Today is Vaisakhi, Sikhism’s most important festival. It celebrates the formal anniversary of the establishment of the Sikh order, the ‘Khalsa,’ in 1699. Vaisakhi is usually celebrated to great fanfare within the Yorkshire community.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Happy Vaisakhi

Charlie McCarthy explains the significance of the hydrogen factory in Yorkshire. Green hydrogen is a great alternative to fossil fuel, as poor air quality is already the largest environmental risk to UK public health.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: World-beating green hydrogen factory recruiting in Yorkshire

Government figures showing a bounceback in February rightly come with a health warning

The government’s monthly trade figures come with a health warning – and rightly so. A combination of Covid-19 and Brexit means it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions about the trend from a single month’s data.

Look at what has happened to the UK’s exports to the EU. These collapsed by a revised record of 42% in January but, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), subsequently rose by more than 46% in February.

Alex Toal breaks down the Greensill scandal, and the broader problem of the revolving door which Cameron's actions have highlighted. Politicians have had an uncomfortable level of closeness with the private sector for years, and the scandal is nothing new. But we need to change our incentive structures to improve practices.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The Greensill scandal shows that the revolving door isn’t so transparent

Reports that the EU and UK are edging towards a new NI deal may be optimistic with the two sides said to be far apart on many issues and the PM himself "in denial" about the role he has personally played in sparking off violence in Northern Ireland

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Johnson “in denial” over role of Northern Ireland protocol in riots

‘Get Brexit Done’ has unravelled in a spectacular fashion; a significant knock to the economy, removal of rights and freedoms, more red tape for business and – the most heart-breaking of all – trouble has returned to Northern Ireland. The obvious answer to this foreseeable problem is for the UK to be part of the single market and customs union.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Great Brexit Con Job

Ellesmere Port’s future as a centre of car manufacturing means building electric vehicles, but this needs greater investment and Vauxhall has already earmarked other plants to build battery-powered cars,

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Vauxhall’s Astra factory in Ellesmere Port under threat

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk The Queen’s husband has died, not far off his 100th birthday. As a republican my first thought was ‘Oh, yes… So what?’ This is an event that has no impact whatsoever on my life or the life of anyone else I can think of. I have no objection to commemorating the […]

The post Death of a salesman? appeared first on West England Bylines.

Aidan Enright describes his battle, as an Irish in Britain, between his 'British' and 'Irish' identity. After being submerged in both cultures, he feels drawn to both. After heavy debate around Brexit in Britain though, he often yearns for his Irish home.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Being Irish in Britain: Irishness, Britishness and me

The prime minister’s bluster is meeting head-on with the complex reality of Northern Irish politics

Apologies make cynical history, but Boris Johnson has a big one to make, and fast. He must apologise to Northern Ireland’s unionists that he did not mean it last year when he pledged “no border” down the Irish Sea. As the Good Friday agreement negotiator, Jonathan Powell, wrote on Sunday, this was a lie. Johnson had just told the Irish government that the Good Friday deal held and there would be no border on the island of Ireland. Given Britain’s intention to leave the EU’s customs union, the two statements were incompatible, and Johnson knew it. Every truck on the Belfast ferry knows it, too.

The current Belfast riots have invoked the usual platitudes. The Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has called for calm. Joe Biden has offered concern. Everyone is outraged that children are being encouraged to attack the police. Even Prince Philip’s death has been cited as a call for restraint. Deprivation, local political grievances, poor relationships with the police – these are all factors behind the disturbances. But every act of violence also carries the same word: exasperation. Will someone answer the question? Johnson lied, and what is Britain going to do about it?

Efforts are focused on removing ‘rolling deadlines’ from border control implementations, sources say

The UK is edging towards a new deal with the EU on Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland with the potential for easing border checks on certain goods.

Officials in London and Brussels have been involved in intense “technical talks” in the past two weeks over the future checks on food, plants and parcels going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Alex Toal looks ahead to the local elections in North Yorkshire and Humberside. Police and crime commissioners are up for election in both counties, along with a third of Hull City Council which will be one to watch.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Elections preview: North Yorkshire and Humberside

Dr Pam Jarvis draws to light the future problems and questions about the monarchy now that Prince Philip has passed away: will Prince Charles have the appetite to be king when his mother dies? Dr Jarvis asks whether there could be a referendum to peacefully decide who will be the king.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The changing of the guard: who will become King?

