Kitney

March 30, 2020

After Corona: A world transformed

The coronavirus pandemic is testing leaders, governments, parties and political systems everywhere, writes Geoff Kitney, and the global health crisis may give Beijing a big…

February 20, 2020

Brexit and the danger of partisan divisions

The Australian lesson is that concentrating policy making power in political hands to “crash through” with a bold policy agenda might work for a while…

January 31, 2020

Brexit: Government of the people by the people for the people?

The health of democracy is a matter for growing concern but the responsibility for making it work better lies with the defeated as much as…

January 1, 2020

2020: a year of extreme weather and extreme politics

The climate has turned terrorist against nature, but one dare not mention the words ‘climate change’ or ‘climate emergency’, writes Geoff Kitney I am writing…

November 14, 2019

From Berlin to Brexit: A short history of European walls

When it should be holding the beacon higher and brighter, the UK is abandoning its important role as a promoter and defender of the system…

October 29, 2019

An ‘economic competitor’ on the EU’s doorstep?

Any attempt to undercut long-established European standards would be an effective declaration of economic warfare, writes Geoff Kitney. Amid the raucous and sometimes ill-tempered hubbub…

September 4, 2019

What dark forces lie behind the Brexit façade?

Boris Johnson last night turfed out 21 Tory rebels. Now he is preparing to put British democracy to one of its greatest tests, writes Geoff…

July 31, 2019

Can Boris Johnson tame the Brexit monster?

Boris Johnson has set an impossible pre-condition which he knows must lead to a no-deal Brexit, writes Geoff Kitney. So far, so good for Boris…

June 17, 2019

‘Free’ trade with the US could prove costly

Britain Beware! Special relationships are rarely worth much when national interest overtakes rhetoric, writes Geoff Kitney. When President Donald Trump made his recent trip to…

May 24, 2019

May resigns – and Johnson is waiting in the wings

Too late now for Theresa May, but Australia has just provided a lesson: get the politics right first and worry about the consequences later, writes…

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Virus testing plans in chaos
Boris Johnson has been forced to shift strategy on the government’s testing regime for coronavirus after criticism of the slow pace of checks being carried out on frontline NHS staff. Private laboratories are now being drafted in to do the tests where before these were being performed through a centralised process. The prime minister accepted last night that mass testing was the way out of the crisis and said in a tweet that it would “eventually unlock the puzzle of coronavirus” … Mr Johnson is under increasing pressure over delays and missteps in ramping up testing, as deaths rose a record 563 to 2,352 yesterday. Only 2,000 frontline staff have been formally tested for coronavirus, with some NHS labs saying they can carry out only a couple of tests a day because they are short of swabs. The Times, April 2

Social media companies open new front in fight with EU
Social media companies have launched a concerted effort to block misinformation during the coronavirus crisis, opening a new front in their battle to stop a clampdown on their activity by EU regulators. The moves to promote expert content and remove contentious posts by figures including Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s rightwing president, have won cautious praise in Europe. But they have also drawn attention to warnings that misleading material has proliferated in advertisements and private chat groups during the pandemic. The global health crisis has the potential to change the dynamic of the long-running contest between European regulators and the US tech sector. This comes less than two months after Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg went to Brussels, only to see the EU reject his vision of how online content should be regulated. Financial Times, April 2

Tests of potential vaccines begin in Australia
Scientists in Australia have begun testing two potential coronavirus vaccines in “milestone” lab trials. The vaccines, made by Oxford University and US company Inovio Pharmaceutical, have been cleared for animal testing by the World Health Organization. Australia’s national science agency will assess if the vaccines work, and if they would be safe for humans. The first human trial took place in the US last month, but skipped a stage of animal testing. There are several other vaccine developments occurring around the world at the moment at extraordinary speed. But Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation says its tests will be the first comprehensive pre-clinical trials of the vaccines to use an animal model. Researchers said the speed and level of global co-operation that led to this stage had been unprecedented. “Normally it takes about one-to-two years to get to this point and we’ve in fact shortened that to a period of a couple of months,” Dr Rob Grenfell from the CSIRO told reporters on Thursday. BBC news, April 2

London hospital almost runs out of oxygen
A major NHS hospital almost ran out of oxygen for its Covid-19 patients on ventilators because it was treating so many people with the disease who needed help to breathe. The incident, which occurred at a London teaching hospital last weekend, has prompted NHS bosses to urgently warn all NHS trusts in England to limit the number of people they put on mechanical ventilators and continuous positive airway pressure machines. NHS England was so concerned by what happened that it told hospital bosses in a letter on Monday that the risk constituted a “critical safety concern” which could have major consequences for all patients relying on oxygen to stay alive. It told them to take a series of urgent actions to reduce the risk of their own oxygen supply suddenly running short because of heavy demand. The Guardian, April 2

LandSec launches £80m fund for UK tenants
LandSec, the UK’s largest listed property group by assets, has launched an £80m relief fund for its tenants struggling as a result of coronavirus. The funds will be targeted at retailers, bars and restaurants on the company’s estate, which includes a number of properties in the City of London. With the government mandating the closure of non-essential shops, many retailers and food and beverage businesses have struggled to pay their rent. On March 25, the rent day for the quarter, LandSec received just 37 per cent of the rent it was due from retailers. The £80m fund is aimed at “customers who need our help most to survive,” said the company. £15m will be allocated to food and beverage businesses and the remainder will be distributed on a case by case basis. Landsec also announced it was suspending its dividend. “It just isn’t clear how long these circumstances will persist,” said interim chief executive Martin Greenslade. Financial Times, April 2

