Glamorous Usula E.U. Babe

[12gauge82]

1 hour ago, Raja Clavata said:

To clarify, you disagree with the expert opinion, the point about a different dynamic in the absence of Brexit, or both?

Well, before brexit the experts declared that leaving the European medicines Agency was going to endanger the lives of UK citizens, so surely if leaving had no impact, in this case a very positive one, then why did they warn of potential problems if we left. The remoaners can't have their cake and eat it? 

[Raja Clavata]

31 minutes ago, 12gauge82 said:

Well, before brexit the experts declared that leaving the European medicines Agency was going to endanger the lives of UK citizens, so surely if leaving had no impact, in this case a very positive one, then why did they warn of potential problems if we left. The remoaners can't have their cake and eat it? 

Got any references? Does indeed sound like a bit of a stretch. Like I said previously 1-0 to us but let’s not complacent. 

BTW warning of potential problems hardly sounds like a hardline remoaner narrative?

Did every expert in favour of Brexit completely reject the notion of any potential problems? 

[Scully]

19 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

 

Did every expert in favour of Brexit completely reject the notion of any potential problems? 

That’s a fair point, but as I often said at the time, I didn’t care as long as we left. If this comes across as sounding smug ( and by no means being an expert at anything ) that’ll be because I am. 🙂

Would we be in the same pickle now as the EU, if we’d stayed in? Genuine question, as I really don’t know. 

[12gauge82]

1 hour ago, Raja Clavata said:

BTW warning of potential problems hardly sounds like a hardline remoaner narrative?

 

I don't know, sending a leaflet worth more than the entire allowable budget for arguing we should remain to every household in the UK trying to scare people with idiotic doom mongering is pretty hardcore, so when it's part of a bigger picture of spinning lies then yes I'd call it remoaner narrative. For the record both sides lied like a cheap watch but I'm happy to view it all equally and SOME of the remain side took the biscuit imo. 

[Raja Clavata]

49 minutes ago, Scully said:

That’s a fair point, but as I often said at the time, I didn’t care as long as we left. If this comes across as sounding smug ( and by no means being an expert at anything ) that’ll be because I am. 🙂

Would we be in the same pickle now as the EU, if we’d stayed in? Genuine question, as I really don’t know. 

No problem with that at all 👍

6 minutes ago, 12gauge82 said:

I don't know, sending a leaflet worth more than the entire allowable budget for arguing we should remain to every household in the UK trying to scare people with idiotic doom mongering is pretty hardcore, so when it's part of a bigger picture of spinning lies then yes I'd call it remoaner narrative. For the record both sides lied like a cheap watch but I'm happy to view it all equally and SOME of the remain side took the biscuit imo. 

Fair enough, you seem really hung up on this Remoaner gig, I hope you find peace. One day.

I really do think it's time we look to the current and the future and try to forget the past. We need to be united and that clearly is still not the case.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/24/nearly-30000000-doses-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-found-in-italy-14298354/

This has gotta be a windup.... 

[12gauge82]

37 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

No problem with that at all 👍

Fair enough, you seem really hung up on this Remoaner gig, I hope you find peace. One day.

I really do think it's time we look to the current and the future and try to forget the past. We need to be united and that clearly is still not the case.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/24/nearly-30000000-doses-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-found-in-italy-14298354/

This has gotta be a windup.... 

Not hung up at all, I'm just amazed that all the people (and in no way do I include you in this) who accused me and others of being racist, xenophobic, thick, uneducated, quiting, little Englanders, who were far too stupid to understand the obvious advantage to being EU members and how they've all gone silent now their ridiculous claims and accusations have been exposed. Not even the decency to admit they were wrong, although I'm sure they're still lurking and reading. As for the rest who voted remain, I've no issue with them at all, I believe we had some good debates without getting nasty, everyone is entitled to their view and I'm a huge believer in democracy. 

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, Raja Clavata said:

No problem with that at all 👍

Fair enough, you seem really hung up on this Remoaner gig, I hope you find peace. One day.

I really do think it's time we look to the current and the future and try to forget the past. We need to be united and that clearly is still not the case.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/24/nearly-30000000-doses-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-found-in-italy-14298354/

This has gotta be a windup.... 

read it..............am stunned...........ok ...so the eu says the factory hasnt been "approved"...so therefore they dont count ????

is it a batch that the mafia are something to do with maybe...........christ europe is an utter cesspit of deciet and corruption and lies..........

