09 June 2016
Week in Brief: UK
EU Referendum
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION: Robert Azevedo, the director-general of the WTO, has warned that, in the event of Brexit, it will take up to ten years to sort out Britain’s new trading relations with the rest of the world.
POPULATION FEAR: Boris Johnson has claimed on the Andrew Marr show that, if Britain remains in the EU, its population could grow to 80,000,000. He said that he wanted inward migration to reduce and that the Remain campaign should explain how they would do this within the EU.
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES: Angela Merkel has said that she wishes Britain to remain part of the EU because of the high level of cooperation with Germany. The Brussels correspondent of the French left wing newspaper “Liberation” has written that Brexit is necessary to save the EU from the malign influence of London.
MAJOR INTERVENTION: Former Prime Minister, John Major, has described Boris Johnson as a jester saying that he has betrayed one nation conservatism. He characterised the Brexit campaign as squalid, misleading and deceitful.
JP MORGAN: Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase and close confident of Barack Obama, has warned that if the UK leaves the EU there could be reductions in the number of Britons employed by the bank.
DEBATE: Mr Cameron and Mr Farage participated in a televised debate organised by ITV. Mr Farage conceded that following Brexit the UK would face tariff barriers but claimed that this would be offset by a decrease in its UK contributions. Mr Cameron had no solutions to offer on immigration.
REPATRIATIONS: A report by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee says that almost 6,000 foreigners who have been released from prison are awaiting deportation from Britain. Out of those, 1,700 have been out of prison for five years. The chairman of the committee, Keith Vaz, drew attention to the failure to repatriate criminals to the EU. Only 44 were repatriated last year.
ECJ: The European Court of Justice has held that non-European immigrants who have moved between Shengen countries cannot be imprisoned until they have been given an opportunity to leave voluntarily or have previously been deported.
POLLS: The opinion polls grow increasingly disparate, with YouGov showing Remain 1% ahead, and ICM giving Leave a 5% lead.
AFTER BREXIT: As Leave moves ahead in some polls, politicians are beginning to focus on what Brexit would actually mean in practice. EU rules provide for a two year period of talks once notice of departure has been given. Mr Cameron has indicated that he would start the process immediately following the vote but Mr Gove says that there should be a preliminary period of exploratory negotiations. A Labour MP, Stephen Kinnock, has suggested that pressure could be exerted by MPs to keep Britain within the single market once it left the EU as a member of the EEA, but that would involve agreeing to free movement of people with the EU.
POLL CARDS: 3,000 poll cards have been issued in error to foreigners who are not eligible to vote in the referendum. However, their names will not appear on the register used on the day and so they will not be able to vote.
Health
DRUG PRICES: An investigation by “The Times” has revealed that a number of companies have managed to increase the prices of patent-expired drugs by up to 12,500%. After acquiring distribution rights to the drugs, the companies use a loophole to transfer them from category C (which is subject to profit caps) to category A (which is not) by re-branding them. Although in theory the price of category A drugs should be held down by the market, the time taken for new suppliers to obtain licences and to start production mean that the market mechanism is ineffective. It is understood that there are talks between the government and the drugs industry as to how the system might be changed.
STROKE VICTIMS: A new therapy for stroke patients, under which stem cells are syringed directly into the brain, is now in clinical trial. Tests in the US have shown considerable improvements in limb control, even where the therapies are applied many months after the stroke.
EMA: The European Medicines Agency has been criticised for the time it is taking to approve palbociclib, a drug which increases the chances of late-stage breast cancer patients. The FDA in the US has already approved the drug which is on the market there, but it has still not been approved by Europe. The British National Institute for Health and Care Excellence operates an “early access scheme” to allow drugs to be used in Britain before EMA approval, but it has not used the scheme in this case.
PREMATURE DEATHS: According to Eurostat, 34% of deaths of under seventy-five-year-olds in Britain are premature, which means that they could have been avoided by timely and effective health care. The figure across Europe is 33.7%
Education
HOLIDAYS CUT: The local education authority in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, is to cut summer holidays to less than five weeks. In return pupils will have a two-week autumn half term. The rationale for the plan is that children forget too much over a six week break. The change has been criticised on the basis that it will make it harder to recruit teaching staff, who like long breaks, and that there may be inconsistency with academies in the area.
General Politics
SPECIAL FORCES: According to reports in “The Times”, British special forces have been involved in combat in Syria. The deployment of special forces does not require parliamentary approval.
SNOOPER’S CHARTER: Labour and the SNP have said that the concessions made by the government are not sufficient to enable them to support the Communications Data Bill. Concerns include the role of commissioners, access to individuals’ web browsing records and whether unlawful use of investigatory powers should give rise to civil or criminal penalties. The Home Secretary has agreed to launch a review into bulk powers to be led by David Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation.
SMALLER BROTHER: Westminster may turn off their seventy-five surveillance cameras in order to save money, following reductions in the use of close circuit cameras by Birmingham, Edinburgh and Leicester. It is suggested that the cameras are ineffective in preventing crime and overlap with those used by the Metropolitan Police.
ASSISTING SAUDIS: Andy Burnham has called for the suspension of contracts under which the College of Policing provides training to police in Saudi Arabia because of the poor human rights record there. The college are keen to expand the scope of the contract to cover skills such as the analysis of mobile phone records.
Miscellaneous
ARMY SUICIDE: A coroner has ruled that Private Cheryl James, who died at Deepcut barracks in 1995, committed suicide. The verdict follows allegations of illicit relationships and bullying at the barracks where four young recruits died. General Sir Nick Carter apologised on behalf of the army.
BRITISH HOME STORES: Dominic Chappell, who headed the Retail Acquisition consortium which bought BHS from Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group for £1, is to appear before a House of Commons select committee. The subsequent insolvency of BHS has resulted in job losses and cuts to pensions.
THIRD RUNWAY: Final submissions by Heathrow and Gatwick for an additional runway were submitted to the Department of Transport last week. That clears the ground for a government decision following the referendum.
POLYMER NOTES: The first British polymer banknotes, denominated at £5 and bearing the image of Winston Churchill, have been launched at Blenheim Palace. The notes will go into general circulation on 13 September.
CHILD ABUSE: Richard Huckle from Ashford received twenty-two life sentences at the Old Bailey for abusing children in Malaysia and Cambodia. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is to investigate why officers from the National Crime Agency did not alert churches, at which Huckle worked with children, of the danger he posed.
QC: Lawyer Graham Stening will not be charged with sexual assault on a female QC following an incident at Waterloo. The QC, who initially accepted a police caution for indecency but later changed her mind and claimed to have been assaulted, remains anonymous under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
CHELSEA: Chelsea Football Club has settled claims for constructive dismissal by its erstwhile club doctor, Eva Carneiro, following her action in coming onto the pitch to assist a player in a game against Swansea last august. The club has apologised and admitted that Dr Caneiro was right to run onto the pitch.
TENNIS: Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2,6-4, to win the French Open. That makes him only the third player ever to have held all four grand slam titles. Murray is the first Briton to play in the French Open final since 1937.
MUHAMMAD ALI: Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight world champion, has died at age 74. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for some thirty years.
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