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk I’ve walked this way before.Down the steep slopeInto a fog of darkness Where iron-black treesCage my breathWith their un-giving silence. Then I find youStanding besides me.Taking my hand,Intertwining our fingers,We walk together once more. Out through the cutting cold,The drizzle and the dark.Back up onto Harebell Hill Where once, a warmer […]

The post Walk – A Poem appeared first on West England Bylines.

Andy Leach comments on the impact of Grenfell on cladding, the fact that inflammable cladding is still a choice for constructionists, and the government and Robert Jenrick's slow response to improve cladding standards.

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Inflammable cladding: the burning question

History is littered with past mistakes of splitting peoples into nationalists and unionists. The prime minister seems wont to repeat them

In a modern democracy, using raw power to frustrate one’s opponents is neither democratic nor sensible. If demands are ignored, pressure will build up and eventually undermine political legitimacy. Boris Johnson thinks his Commons majority, elected on a first-past-the-post basis, can defy such logic. This is a reckless strategy. Rather than consider how the country ought to be governed when nationalism gains popularity, Mr Johnson aims to harness an English version of it in May’s “Super Thursday” elections. These polls will be therefore mostly about tactical advances, which give no answer to the question of what sort of modern-day state the UK should be.

At the heart of much of the debate today is that within England the centre thinks of itself as unambiguously in charge. English councils are “creatures of statute”. Their powers can be altered or abolished by central government. But outside England there are the competing understandings of what constrains the UK executive. These have been heightened by rising nationalist sentiment in England, Wales and Scotland.

Heavy borrowing by businesses could easily end in higher inflation and a ballooning trade deficit

Never have the opening lines of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land seemed more apt. In 2020, April really was the cruellest month, as the first wave of Covid-19 deaths peaked and businesses were shuttered. Between March and April, UK output slumped by a fifth.

This year, April will be different. The success of the vaccine programme means the government can go ahead with the next phase of the gradual unlocking of England’s economy. From Monday, it will be possible to go to the pub for a pint, provided you are prepared to brave the spring weather and drink outside.

The Northern Ireland conundrum over Brexit was always insoluble. As John Major and Tony Blair pointed out in the referendum campaign, if the UK left the single market and customs union there had to be a border somewhere, either on the island of Ireland or in the Irish Sea. In either case, someone’s rights were going to be hurt: nationalists or unionists.

In December 2019, Boris Johnson opted to put the border in the Irish Sea to get his Brexit deal over the line. He then chose to lie about it, live on TV, saying there would be no border and that no one would have to fill in any forms. At first, the unionist response was muted. Arlene Foster even said NI had the best of both worlds.

Children in care born to EU parents face complex barriers to remaining in the UK

Three years on, the individual tales of Windrush injustice still have the power to catch my breath. Men and women who moved to Britain as children decades ago, who found themselves banished from the UK for the remainder of their life after a holiday abroad, wrongfully arrested, detained and threatened with deportation, and denied life-saving care on the NHS. So many stories of the British state ruining black lives, but one stands out for its exquisite cruelty: that of Jay, the son of a Windrush immigrant.

Related: From Macpherson to Windrush: UK inquiries into racial injustice

On 23rd anniversary of Good Friday agreement, Martin says onus on political leaders ‘to step forward’

The Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that political leaders must not allow Northern Ireland to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord” after the region was marred by another night of disorder.

On the anniversary of the Good Friday agreement 23 years ago, the taoiseach said there was “a particular onus on those of us who currently hold the responsibility of political leadership to step forward and play our part and ensure that this cannot happen”.

Ed: Updated with more links – 11 April 2021Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk Dear Editor, #millionsMissing.  Have you heard about it? “ME/CFS”. Do you know what it is? 12 May is not only my birthday but also the sixth anniversary of Myalgic Encephomyelitis (ME) International Awareness Day for the #MillionsMissing. This has been represented in many […]

The post There are Millions Missing from their lives due to ME appeared first on West England Bylines.

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk It feels like an age ago when the controversial police response to a vigil held at Clapham Common hit us. It feels even longer since we heard about the devastating news of Sarah Everard’s death itself. Something about Sarah Everard’s death seemed to hit the country hard. Maybe it was because […]

The post Violence against Women – What Can Men Do? appeared first on West England Bylines.

Consumer organisation says many people have been taken by surprise by bills for VAT and import duties

Consumers in Britain should be given a clearer idea of the costs they face when buying from EU retailers following Brexit so they are not left with unexpected fees or scammed, the consumer group Which? has said.