[Raja Clavata]

5 minutes ago, 12gauge82 said:

Not hung up at all, I'm just amazed that all the people (and in no way do I include you in this) who accused me and others of being racist, xenophobic, thick, uneducated, quiting, little Englanders, who were far too stupid to understand the obvious advantage to being EU members and how they've all gone silent now their ridiculous claims and accusations have been exposed. Not even the decency to admit they were wrong, although I'm sure they're still lurking and reading. As for the rest who voted remain, I've no issue with them at all, I believe we had some good debates without getting nasty, everyone is entitled to their view and I'm a huge believer in democracy. 

Sadly I think there's a tendency these days to fall into this partitioning or identity trap.

I certainly never felt that all Brexiteers were racist, xenophobic, thick, uneducated, quitting, little Englanders but unfortunately some clearly were / are, so there's a tendency to lump everyone in the same bracket. It's not right and actually reflects poorly on the individual doing so, lazy at best and ignorant at worst. A bit like the stupidity labelling.

Same applies the other way around of course and it's easy to label anyone querying anything other than a nailed on pro Brexit position as a Remoaner.

As a Euroskeptic Remainer the main thing I really struggled with, and in a way was fascinated by, was anyone who saw it clear cut, either way, in black and white. My view overall was ideally we'd be out but it wasn't worth the grief, probably why I'm still sensitised to notion of premature declaration of a wider "victory".

Anyway, I appreciate the dialogue 👍

5 minutes ago, ditchman said:

read it..............am stunned...........ok ...so the eu says the factory hasnt been "approved"...so therefore they dont count ????

is it a batch that the mafia are something to do with maybe...........christ europe is an utter cesspit of deciet and corruption and lies..........

Beggars belief doesn't it. I won't say it could quite possibly only happen in Italy but...

That said I'm not sure Europe has a monopoly on deceit, corruption and lies (just a current concentration perhaps).

[Mungler]

There are a clique of supposedly enlightened ex london luvvies on Facey who have each left the UK declaring it the worst place ever (etc), in favour of the culture / climate / cheap living of Europe.

With Brexit they all got a bit pissy because it interrupted their borderless plans for nipping back home to what was their local Waitrose as too their banking arrangements etc. Some who really wanted to make a point applied for Irish passports - yeah that’s sticking it to the man.

When Brexit came they attempted to occupy the enlightened and educated higher ground and then spent every day declaring all Brits as racist gammon.

Now they are nothing but angry. Why? Because we are enjoying being vaccinated and they (all over 60 and at risk of Covid) are in nowhere city - can’t get home to the UK and there’s not a sniff of when they will get jabbed in mainland Europe.

They are soooo cross right now it’s actually something that cheers me up enormously 😆 

The weird thing is that not one has yet said anything negative about the EU vaccine fiasco. I have heard some real nonsense but the gist is:

1. It was perfectly acceptable to take AZ away at the knees with ‘the blood clot issues’ and notwithstanding that that lasted all of 24 hours before every medical agency across the globe slammed it and I mean ‘slammed’. So the remoaners stick with the 24 hour health concerns and the steps taken entirely justified, albeit the steps were of no effect save to totally undermine all vaccination attempts as the moronic arguments of the anti vaxers found good ground in the EU.

2. The EU is only behind because it had to take longer to negotiate a lower price to cater for the poorer EU members who couldn’t afford the AZ ‘at cost’ pricing. Yes, the reason they are behind is because they are entirely altruistic and the only reason we’re in front is because we’re greedy and we stole the vaccines (which they did / didn’t want as per 1 above).

The French elections are coming. I’ve no idea how Le Pen didn’t get in last time, let’s see what happens now. Le Pen in, Merkel definitely on the way out and it’s game over for the EU.

[12gauge82]

6 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

Sadly I think there's a tendency these days to fall into this partitioning or identity trap.

I certainly never felt that all Brexiteers were racist, xenophobic, thick, uneducated, quitting, little Englanders but unfortunately some clearly were / are, so there's a tendency to lump everyone in the same bracket. It's not right and actually reflects poorly on the individual doing so, lazy at best and ignorant at worst. A bit like the stupidity labelling.

Same applies the other way around of course and it's easy to label anyone querying anything other than a nailed on pro Brexit position as a Remoaner.

