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Is Boris Johnson on the verge of securing a UK-EU trade deal?

Lord Frost and Michel Barnier at the first round of post-Brexit trade talks in March
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Lord Frost (left) and Michel Barnier at the first round of post-Brexit trade talks in March

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Olivier Hoslet/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

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Lord Frost and Michel Barnier at the first round of post-Brexit trade talks in March

Official says PM looks set to make concessions as clock ticks down to agreement deadline


One-Minute Read

Joe Evans

Thursday, October 8, 2020 – 10:16am

Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator has hinted that Boris Johnson is willing to compromise with the EU about the contentious issue of state aid in order to land an “eminently achievable” trade deal.

Lord David Frost told members of the House of Lords and MPs yesterday that the prime minister is “prepared to discuss commitments on subsidy policy that go beyond conventional trade agreements”, The Times reports.

Subsidies to business, otherwise known as state aid, have become a sticking point in the talks, with Downing Street repeatedly insisting that it should not be part of any agreement with the EU.

“After a long period in which we’ve been making little progress on subsidy policy, we are having somewhat more constructive discussions on that subject, although unfortunately, the gap between us is still pretty wide and a lot of work has to be done,” Frost told the House of Lords EU Committee.

But “we’re beginning a discussion, is it possible to go further than normal in an FTA [free trade agreement] and agree some provisions that shape and condition subsidy policy on both sides”, he added.

The shift is believed to mark the first time that Britain has offered “more than the scantest detail about its planned subsidy regime after the post-Brexit transition period ends”, The Irish Times says.

Frost said the UK would not include an “extensive text setting out detail of how we design our [subsidy] system” in a deal with the EU, but added that the country may benefit from agreeing measures to resolve any future disputes with the bloc over state aid.

With just a week to go until the next EU summit, the coming seven days will be “critical” in determining whether a deal is possible, The Times says.

Frost struck an optimistic note, however, saying: “We’ve made progress. This is a wide-ranging agreement and in many areas the nature of the agreement is clear if not pinned down.”

Meanwhile, during a phone conversation yesterday, Johnson told European Council President Charles Michel that “although some progress had been made… significant areas of difference remain”.

Michel later tweeted: “The EU prefers a deal, but not at any cost. Time for the UK to put its cards on the table.”

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Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 8 Oct 2020

Harris and Pence lock horns in vice-presidential debate

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris last night accused Donald Trump of “the greatest failure of any presidential administration” in history during a US election television debate. Hitting back, Republican Vice-President Mike Pence said the Democratic plan for the Covid-19 pandemic amounted to “plagiarism”. The Washington Post said Harris came out on top after keeping “the focus on Trump”.

New restrictions expected as hospital beds reach capacity

Covid-19 restrictions are expected to be tightened in parts of England early next week, with the closure of bars and restaurants on the cards. A ban on overnight stays away from home could also be imposed, as hospitals in some parts of the country run out of dedicated Covid-19 beds, the BBC says. The UK yesterday reported 14,162 new cases and 70 deaths. 3,145 people are currently in hospital with Covid.

George Floyd murder suspect released on bail

The former US police officer charged with the murder of unarmed black man George Floyd has been released on bail. Court records show that Derek Chauvin posted a $1m (£774,000) bond and was released on Wednesday morning. Chauvin, who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, is due to face trial in March on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Brexit ‘is sending UK towards dictatorship’, judge claims

The government’s approach to Brexit could send the UK down a “very slippery slope” towards “dictatorship” or “tyranny”, a former president of the Supreme Court has claimed. Lord Neuberger drew specific attention to the Internal Market Bill, warning: “Once you deprive people of the right to go to court to challenge the government, you are in a dictatorship, you are in a tyranny.”

Could a Covid vaccine be available in UK next month?

Coronavirus vaccination jabs could be offered by the NHS as early as next month, The Sun says. Leaked documents have revealed a plan for hundreds of NHS staff to be deployed to administer inoculations at five sites across the country. However, delays to the Oxford University vaccine trial in the US mean that it could potentially be forced to restart after regulators have explored its side-effects, The Times says.

September was world’s hottest on record

Climate experts have revealed that last month was the hottest September on record around the world. Scientists at the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said surface air temperatures were 0.05C warmer than the year before, while parts of Britain hit 30C in September for the first time in four years. The record temperature for the month is 35.6C, set in Bawtry, South Yorkshire, in 1906.

‘Isis Beatles’ suspects appear in US court

Two Islamic State (Isis) suspects have appeared in a US court charged with the killing of four American hostages. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, believed to belong to an Isis cell nicknamed “The Beatles”, are accused of involvement in kidnappings in Iraq and Syria. The men, who appeared in court via video link, have denied the charges.

World Bank warns that extreme poverty is rising

The World Bank has warned that extreme poverty is expected to rise this year for the first time in more than two decades. Defined as living on less than $1.90 (£1.50) a day, the pandemic is expected to push up to 115 million people into the category, as the crisis compounds conflict and climate change. The projected increase would be the first since 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.