Since the transition period ended, many customers buying from the EU have faced bills for VAT and, when the item has been imported from another country first, import duties. On top of these costs, couriers have their own fees for handling the deliveries.

Dear Editor, I write in reaction to Guy Maughfling’s (Fragmentation or Unity, April 1 2021) article. Whilst the article started with a well-meaning highlighting of some poor logistical planning, it went on to make a number of far-fetched arguments from this. Firstly, the author clearly believes in democracy, but still manages to become highly undemocratic, […]

The post One of our Writers challenges Another! appeared first on West England Bylines.

This week’s violence is an ominous sign that leaving the EU took a wrecking ball to the Good Friday agreement

The most powerful arguments against Brexit were never about trade and tariffs. They were about peace and war, about life and death. One was a general argument centred on the true, founding purpose of the European Union: to ensure that a continent mired in blood for centuries would not descend into conflict again. The other was more specific, peculiar to these islands: that shared membership of the EU had proved to be the key that unlocked peace in Northern Ireland after three decades of murderous pain.

The logic was simple enough. So long as both the UK and Ireland were in the same EU club, the border between them could be blurred, allowing people in the north to identify as British or Irish or both without too much friction. That was the foundation on which the Good Friday agreement, signed 23 years ago tomorrow, was built – a foundation that would be broken if either country were to break from Brussels. Taken together, these were the life-and-death arguments for continued UK membership of the EU, and some tried valiantly to make them. But they were barely heard.

Rioters have been blasted with water cannon by police on the streets of Belfast as unrest continued into a seventh day.

Stones and fireworks were thrown at police by groups of young people who had gathered on the nationalist Springfield Road, close to where riots took place on Wednesday night.

After calls for calm this week, there was a heavy security presence, with water cannon, riot officers and police dogs at the scene 

• Belfast: police use water cannon on rioters in seventh night of unrest

Joe Biden joins Boris Johnson and Irish prime minister in a call for calm after worst violence in Belfast in years

The White House has expressed concern over a week of riots in Northern Ireland, with Joe Biden joining Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister in calling for calm after what police described as the worst violence in Belfast for years.

It came as police used water cannon against nationalist youths in west Belfast, as unrest stirred again on the streets on Thursday evening, with reports that officers later warned they could use “impact rounds” – also known as plastic bullets.

Northern Ireland secretary makes statement following talks with leaders at Stormont. This live blog is now closed.

• Northern Ireland executive holds emergency meeting over Belfast unrest
  
• Northern Ireland unrest: why has violence broken out?

5.42pm BST

It’s really good to see all five parties coming together with a clear statement which is that violence is not acceptable.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge over the first few months of the year there were real issues around how the protocol has landed for people, both as consumers and those in the loyalist and unionist community.

In a letter to Anneliese Dodds, Mr Sunak says David Cameron lobbied three ministers:

"I can confirm that David Cameron reached out informally by telephone to me, and to the Economic Secretary and the Financial Secretary."

More details on the texts... pic.twitter.com/siFh8jGJF8

Related: Coronavirus live news: Bangkok warns outbreak could take two months to control; India reports record new cases

5.21pm BST

Here is more from the Brandon Lewis briefing in Belfast.

Lewis says he spoke to the Prime Minister "just a short time ago."

Surge in housebuilding joined by strong growth in infrastructure and commercial projects

Britain’s construction sector has had its sharpest pick-up in activity since 2014 amid signs that the domestic economy is recovering more quickly than Brexit- and pandemic-affected trade flows, new figures have shown.

The latest snapshot of the construction sector, which accounts for around 6% of total UK output, pointed to an across-the-board increase in March, with house-building, commercial projects and infrastructure work all displaying strong growth.

Rioting has spilled on to streets in pockets of unionist areas in Derry, Belfast and towns in County Antrim

• Northern Ireland executive holds emergency meeting over unrest

Northern Ireland has been rocked by six successive nights of violence with 55 police officers injured in a level of unrest “not seen in years”.

Justice minister Naomi Long points finger at UK ministers after four nights of street violence in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland’s justice minister has said the government’s “dishonesty” over the consequences of hard Brexit has contributed to the anger felt by loyalists, as police counted the cost of 41 officers injured during violence on the streets over four nights.

Naomi Long’s remarks came as tensions escalated in Northern Ireland, with the first minister and Democratic Unionist party leader, Arlene Foster, hitting out at the “arrogance of Sinn Féin” and telling the BBC the IRA army council still existed.