As a Euroskeptic Remainer the main thing I really struggled with, and in a way was fascinated by, was anyone who saw it clear cut, either way, in black and white. My view overall was ideally we'd be out but it wasn't worth the grief, probably why I'm still sensitised to notion of premature declaration of a wider "victory".

Anyway, I appreciate the dialogue 👍

Yeah I actually agree with most of that to be honest 👍

[Mungler]

From the Telegraph

Business
Scapegoating Britain will not save Europe from a self-made disaster
Language matters. The Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen states that the EU has shipped 10 million vaccines to the UK – and another 30 million to the rest of the world – but has yet to receive a single vaccine in exchange.
The EU has done no such thing. The American pharmaceutical company Pfizer produces the Turkish-German BioNTech vaccine at a plant in Belgium, relying on critical supplies of lipid nanoparticles made in Yorkshire (the complex part) and on a long list of inputs from dozens of countries.
Pfizer then ships these vaccines to global clients, some of whom signed their delivery contracts long before the EU committed to its doses. BioNTech did a marvellous job – with seed money from the German state – but the role of the EU itself in this web of international cooperation was minimal. Europe as a whole failed to make the early investment needed to accelerate the scientific and manufacturing process.
Should the UK hand over part of AstraZeneca’s production from its UK sites and delay its own rollout as an act of fraternal solidarity? In normal circumstances the answer would be obvious. Of course it should, starting with Ireland.
The natural sentiment of the British people is to help Europe defend itself against the third wave now spinning out of control, even though the reason it is happening is that Europe’s leaders lacked the political courage to take action six weeks ago when it was already clear that the B117 variant was spreading everywhere.
Emmanuel Macron defied calls from French scientists and frontline doctors for a lockdown in late January. The consequence of that fateful decision is painfully evident. Greater Paris has run out of critical care beds, and spare capacity in the regions is vanishing fast. Paris has not yet reached the point of triage – when doctors must choose whom to save, as in Bergamo – but it is uncomfortably close.
Britain should of course divert vaccines to help France avoid the worst. But the hostile posture of both Mr Macron and the EU over everything to do with Britain and Brexit makes this very difficult.
The problem is not von der Leyen and the Commission. The corps of EU ambassadors in Brussels (Coreper) has, if anything, been more aggressive and that impetus is coming from national capitals, strangely concentrated into wolf-pack ferocity at gatherings in the Justus Lipsius Building.
Countries assumed to be friendly have repeatedly proved to be hostile inside Coreper. The current Danish government behaves like an enemy. The idea of activating the war-time powers of Article 122 to seize factories and suspend property rights came from the European Council’s secretariat – and therefore was cleared through Berlin and Paris. It did not come from Mrs von der Leyen.
The EU has reciprocated on almost nothing since the trade deal. It has allowed – conducted? – what can only be characterised as a smear campaign against the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is at the same time demanding more of the vaccine that nobody wants to take any longer, briefing aggressively that Britain is trying to grab millions of doses allegedly stored at a Halix plant in the Netherlands. This Halix story is a concocted grievance. The tiny Dutch plant is irrelevant.
The purpose of so much agitation is to deflect blame by convincing public opinion that Britain is responsible for much of what is now going badly wrong. It is the primordial scapegoat reflex. This makes friendly solidarity a big ask.
It takes some inventiveness for the EU apparatus to cast Europe as the victim of injustice while at the same time casting Britain as the pandemic villain. Scientists in the UK have carried out almost half the world’s entire genomic sequencing of Covid-19, acting as humanity’s antenna. The UK has been a leading champion of the Covax jab scheme for poorer countries.
The Oxford team produced a vaccine in breakneck time, when time is what matters, and most other vaccines fell by the wayside. It can be kept in normal fridges and can be rolled out anywhere. AstraZeneca is manufacturing at cost, offering a service to the world. The cheap jab is being produced at massive scale by the Serum Institute for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
It is already being rolled out in 70 countries and will ultimately be the workhorse vaccine of the Covax scheme. All of this was brought forward by decisions taken a year ago by the British Government, with ample support from the British taxpayer.
To the extent that lives have already been saved in Europe by the vaccine, it is because of the huge national effort made by this country. What exactly is the EU’s contribution to preventing Covid deaths in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the developing world, may one ask?
Forgive me for adding, but four out of a group of six women that my wife has kept in touch with from  science days at in Washington have so far been vaccinated: every one was given the AstraZeneca jab, one in Austria, one in Chile, one in Australia, and one in England (two await their jabs, in Germany and Japan).