Herd immunity would have saved more lives, study claims

Herd immunity could have saved more lives than lockdown, a study from Edinburgh University has suggested. Reanalysis of the Imperial College London modelling that led to the nationwide lockdown shows shutting schools and preventing younger people from mingling may have had the “counterintuitive effect” of killing more people, The Telegraph says.

Evacuations in Russia as munitions depot bursts into flames

Russia has evacuated more than 2,000 people from neighbouring villages after explosions at a munitions depot in the Ryazan region south-east of Moscow. The blaze was caused by a wildfire nearby and caused munitions to explode. Hundreds of firefighters were battling the fire into the evening as flames and huge clouds of smoke emerged from the depot, which is believed to house 75,000 tonnes of munitions.

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Fly the winner of US vice-presidential debate

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And other stories from the stranger side of life


One-Minute Read

Chas Newkey-Burden

Thursday, October 8, 2020 – 6:35am

Social media has named a fly as the winner of last night’s US vice-presidential debate. The winged insect settled for around two minutes in Mike Pence’s hair, as the vice president was battling with Democrat Kamala Harris. “Pence is so full of sh!t [sic], a fly literally landed on his head,” wrote one tweeter.

Duck wins Instagram world record

A duck called Ben Afquack has entered the Guinness World Records book for the most followers on Instagram for a duck. Ben, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his owner Derek Johnson, had a total of 79,002 followers at the last count. Derek celebrated the record-breaking feat by eating pizza. Meanwhile, Ben had some mealworms.

Silence of the Lambs house up for sale

The house made famous as the home of serial killer Buffalo Bill in the movie Silence of the Lambs is on sale for just under $300,000 (£231,910). The Pennsylvania home, originally built in 1910, has already had some interest, the current owners said. Encouraging viewers to take a look around, they added: “It’s way nicer in person.”

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Instant Opinion: Boris Johnson’s ‘tone-deaf lies fall flat’

Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street wearing a face mask.
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Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Wednesday 7 October

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Niklas Halle’n/AFP via Getty Images

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Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street wearing a face mask.

Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Wednesday 7 October


Reaction

The Week Staff

Wednesday, October 7, 2020 – 2:08pm

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. John Crace in The Guardian

on a downtrodden Britain

Boris Johnson’s tone-deaf lies fall flat as UK grows up

“The country has grown up in the time of coronavirus. Tens of thousands have died; hundreds of thousands have become ill; millions are feeling frightened and insecure about their jobs. Yet even though the prime minister has had time to move on, he appears to have learned nothing. Boris may himself have wound up in intensive care, yet he still wants to be Mr Good Time Guy, with gags about losing weight and arm-wrestling. But it’s becoming more and more of a struggle. His eyes that used to sparkle from the acclaim are now mere dead hollows. It’s possible that not even Boris believes in Boris. The scepticism is contagious.”

2. David Byler in The Washington Post

on not being ‘afraid’ of Covid-19

This is Trump’s worst tweet ever. No, really.

“The president is playing with fire. Sure, this specific tweet may get swallowed up in the insanity of the news cycle. But the message that Trump fought off the coronavirus and his followers can, too, has already been amplified by voices ranging from Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who tweeted an edited video of Trump at a professional wrestling match to make that argument, to Fox News. They’re speaking to a huge base of people who trust and support Trump. The drumbeat of this flawed argument, combined with the signals Trump and his supporters and family send by their failures to wear masks at official functions, adds up, sending mixed messages to both his devotees and the broader public and impeding nationwide efforts to fight the virus.”

3. Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator

on a French conundrum

Macron’s fight with the far-left over extremism

“The majority response in France to Macron’s promise to combat Islamic extremism is scepticism. Of the 121,000 people who responded to a poll in the centre-right Le Figaro, 74% believed his attempt will end in failure. Not so much because of an unwillingness on Macron’s part but because much of the apparatus for fighting Islamic extremism is still dominated by the left. For example, a Pakistani immigrant who last month attacked two journalists outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo had arrived in France three years ago claiming to be an unaccompanied minor but social services suspected he was older. They sought permission from a child’s court to conduct a medical examination to determine his exact age but were refused.”

4. Pritish Nandy in The New York Times

on Modi tackling the elites

The campaign to silence Bollywood

“India today is like the Mad Hatter’s tea party – partly funny, partly weird – and hidden behind it is an incredibly tragic soliloquy of pain. More than six million confirmed coronavirus cases. About 100,000 deaths. The economy expected to contract by 12%. China trying to take over territory on a disputed border. Yet if you had switched on news television in India in the past two months, you would have found a country obsessed with a singular subject: the taming of Bollywood, supposedly a wild, drug-addled place where horrible things happen to outsiders; India’s Gomorrah, infested with vile liberals and Muslims.”

5. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in The Guardian

on male violence in art

The history of art is full of female masters. It’s time they were taken seriously

“The surge of emotion I felt standing in front of Susannah and the Elders – painted by a 17-year-old Artemisia Gentileschi in the same year she was raped by the artist who was hired by her father Orazio to teach her – was as powerful as any I have felt in my life. In it, a nude Susannah twists away from the two old letches with horror and disgust; unlike many of the nudes painted by male artists, her body is not an exercise in containment, static and mannered as though it could have been carved from marble: it is living, moving flesh.”

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How Donald Trump’s ‘regret-nothing’ Covid stance could pay off in US election

Trump leaves Walter Reed military hospital in Marine One.
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Some pundits say president’s risky ‘message of strength’ could shift the needle in his favour

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Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

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Trump leaves Walter Reed military hospital in Marine One.

Some pundits say president’s risky ‘message of strength’ could shift the needle in his favour


Analysis

The Week Staff

Wednesday, October 7, 2020 – 3:13pm

Any hope that Donald Trump’s hospitalisation with Covid-19 might alter his bullish attitude to the virus were dashed yesterday as the president celebrated his return to the White House by telling Americans to “get out there” without fear of infection.

The message, delivered by a maskless Trump, has alarmed doctors and health workers, who condemned the US leader’s dismissive attitude to a virus that has already killed more than 210,000 of his citizens.

But with the response to the pandemic now a key issue in the presidential election race, some political commentators say his “message of strength” could play well with many voters – and even help him beat Democratic rival Joe Biden in November’s vote.

Energising his base

According to Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton, Trump knows exactly how to play to his base”, many of whom are equally dismissive about Covid. And what the president ”needs more than anything if he has any chance of winning re-election is for his people to be energised”.

“He doesn’t care what die-hard anti-Trumpers think of his antics,” says Glanton. “He knows he’ll never get our vote. So like any savvy politician, he’s not wasting time in this final stretch of the campaign trying to win us over.”

The mathematics of the electoral college work in the Republican incumbent’s favour, and mean that even with a substantial loss of the popular vote, Trump could still win if he can get enough support in key swing states.

“It’s a small window of opportunity, but if Trump can siphon a handful of voters away from Biden in the right states, he has a good shot at re-election,” Glanton says.

Stealing the spotlight

Former Republican adviser Hal Lambert points out that Trump is dominating the news agenda – just as he did four years ago against Hillary Clinton – making it “difficult” for Biden to get any coverage.

Speaking to talkRADIO, Lambert said: “I do feel pretty comfortable that President Trump is going to win this and may pick up some states he didn’t win last time.”

Asked about Trump’s personal battle with Covid, Lambert added: “One of the things it’s done is move the cycle back to President Trump 100% of the time. It’s really difficult for Biden to get a message out there when all the focus is on President Trump.”

Projecting strength

To assess how Trump’s reaction to his illness has played with voters, the BBC spoke to people across the US, revealing a range of differing attitudes.

Neil Melton, a construction-project manager from Prairie Village in Kansas, applauded the president for projecting strength. “People want to see that winning spirit,” he told the broadcaster. “They don’t want to live with this Covid lifestyle forever.”

But Paul Kearns-Stanley, a funeral director from Queens, New York, condemned the president’s minimisation of his illness as reckless. “People hear that message and they act on it, and it’s our behaviour that’s going to help us or hurt us now,” Kearns-Stanley said.

In Moorsville, North Carolina, which backed the president in 2016, The Times‘ Washington correspondent Henry Zeffman found Republican voters “in despair over Trump’s antics”.

“I wish Trump would just shut his mouth,” hairdresser Barb Pfefer told Zeffman.

I’m a Republican, but I won’t vote for the wrong man if the Republican is the wrong man”, she continued, adding that she had considered Trump the “lesser of two evils” but is now not sure.

That verdict was echoed by Cristina Juhasz, who is also pro-Trump but criticised the president’s “stupid” decision to stage a drive-by to greet well-wishers outside Walter Reed military hospital during his three-day stay in the Maryland medical facility.

Driving past to talk to his supporters. Why did he put our servicemen in danger like that? Sure, he’s wearing a mask but he’s on steroids. Hey, your supporters would rather see you get well than see you in a car,” she said.

Defying the polls

Trump continues to trail his Democratic rival in the polls, but the US president has a knack for defying the projections of pollsters.

Since his inauguration four years ago, “few people seem to have really changed their minds about America’s 45th president,” with his approval ratings moored stubbornly between around 45% and 55%, The Telegraph says. But “having defied political gravity four years ago, the jury’s out as to whether he can do the same again against his new Democrat opponent”.

Polling on the partisan response to the coronavirus offers another insight into what The New York Times calls his “regret-nothing approach” to his infection.

“By many measures, Democrats are still a bit more concerned about the virus outbreak than Republicans,” says FiveThirtyEight, which points to a Civiqs survey that found 65% of Democrats were “extremely concerned” infections in their area, compared with just 21% of Republicans.

But it is a risky gambit for the president to stake his campaign on, with “the partisan divide on these issues that seemed more apparent in early and mid-March… diminishing as Republicans view the virus outbreak more similarly to Democrats and independents”, the polling analysis site adds.

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