Violence by loyalist youths over the Easter weekend is evidence of an increasingly febrile atmosphere

The rioting that took place over the long Easter weekend in Northern Ireland was relatively small-scale. But its significance should not be downplayed. On successive evenings, groups of loyalist youths threw petrol bombs, set cars alight and fought the police, injuring dozens of officers. The violence testifies to a dangerous sense of grievance in unionist communities, as the politics of Brexit play out. Though the main paramilitary groups did not, it seems, participate, neither did they use their influence to stop the riots, and in some cases allegedly encouraged them.

According to security analysts and police, criminal gangs orchestrated some of the disturbances in response to a crackdown on their activities. News that there will be no prosecutions over breaches of Covid regulations during the funeral of a leading IRA figure further fuelled resentment. But the overarching context of unionist discontent is Brexit and its consequences. A febrile atmosphere is developing on the ground, which requires the urgent attention of both Westminster and Stormont.

João Vale de Almeida says protocol is the solution for the problems created by Brexit

Political leaders who want the Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland dumped have failed to come up with any better ideas, the EU ambassador to the UK has said, as police confirmed 41 officers were injured during violence on the streets over the weekend.

João Vale de Almeida called on unionist leaders to focus on making the protocol work rather than fighting against it, pledging the EU’s commitment to flexibility on its implementation if the British government demonstrated good faith.

Analysis: Brexit terms and handling of funeral seen as latest in a litany of perceived or real concessions

A Sinn Féin funeral was the spark but loyalists in Northern Ireland have been throwing petrol bombs and burning cars partly because they fear political marginalisation.

The union flag no longer flutters daily over Belfast city hall, a trade border separates the region from the rest of the UK and the police are allegedly beholden to Sinn Féin. Add to this a criminal gang’s resentment at recent arrests and you have the context for three consecutive nights of rioting in several towns that have left dozens of police officers injured, including five on Sunday night.

Sector faces ‘logistical minefield’ of customs declarations and VAT codes as stores and markets prepare to reopen

The legion of traders who have indulged Britain’s bargain hunters for decades with their van loads of curios and collectibles from France fear Brexit is about to upend their specialist trade just as open markets and vintage shops are about to reopen.

Importers of everything from farmhouse tables to art deco mirrors and vintage dresses fear they will be stymied by the complicated documentation now required for each item in their van.

Exiting the EU was not good for Britain. Greed did not bring us the vaccine. Johnson’s narratives will not stand the light of day

There can be few people who have not at some stage in their lives felt that they had been “taken for a ride” or conned. Yet that, I think, will be the dawning realisation of a fair proportion of the 37% of the electorate who – without, in most cases, having the faintest idea of the implications – voted on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union.

Now, usually, if one is conned, it is over some relatively minor matter in the great scheme of things, and one learns one’s lesson. But when a significant part of a country is taken for a ride, it cannot be dismissed as a trivial matter from which it can easily recover.

Angry, frustrated and now just despair! For decades successive Governments have recognised that a global pandemic was the biggest threat to our national security. Yet when faced with one, the government of the day was found wanting. Local Public Health Services had been critically weakened, and the National Health Service run down and demoralised. At […]

The post How do I feel after a Year of Lockdowns? appeared first on West England Bylines.

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources. In simple terms, we all want lots of everything. We can’t have that because there’s only a limited amount to go round and we need to work out how best to share what we have. A lot of complicated stuff follows […]

The post Fragmentation or Unity? appeared first on West England Bylines.

As the West England Bylines ‘roving reporter’, I interviewed George Richmond who wrote this article about rural bus services back in February – https://westenglandbylines.co.uk/rural-communities-cut-off-by-cuts/. I asked him why he is passionate about rural bus services and why wanted to write the article. George told me that he believes that good reliable rural bus services can make […]

The post Why a Rural Bus Service is Essential appeared first on West England Bylines.

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk There is an army of social media users out there calling out this government every day.Should we scorn or celebrate them? I began using Facebook for political discussion in 2018. The conversation was then focussed on Brexit but inevitably in 2020 it also embraced the management of Covid by the government. […]

The post A Tribute to our Keyboard Warriors? appeared first on West England Bylines.

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk Dear Keir, I am 81. I have always voted Labour, or – since I now live in a Conservative/LibDem marginal – LibDem. I was a strong Remainer. My career has been mainly in public service here and abroad in the environmental sector. Now you know “where I come from”. The Conservative […]

The post Open Letter to Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition appeared first on West England Bylines.