The vaccine works. The US clinical trial data released this week confirm what we already knew from real-life data in Britain. It is 100pc effective against severe illness and death. It does not cause blood clots. What does cause blood clots is Covid itself.
The reward for this scientific and moral accomplishment is to be systemically trashed by Europe’s leaders and bureaucratic elites. AstraZeneca’s best faith efforts to produce for the EU from its plants in Europe – struggling with problems in part because they were mobilised later – is misconstrued as a breach of contract. The sense of entitlement is grotesque.
Some of the vilification has been deliberate: a briefing campaign in certain capitals. Some of it has been unintended: jerky stop-go policies by health officials in thrall to an extreme version of the precautionary principle, so extreme that it ended up violating the principle itself.
The consequences are manifest. The latest YouGov poll says those deeming the vaccine “unsafe” have jumped to 61pc in France, 55pc in Germany, 52pc in Spain, 43pc in Italy. Yet these states are currently relying on AstraZeneca to cover half their immediate rollout in a crisis.
If European leaders impose an export ban on jabs on Thursday – cutting supplies of the American Pfizer vaccine made in Belgium – they will gain a few days at best for their vaccination campaign. If they also extend this to active ingredients used in the AstraZeneca process they could inflict real damage on the UK rollout: levelling the playing field, one is tempted to say.
But such action would come at a high cost to the EU’s international credibility. It would also mean overriding protest from Ireland and the Netherlands. Both have built a business model that relies on hosting foreign multinationals. Both are Atlanticist free traders.
The Irish and the Dutch long relied on the British to defend market thinking against the EU’s protectionist tendencies. Following Brexit, they no longer have a heavyweight ally able to mount a blocking minority under qualified majority voting. They can be steamrolled on core national interests like never before.
The vaccine saga is a foretaste of how uncomfortable their predicament is likely to become. Can Ireland continue to be an offshore low-tax haven for US corporations? I have always assumed that the Dutch and Irish would chafe over time as marginal members of a Caesaropapist EU moving in a different ideological direction, but I did not expect their difficulties to be exposed so soon.
What would the export ban achieve? It is already too late to avert the third wave and therefore to avert rolling lockdowns through the spring. The EU has already guaranteed another quarter of economic distress, deepening the structural damage from the pandemic.
As Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, cases have gone “exponential” in Germany. Half measures have failed. The lockdown will now have to be tightened and extended to mid-April, and probably as far out as June in one form or another.
The IFO Institute says it is potentially “catastrophic” for small firms in Germany hanging on by their fingertips. The longer it lasts, the greater the danger of cascading bankruptcies when support is pulled away and the moratorium is lifted on insolvency filings.
Germany will cope but the strain on fiscal resources from delayed recovery is becoming a big political story. Der Spiegel reports that the budget deficit will be even higher this year than last year, rising to €250bn or 7pc of GDP. The country is in no mood for another €1 trillion boost to the EU’s Recovery Fund but without fresh money southern Europe is in grave trouble.
It is touch and go whether or not Europe can save the tourist season this summer. The South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19 have gained a foothold. As of late last week, these strains made up 38pc of cases in the French department of Moselle, 17pc in the Meuse, 16pc in the Dordogne, 15pc in the Vendee, Manche, the Doubs, and so on. The French do a fair amount of genomic sequencing. Others do almost none. We can assume that these variants are by now all over Europe.
The latest study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed fears that neither the AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine nor the two messenger RNA vaccines in use (BioNTech and Moderna) offer much protection against these strains. The implication is that vaccination certificates are not going to be enough to restore normal holiday travel this summer whatever happens. We will all have to wait until adapted booster vaccines in the autumn.
Morgan Stanley says a second lost summer can no longer be excluded. It warned that this could lead to another year of outright economic contraction for Spain, and to stagnation for France, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.
The eurozone’s north-south gap in economic competitiveness and debt ratios was untenable even before Covid struck. It became a degree worse by the end of 2020. It will be another degree worse by the end of 2021. The risk is that economic scarring in the Club Med bloc runs so deep that it stunts recovery when it finally comes, condemning the region to another decade of semi-slump and decay.
Europe has made an expensive mistake by dropping the ball on vaccination while at the same time letting a third wave of Covid variants run rampant. History will judge whether this is ultimately fatal for the project. One thing is for sure: launching a vaccine war will not save them.
This article is an extract from The Telegraph’s Economic Intelligence newsletter. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Mungler

[Rewulf]

16 hours ago, Raja Clavata said:

Fair enough, you seem really hung up on this Remoaner gig, I hope you find peace. One day.

