the stories discussed here…
This week 212,785 visitors visited 691,976 times viewing 1,141,718 pages. The most read and shared stories in order of popularity were:
- Ursula von der Leyen’s Claims Undermined by Agreement
- Labour’s Vaccination Queue Jumping Policy Collapses Live On Air
- German Media: “Brexit-Boris Laid the Foundation for Vaccination Success”
- BBC Six O’Clock News Expert is Boris Hating, Brexit Bashing, Remain Campaigning, Hardline Centrist
- EU Impose Hard Border in Ireland for Vaccines
- EU AstraZeneca Row Gets Heated
- French Vaccine Abandoned After Disappointing Phase 1 Trials
You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…
BREAKING: Confirmed to @SkyNews SkyNews . Article 16 has been withdrawn by the EU. Statement shortly
— Adam Parsons (@adamparsons) January 29, 2021
NEW: Brussels to withdraw incendiary plan floated hours ago to use new vaccine export curbs to in effect create a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, per EU officials. "It was an error. We are changing it," said one EU official of the abortive plan.
— Michael Peel (@Mikepeeljourno) January 29, 2021
The answer to top pub quiz question “Which Cabinet Member once appeared on University Challenge” Kwasi Kwarteng guests on this week’s podcast release from Nick Robinson, who used the quiz show format to ask the newly appointed BEIS secretary his views on workers’ rights. Sadly, he appears to have lost a lot of his old free-market zeal…
Kwasi was pulled up one some old quotes from the book he co-authored Britannia Unchained:
- “The British are amongst the worst idlers in the world”
- “The UK’s system of employment law discourages small business from taking a risk”
- “The UK should do whatever we can to cut the burden of employment regulation”
He tries passing the views off as irrelevant given the context of 2021, which to Guido smacks of convenient political excuse-making. Thankfully Kwarteng didn’t resort to the questioning with his University Challenge tactic: of repeatedly muttering the f-word…
As part of its plot to block vaccine exports to the UK, the EU has invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. This has effectively removed Northern Ireland from the EU’s customs. In plain English, Article 16, the so-called safeguard clause, allows both the EU and the UK to unilaterally suspend part of the Northern Ireland Protocol (which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs territory) in specific circumstances.
Most discussion around this particular article had been how or whether the UK would use it. The fact that the EU has implemented it less than a month after coming into effect could set a big precedent.
Practically this new EU-imposed hard border won’t make a huge difference as Northern Ireland will receive their jabs via Great Britain, but this political move is extraordinary, after a week of terrible news for the Union. After years of arguing to keep Northern Ireland in its customs territory, the EU has just merrily kicked it out. Did someone mention cherry picking…
UPDATE: The DUP have, not unsurprisingly, slammed the EU’s decision as “an incredible act of hostility”. Arlene Foster says:
“This is an incredible act of hostility. By triggering Article 16 in this manner, the European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner — over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives.
At the first opportunity the EU has placed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the supply chain of the Coronavirus vaccine.
With the European Union using Article 16 in such an aggressive and most shameful way, it is now time for our Government to step up. I will be urging the Prime Minister to act and use robust measures including Article 16 to advance the interests of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.”
UPDATE II: Labour join in with the EU condemnation: Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, commenting on the European Union’s decision to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol:
“This move is deeply destabilising and undermines the huge efforts being made to make the Protocol work
Unilateral actions like this do nothing to aid the stability in Northern Ireland which the Protocol was designed to preserve.
The European Union must remember the Protocol depends on joint working and they share a responsibility to uphold that. They must think again, and revoke this action.”
As if the EU hadn’t bungled the vaccine roll-out enough, the bumbling bloc’s publication of their AstraZeneca vaccine contract has become another horror show after someone failed to properly redact the document. Opening the contract up on Adobe Reader, Guido was free to see beneath much of the mass-redactions via the programme’s widely used bookmarks feature.
Luckily for the EU, the juiciest section – that detailing how much they’d paid for the vaccine – remained impenetrable via the work-around. Unfortunately for the poor little EU, Guido already knows the dose prices after he spotted Belgium’s State Secretary for Budget and Consumer Protection tweeting the confidential information last month…
Read the “Cost of Goods” section in full below:
As you can see from the Ipsos MORI chart above, the public think Marcus Rashford is far more effective at holding the government to account than the official leader of the opposition. Even Piers Morgan is thought to be having more impact, than the official leader of her Majesty’s opposition, which is sure to feed into his ego. Broadcasters are also rated higher than the leader of the opposition…
When you look at net approval rating Rashford really romps home at +47, Piers is on +7, broadcasters +2, Keir’s on +1, and newspapers actually have a negative approval rating of -11. Politicians all have even worse double digit negative approval ratings…