Protection ‘racket’ as carers pay 1,000% more for masks
Some suppliers of face masks, aprons, gloves and antibacterial hand gels have been accused of taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to raise their prices by more than 1,000 per cent. Care homes and social care providers have warned that they risk going out of business as they struggle to afford the supplies they need to protect their workers. The government has given care homes across the country 300 face masks each but told them that they will have to source future supplies from the private sector. Yesterday, however, one of Britain’s biggest care providers revealed that the cost of aprons had gone up by 166 per cent and masks by more than 1,000 per cent. The Times, April 2

US stocks of protective equipment nearly gone
Donald Trump has admitted the US government’s emergency stockpile of protective equipment is nearly exhausted because of the extraordinary demands of the coronavirus pandemic. The shortage was first reported by the Washington Post, which said the supply of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies was running low. Trump, who has been criticised for a lack of central planning, confirmed on Wednesday: “It is, because we’re sending it directly to hospitals. We don’t want it to come to the stockpile because then we have to take it, after it arrives, and bring it to various states and hospitals.” The president had urged states to “make a deal” and buy personal protective equipment directly from manufacturers, he added. The Guardian, April 2

Manufacturers confidence slumps to lowest level
Factories in Britain have suffered their sharpest fall in output since the eurozone debt crisis eight years ago. Jobs were lost in March at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis, business confidence slumped to its lowest level on record and supply chains froze, according to the March survey of manufacturing purchasing managers by IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. Output fell, with the transport sector – which includes carmakers – hit hardest. The survey reading dropped from 51.7 in February to 47.8, below the 50 mark that indicates contraction. This was slightly worse than the earlier “flash” estimate, which did not include responses between March 20 and March 26, during which time the crisis intensified and factories closed. The survey was conducted between March 12 and March 26. The Times, April 2

BA expected to suspend 36,000 staff
British Airways is expected to announce it will suspend around 36,000 staff. The airline, which grounded much of its fleet due to the coronavirus crisis, has been negotiating with the Unite union for more than a week. The two sides have reached a broad deal but are yet to sign on some details. The agreement means that up to 80 per cent of BA cabin crew, ground staff, engineers and those working at head office will have their jobs suspended but no staff are expected to be made redundant. The decision will affect all staff at Gatwick and London City Airport after the airline suspended its operations at both locations until the crisis is over.
Those affected are expected to receive some of their wages through the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, which covers 80 per cent of someone’s salary capped at a maximum of £2,500 a month. BBC news, April 2

Hundreds of university staff made redundant
Hundreds of university staff on precarious contracts have been dismissed by their employers in a drive to cut costs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Staff on fixed-term contracts, including visiting lecturers, researchers and student support workers, at Bristol, Newcastle and Sussex universities have been made redundant or told their employment will end prematurely or not be renewed. The job losses come as universities face a black hole of hundreds of millions of pounds in tuition fees from the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, with international students from China and other severely affected countries cancelling or postponing enrolments. Universities rely heavily on staff on short-term contracts: over 50 per cent are in insecure employment, according to the University and College Union. The Guardian, April 2

Interest-free overdraft for struggling borrowers
People struggling financially amid the coronavirus pandemic should not be charged interest on the first £500 of existing overdrafts, the UK’s financial watchdog has proposed. The Financial Conduct Authority also suggested repayments on loans and credit cards should be frozen for up to three months for those in trouble. The FCA said the outbreak had caused an “unprecedented financial shock”. Experts suggest that support from banks at present is “patchy”. BBC news, April 2

European law will hold sway for years to come
Europe’s highest court will continue to rule over British legal disputes until a final Brexit deal is agreed, the UK’s most senior judges said. Courts in the UK will be obliged to refer cases involving unclear EU laws to the European Court of Justice until the country fully leaves the union, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday in a case relating to a mistake over VAT charges. The ruling will infuriate Brexiteers who have demanded that EU legal jurisdiction over cases is brought to an end. Lord Hodge, the deputy president of the Supreme Court, said, however, that current case law did not provide a clear answer in a dispute over EU law. The Times, April 2

Orban’s power grab in Hungary heightens fears of dictatorship in EU
Hungary is turning into the EU’s first fully fledged autocracy, critics have warned, after its prime minister assumed the indefinite power to rule by decree and protests grew against a nationalist curriculum imposed upon schools. The emergency powers presaged an assault on the free press, analysts said, and the state takeover of retailers and energy and healthcare companies, some 140 of which are already being monitored by military “task forces”. Under the so-called “omnipotence” law, Viktor Orban, who has governed for a decade, will be able to take measures without parliamentary approval for as long as he sees fit. The Times, April 2

Virus patients may have ventilators taken away
Stable coronavirus patients could be taken off ventilators in favour of those more likely to survive, it emerged on Wednesday, as another sharp rise in deaths left the UK braced for the outbreak to reach up to 1,000 deaths a day by the end of the week. In a stark new document issued by the British Medical Association, doctors set out guidelines to ration care if the NHS becomes overwhelmed with new cases as the outbreak moves towards its peak. A rise in the death toll of 563 brought the overall total to 2,352, an increase of 31 per cent on Tuesday’s figure. If the total continues to grow in line with increases over the last week, it is on course to go past 1,000 new deaths recorded each day within three to four days. Under the proposals, designed to provide doctors with ethical guidance on how to decide who should get life-saving care when resources are overstretched, hospitals would have to impose severe limits on who is put on a ventilator. Large numbers of patients could be denied care, with those facing a poor prognosis losing the potentially life-saving equipment even if their condition is improving. The Guardian, April 1