After a good 4 years of being slagged off for voting out, by my estimations you have around 3 years of smugness remaining.....
Except , the Brexiters arent smug , we are far more chivalrous than our remainer cousins, and I really dont believe its being 'rubbed in'
The vaccine debacle is a good example , yes , our vaccine roll out is better than the EUs , is that the EU hierarchies fault , yes //mostly, are we all smug about it , not really.
Yet certain (rapidly dying ) remain factions still snipe away at how badly covid has been handled in the UK , 'because of the tories' ect .
Its frankly delusional if Im honest.

 

16 hours ago, Raja Clavata said:

I really do think it's time we look to the current and the future and try to forget the past. We need to be united and that clearly is still not the case.

Good example right there.
From June 2016 to Jan 2020 , did the (losing) remainers feel the need to be 'united' ?
Did the  leftie media promote unity ?
Did the opposition come together and help us resolve the issue ?

Old ground I know,  but your argument that WE are being unreasonable now, is somewhat weak, when you look back at the last 4 years 

[Vince Green]

16 hours ago, Mungler said:

From the Telegraph

Business
Scapegoating Britain will not save Europe from a self-made disaster
Language matters. The Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen states that the EU has shipped 10 million vaccines to the UK – and another 30 million to the rest of the world – but has yet to receive a single vaccine in exchange.
The EU has done no such thing. The American pharmaceutical company Pfizer produces the Turkish-German BioNTech vaccine at a plant in Belgium, relying on critical supplies of lipid nanoparticles made in Yorkshire (the complex part) and on a long list of inputs from dozens of countries.
Pfizer then ships these vaccines to global clients, some of whom signed their delivery contracts long before the EU committed to its doses. BioNTech did a marvellous job – with seed money from the German state – but the role of the EU itself in this web of international cooperation was minimal. Europe as a whole failed to make the early investment needed to accelerate the scientific and manufacturing process.
Should the UK hand over part of AstraZeneca’s production from its UK sites and delay its own rollout as an act of fraternal solidarity? In normal circumstances the answer would be obvious. Of course it should, starting with Ireland.
The natural sentiment of the British people is to help Europe defend itself against the third wave now spinning out of control, even though the reason it is happening is that Europe’s leaders lacked the political courage to take action six weeks ago when it was already clear that the B117 variant was spreading everywhere.
Emmanuel Macron defied calls from French scientists and frontline doctors for a lockdown in late January. The consequence of that fateful decision is painfully evident. Greater Paris has run out of critical care beds, and spare capacity in the regions is vanishing fast. Paris has not yet reached the point of triage – when doctors must choose whom to save, as in Bergamo – but it is uncomfortably close.
Britain should of course divert vaccines to help France avoid the worst. But the hostile posture of both Mr Macron and the EU over everything to do with Britain and Brexit makes this very difficult.
The problem is not von der Leyen and the Commission. The corps of EU ambassadors in Brussels (Coreper) has, if anything, been more aggressive and that impetus is coming from national capitals, strangely concentrated into wolf-pack ferocity at gatherings in the Justus Lipsius Building.
Countries assumed to be friendly have repeatedly proved to be hostile inside Coreper. The current Danish government behaves like an enemy. The idea of activating the war-time powers of Article 122 to seize factories and suspend property rights came from the European Council’s secretariat – and therefore was cleared through Berlin and Paris. It did not come from Mrs von der Leyen.
The EU has reciprocated on almost nothing since the trade deal. It has allowed – conducted? – what can only be characterised as a smear campaign against the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is at the same time demanding more of the vaccine that nobody wants to take any longer, briefing aggressively that Britain is trying to grab millions of doses allegedly stored at a Halix plant in the Netherlands. This Halix story is a concocted grievance. The tiny Dutch plant is irrelevant.
The purpose of so much agitation is to deflect blame by convincing public opinion that Britain is responsible for much of what is now going badly wrong. It is the primordial scapegoat reflex. This makes friendly solidarity a big ask.
It takes some inventiveness for the EU apparatus to cast Europe as the victim of injustice while at the same time casting Britain as the pandemic villain. Scientists in the UK have carried out almost half the world’s entire genomic sequencing of Covid-19, acting as humanity’s antenna. The UK has been a leading champion of the Covax jab scheme for poorer countries.
The Oxford team produced a vaccine in breakneck time, when time is what matters, and most other vaccines fell by the wayside. It can be kept in normal fridges and can be rolled out anywhere. AstraZeneca is manufacturing at cost, offering a service to the world. The cheap jab is being produced at massive scale by the Serum Institute for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
It is already being rolled out in 70 countries and will ultimately be the workhorse vaccine of the Covax scheme. All of this was brought forward by decisions taken a year ago by the British Government, with ample support from the British taxpayer.
To the extent that lives have already been saved in Europe by the vaccine, it is because of the huge national effort made by this country. What exactly is the EU’s contribution to preventing Covid deaths in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the developing world, may one ask?
