CNN (December 7)
“With days left to reach a trade deal with the European Union, the stakes have never been higher.” Boris Johnson “will have to decide whether sticking to his guns on national sovereignty… makes real-world sense given the economic price the United Kingdom will pay if negotiations fail.” In a no-deal exit “UK companies, already reeling from the pandemic, would lose tariff-free, quota-free access to a market of 450 million consumers that is currently the destination for 43% of British exports.”
Tags: Access, Consumers, EU, Johnson, Market, Negotiations, No-deal, Pandemic, Quotas, Sovereignty, Stakes, Tariffs, Trade, UK
CNN (November 10)
“Johnson has mismanaged Covid, Brexit and the economy. Now his inner circle is falling out…. The political storm surrounding Johnson and his team of advisers broke on the same day that the UK’s coronavirus death toll passed the eyewatering 50,000 figure.” The shakeup could signal an eventual concession to the EU on Brexit as “the simplest route to a breakthrough that would lead to a deal.”
Tags: Advisers, Breakthrough, Brexit, Concession, Covid, Death toll, Economy, EU, Johnson, Mismanaged, Political storm, UK
The Scotsman (November 8)
“It is clear that the four-nations approach that the UK government pursed at the start of the pandemic has been replaced with something far less constructive. If Mr Johnson baulks at the suggestion that he is starting to look more like a Prime Minister of England than the UK, then he should really stop acting like one.”
Tags: Baulks, Constructive, England, Four nations, Government, Johnson, Pandemic, Prime minister, UK
Investment Week (October 20)
“The UK’s credit rating has been downgraded by Moody’s amid a looming economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic and the forthcoming Brexit deadline.” The UK’s sovereign debt status dropped “one notch to Aa3, from Aa2,” with the ratings agency “noting that Britain’s growth has been meaningfully weaker than expected and is likely to remain so in the future.”
Tags: Aa3, Brexit, Coronavirus, Credit rating, Deadline, Debt, Downgraded, Economic hit, Looming, Moody's, Pandemic, Sovereign, UK
The Guardian (October 11)
Weekly new Covid cases rose alarmingly in the UK from 116,000 to 224,000 leaving the UK perched “at a ‘tipping point’ in the Covid-19 crisis.” Only swift action will “avoid history ‘repeating itself’” according to deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam” whose “stark warning” emphasized that “the worst is yet to come if we do not ‘all act now’… and that the approach of winter made the situation even more grave.”
Tags: 000, 224, Alarmingly, Cases, COVID-19, Crisis, Grave, History, Swift action, Tipping point, UK, Warning, Weekly, Winter
The Guardian (September 25)
“It doesn’t take an Einstein to observe the folly of Johnson doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result. Delaying inevitable tougher rules will likely do what it did before. Prolonging the pandemic worsens the economy as well as the roll-call of death and serious long-term Covid illness. But nothing in Johnson’s reckless life suggests any precautionary DNA in his selfish genes.”
Tags: Covid, Death, Delaying, Economy, Einstein, Folly, Illness, Inevitable, Johnson, Pandemic, Prolonging, Reckless, Selfish, UK
The Irish Times (September 7)
With nearly 50,000 new cases last week, “Spain passed a grim milestone of recording more than half a million coronavirus cases on Monday, becoming the first western European country to do so amid a steep upward trend that is mirrored in neighbouring France.” Moreover, there is “significant concern” that the UK is moving down the same path to resurgence. All this comes as wet pubs look poised to reopen in Ireland on September 21.
Financial Times (August 25)
“Things are bad. Silicon Valley is choking on wildfire smoke. Louisiana is expected to be hit by two hurricanes this week. Britain had its wettest February on record and faces it lowest wheat harvest since the 1980s…. We either hammer carbon emissions or they will hammer us every year harder and harder.”
Tags: Carbon emissions, Hurricanes, Louisiana, Silicon Valley, Smoke, UK, Wettest, Wheat harvest, Wildfire
Investment Week (August 24)
“Global dividends plummeted by $108.1bn to $382bn in Q2 this year… marking an underlying decline of 19.3% – the biggest fall seen…. All regions except the US suffered a drop in pay-outs, with the UK and Europe seeing the biggest falls at 54% and 45% respectively on an underlying basis.” By comparison, Japan fared well with payouts falling just 3.1% and “four-fifths of companies actually increasing or maintaining their dividends.”
Billboard (August 17)
The UK music scene “may soon be unrecognizable because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the U.K. economy into its worst recession on record.” While socially-distanced live music has resumed, under a third of venues can meet the requirements and most “would lose too much money on these reduced-capacity shows for it to be economically feasible.” Music Venue Trust, a charity which represents 670 grassroots venues, estimates that “more than 400 across the country are in crisis.”
Tags: Capacity, Coronavirus, Crisis, Feasible, Grassroots, Live music, Pandemic, Recession, Socially-distanced, UK, Unrecognizable, Venues
