A good example of EU flexibility as it (and in this case Iceland) seeks to respond to geopolitical threats. Relevant context for the upcoming UK-EU summer summit.

Screengrab of FT article

EU fishing policy exceptions for Iceland

[Costas Kadis, EU’s commissioner for fishing, told FT there’s “definitely room for flexibility” as bloc reviews its decades-old aquaculture policy. Asked if EU would be open to offering Iceland exemptions, [he] said: “Yes, yes. It’ll be part of discussions]’

Mari Nøvik (@marinovik.bsky.social) Reporter at the Financial Times. Email me: mari.novik@ft.com ft.com/mari-novik

From @marinovik.bsky.social at @financialtimes.com

Screengrab of FT article

EU fishing policy exceptions for Iceland

[Costas Kadis, EU’s commissioner for fishing, told FT there’s “definitely room for flexibility” as bloc reviews its decades-old aquaculture policy. Asked if EU would be open to offering Iceland exemptions, [he] said: “Yes, yes. It’ll be part of discussions]’

Thanks. It’s hard to see how, if the outcome was that appropriate risk management was required, the mitigants could be defined without disclosing the risks that the vetting process had highlighted.
The distinction between vetting findings and outcome becomes blurred: it’s hard to keep them separate.

Did OR say why he did not use his judgement to see beyond the rules and flag the outcome?

No matter how much I read, I just cannot fathom the idea that civil servants should *not* tell ministers that their choice to be US Ambassador has red flags from Security Vetting.

That's *not* a defence of Starmer - and Robbins may have been applying the rules correctly. But the rule seems insane.

By coincidence, this morning, we walked around a local park in the centre of a new town (from the 1980s), just outside Madrid. We remarked that there was not a bin in sight, and, being Spain, not a single piece of litter.

Put on some weight and look normal?

Spurs' logic-defying season proves something has shifted ... That Tottenham stand a chance of being relegated from the Premier League is something the modern footballing structure is supposed to guard against – until it doesn't

Spurs’ logic-defying season proves something has shifted in football

That Tottenham stand a chance of being relegated from the Premier League is something the modern footballing structure is supposed to guard against – until it doesn’t, writes Rory Smith
https://bit.ly/4u0mIJB

On top of everything else, the level of 'embattled' behaviour going on with senior ministers and their comfort zone of lashing out of their traditional supporters shows the government is both in disarray and denial.

… and clearly absent a political strategy.

In a legal mind it’s the decision (which is provable) that matters, not the motivation (which usually isn’t).

OMFG I had to go and check that this ACTUALLY happened.

Since when does the BBC ever do chyrons with a political party's branding, rather than their own? Not to mention this is during a pre-election campaign purdah.

(h/t @iainsol.bsky.social)

Shoemakers, Trawsfynydd, north-west Wales, 1885, photo by John Thomas (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales).

A load of old cobblers.

(sorry)

I would like to make it clear that despite all the unpicking of the goings on between the various Gov Dept heads and Gov Ministers I have not changed my opinion from last year that Mandelson would be an unwise and unsafe appointment just on what was publicly known about him then.

A Labour Party spokesperson blamed the previous Conservative governments, adding Labour was "finally bringing down" immigration numbers. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had taken "decisive action" to cut small boat crossings and "restore control of our borders after the Tories' failed open borders experiment", they said. "We have already stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the general election," they added. "We have removed or deported nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here."

Obviously Reform's proposals is simultaneously racist, economically and socially damaging and impractical.

But, yet again, instead of saying so, Labour/the government's response is tin-eared me-tooism.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trevor Phillips said on Sky News this morning that "everybody in the country who could read a newspaper" knew in advance of the Mandelson appointment that he was problematic

is this the same Phillips who interviewed Mandelson on October 08 2023 and didn't ask any questions about Epstein friendship?

People been talking about Rejoin again and whether joining the euro would be a good thing or not, presuming that we might either have to, or a campaign would have to presume that we would, even if some kind of Swedish waiting room reality was possible, or even less likely, another opt out.

Why? - they are now a minority.

FYI, I'll be on LBC with Matthew Wright at about 8.20 this morning to talk about the Green Party's proposed pay cap... 🤔

Spoiler below 😉

open.substack.com/pub/julianhjes…

New piece by me. On Faith, Leo Trump, and what I have learned from personal trauma. Of interest to @alexhh.bsky.social and @samanthasearrings.bsky.social? www.progressivepulse.org/us-politics/...

Important point.

…. how fast are you travelling?

Yes - previously unthinkable German reunification happened when the geopolitical opportunity presented itself.

Given the geopolitical changes since 2016, I expect there will be some flexibility from the EU to facilitate the UK joining. For example, this could include adjustments to accommodate losses from giving up UK trade deals on joining the Customs Union (net of benefits to UK of post-Brexit EU deals).

There’s also the hurdle of paying into the EU budget. A strong benefits case needs to be made to move on from a blinkered focus on costs of membership.

The intention to join would alone be sufficient to reduce interest rates

I think characterising free movement as ‘unrestrained immigration’ will be the main challenge because it has stronger emotional resonance and is a core theme of the right.