Forgive me for adding, but four out of a group of six women that my wife has kept in touch with from  science days at in Washington have so far been vaccinated: every one was given the AstraZeneca jab, one in Austria, one in Chile, one in Australia, and one in England (two await their jabs, in Germany and Japan).
The vaccine works. The US clinical trial data released this week confirm what we already knew from real-life data in Britain. It is 100pc effective against severe illness and death. It does not cause blood clots. What does cause blood clots is Covid itself.
The reward for this scientific and moral accomplishment is to be systemically trashed by Europe’s leaders and bureaucratic elites. AstraZeneca’s best faith efforts to produce for the EU from its plants in Europe – struggling with problems in part because they were mobilised later – is misconstrued as a breach of contract. The sense of entitlement is grotesque.
Some of the vilification has been deliberate: a briefing campaign in certain capitals. Some of it has been unintended: jerky stop-go policies by health officials in thrall to an extreme version of the precautionary principle, so extreme that it ended up violating the principle itself.
The consequences are manifest. The latest YouGov poll says those deeming the vaccine “unsafe” have jumped to 61pc in France, 55pc in Germany, 52pc in Spain, 43pc in Italy. Yet these states are currently relying on AstraZeneca to cover half their immediate rollout in a crisis.
If European leaders impose an export ban on jabs on Thursday – cutting supplies of the American Pfizer vaccine made in Belgium – they will gain a few days at best for their vaccination campaign. If they also extend this to active ingredients used in the AstraZeneca process they could inflict real damage on the UK rollout: levelling the playing field, one is tempted to say.
But such action would come at a high cost to the EU’s international credibility. It would also mean overriding protest from Ireland and the Netherlands. Both have built a business model that relies on hosting foreign multinationals. Both are Atlanticist free traders.
The Irish and the Dutch long relied on the British to defend market thinking against the EU’s protectionist tendencies. Following Brexit, they no longer have a heavyweight ally able to mount a blocking minority under qualified majority voting. They can be steamrolled on core national interests like never before.
The vaccine saga is a foretaste of how uncomfortable their predicament is likely to become. Can Ireland continue to be an offshore low-tax haven for US corporations? I have always assumed that the Dutch and Irish would chafe over time as marginal members of a Caesaropapist EU moving in a different ideological direction, but I did not expect their difficulties to be exposed so soon.
What would the export ban achieve? It is already too late to avert the third wave and therefore to avert rolling lockdowns through the spring. The EU has already guaranteed another quarter of economic distress, deepening the structural damage from the pandemic.
As Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, cases have gone “exponential” in Germany. Half measures have failed. The lockdown will now have to be tightened and extended to mid-April, and probably as far out as June in one form or another.
The IFO Institute says it is potentially “catastrophic” for small firms in Germany hanging on by their fingertips. The longer it lasts, the greater the danger of cascading bankruptcies when support is pulled away and the moratorium is lifted on insolvency filings.
Germany will cope but the strain on fiscal resources from delayed recovery is becoming a big political story. Der Spiegel reports that the budget deficit will be even higher this year than last year, rising to €250bn or 7pc of GDP. The country is in no mood for another €1 trillion boost to the EU’s Recovery Fund but without fresh money southern Europe is in grave trouble.
It is touch and go whether or not Europe can save the tourist season this summer. The South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19 have gained a foothold. As of late last week, these strains made up 38pc of cases in the French department of Moselle, 17pc in the Meuse, 16pc in the Dordogne, 15pc in the Vendee, Manche, the Doubs, and so on. The French do a fair amount of genomic sequencing. Others do almost none. We can assume that these variants are by now all over Europe.
The latest study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed fears that neither the AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine nor the two messenger RNA vaccines in use (BioNTech and Moderna) offer much protection against these strains. The implication is that vaccination certificates are not going to be enough to restore normal holiday travel this summer whatever happens. We will all have to wait until adapted booster vaccines in the autumn.
Morgan Stanley says a second lost summer can no longer be excluded. It warned that this could lead to another year of outright economic contraction for Spain, and to stagnation for France, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.
The eurozone’s north-south gap in economic competitiveness and debt ratios was untenable even before Covid struck. It became a degree worse by the end of 2020. It will be another degree worse by the end of 2021. The risk is that economic scarring in the Club Med bloc runs so deep that it stunts recovery when it finally comes, condemning the region to another decade of semi-slump and decay.
Europe has made an expensive mistake by dropping the ball on vaccination while at the same time letting a third wave of Covid variants run rampant. History will judge whether this is ultimately fatal for the project. One thing is for sure: launching a vaccine war will not save them.
This article is an extract from The Telegraph’s Economic Intelligence newsletter. 

Good post, thanks for that

[ordnance]

It seems Jean Claude is talking some sense for a change. 

Jean-Claude Juncker has attacked Ursula von der Leyen, his successor as European Commission president, for starting a “stupid vaccine war” with Britain.

Mr Juncker said he was “not a fan” of Mrs von der Leyen’s threat of imposing an export ban on EU manufactured jabs to the UK and warned it would “create major reputational damage” for the bloc. We used to be the world's free trade champion," he said as EU leaders meet for a summit to discuss the potential ban, "We have to pull back from a vaccine war.”

Mr Juncker also criticised the EU for being too slow in approving and buying vaccines, branding the bloc as “too cautious” and “budget conscious” in an interview with BBC’s HardTalk.

[Mungler]

Delicious 

[ditchman]

was very surprised and enlightened when that was reported............couldnt believe my ears the first time around

 

old boy must be on the wagon..

[Gordon R]

It isn't rocket science. Even Juncker can see what Merkel, Macron and Ursula von der Plank can't.

[Mungler]

9 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

It isn't rocket science. Even Juncker can see what Merkel, Macron and Ursula von der Plank can't.

Hahaha I’m stealing that for use elsewhere 😆

[ordnance]

21 minutes ago, Gordon R said:

It isn't rocket science. Even Juncker can see what Merkel, Macron and Ursula von der Plank can't.

They can see it as well, that's the reason for the distraction blame game. 

[Vince Green]

16 minutes ago, ordnance said:

They can see it as well, that's the reason for the distraction blame game. 

Oh yes gradually they are having to let the disguise slip, and we are seeing them for what they really are

A tart can wear a crown but that doesn't make her a queen  (king in Macron's case)

It just makes her a tart wearing a crown

[ditchman]

45 minutes ago, Mungler said:

Hahaha I’m stealing that for use elsewhere 😆

well i thought my one was better...Ursula fond of lyin.......................Da-Daaaaaaaaaaaaaa 🎼🎶

[Gordon R]

ditchman - I thought yours was better too.

ordnance - fair point.

[ditchman]

im now off to the kevin the carrot and sparkle markle thread..

[Raja Clavata]

10 hours ago, Rewulf said:

After a good 4 years of being slagged off for voting out, by my estimations you have around 3 years of smugness remaining.....
Except , the Brexiters arent smug , we are far more chivalrous than our remainer cousins, and I really dont believe its being 'rubbed in'
The vaccine debacle is a good example , yes , our vaccine roll out is better than the EUs , is that the EU hierarchies fault , yes //mostly, are we all smug about it , not really.
Yet certain (rapidly dying ) remain factions still snipe away at how badly covid has been handled in the UK , 'because of the tories' ect .
Its frankly delusional if Im honest.

 

Good example right there.
From June 2016 to Jan 2020 , did the (losing) remainers feel the need to be 'united' ?
Did the  leftie media promote unity ?
Did the opposition come together and help us resolve the issue ?

Old ground I know,  but your argument that WE are being unreasonable now, is somewhat weak, when you look back at the last 4 years 

Do you want to have another go at that? Read back on what you’ve written and perhaps reflect on why I might think you’ve truly excelled yourself there. 

[Rewulf]

4 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

Do you want to have another go at that? Read back on what you’ve written and perhaps reflect on why I might think you’ve truly excelled yourself there. 

I didn't think it was too bad, but excelled myself? 

Youre too kind Sir 😁