As punditry dries up, ex-politician’s turn on celebrity website Cameo likely reveals search for new income

While Nigel Farage has adopted several guises over his public career, the 30-second video bouncing around social media this week presented a notably different image of the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party.

“Leave means leave! Adoption means adoption!” Farage says into a camera, as disembodied digital emblems begin to float around him. “Basic attention token is now a DeFi powerhouse!”

Producers in Great Britain could once sell meat to EU customers as easily as they could at home. Since Brexit, exporters face a process of up to 26 steps, with every shipment logged in multiple databases and certified by reams of red tape. Here are all the hoops exporters must jump through

• UK firm to stop using British pork owing border problems

Before Brexit, it was as easy to send a shipment of meat to Bavaria as it was to Birmingham, but since Britain left the EU, trade with the continent requires significantly more paperwork, cost and effort. Animal products such as meat have a particularly high number of checks and documents.

Before 1 January, meat exporters based in the UK only needed to obtain a consignment note (CMR) and a delivery note before their goods could be loaded on to a lorry and transported across the Channel.

Analysis: Foreign secretary’s robust response to the EU contrasted with the PM’s emollience towards India

Boris Johnson went out of his way this week not to blame Delhi for the later-than-expected arrival of 5m doses of the Oxford vaccine from India, which is contributing to a significant dip in supplies in April.

“No, no, no,” he said, when asked by a reporter whether Delhi had blocked the export of the vaccines, as the country battles a resurgence in Covid cases.

Boris Johnson defends Britain’s unilateral move to extend grace periods for checks on some food products going to Northern Ireland that has angered the European Union, repeating on Friday during a trip to the province that they were lawful and right. The EU has said London should respect what it signed up to and has said it will launch legal action, or a so-called ‘infringement procedure’, against Britain

• Sinn Féin calls Boris Johnson’s visit to Northern Ireland publicity stunt
  

Boris Johnson has said the latest problems surrounding Brexit and Northern Ireland could be solved with 'goodwill' and 'common sense'. The EU said it would take legal action against the UK government after it unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, against terms of the Brexit deal

• EU postpones setting date for ratifying Brexit trade deal

The UK's foreign secretary has said people should take a '10-year view' of the economic troubles caused by losses in trade with the EU after Brexit, arguing that opportunities in developing markets outside Europe would eventually close the gap. Questioned on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show about warnings from UK businesses of the threat that new bureaucracy and duties pose to viable trade with the EU, he appeared to blame Brussels, saying that it was imposing obstacles

• Raab shrugs off Brexit troubles, urging people to take ‘10-year view’

EU staff will be temporarily withdrawn from their work at Northern Irish ports due to security concerns, an EU commission spokesman said. Northern Ireland’s government has also suspended Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving into Belfast and Larne ports after 'sinister and menacing behaviour' towards staff led to fears for their safety

• Northern Ireland suspends Brexit checks amid safety fears for port staff

Consumers now face UK VAT, rather than local rates, as well as customs duty and courier admin charges

• Britons buying from EU websites hit with £100 customs bills

Before Brexit, UK consumers were free to buy items from anywhere in the EU without incurring import duties and other charges. That all changed on 1 January 2021.

Online orders up to £135 are now supposed to have the UK’s prevailing VAT rate added at the point of sale by the EU retailer, which has to have registered with HM Revenue & Customs.

The leader of the House of Commons claimed fish delayed for export because of the introduction of the post-Brexit fishing regime were 'happier' because they are now British. 'The key is we’ve got our fish back,' he told MPs. 'They’re now British fish and they’re better and happier fish for it'

• Tory MPs from fishing areas criticise government over Brexit red tape

Dutch TV news has aired footage of customs officers confiscating ham sandwiches from drivers arriving by ferry from the UK under post-Brexit rules banning personal imports of meat and dairy products into the EU.

Shown on the current affairs programme EenVandaag, officials wearing hi-vis jackets explained to startled car and lorry drivers at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal that since Brexit, “you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe ...” A bemused driver with several sandwiches wrapped in tin foil asked if he could surrender the meat and keep the bread. One customs officer replied: “No, everything will be confiscated. Welcome to Brexit, sir, I’m sorry.”

The ban came into force on New Year’s Day as the Brexit transition period came to an end, with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) saying travellers should “use, consume, or dispose of” prohibited items at or before the border

• Brexit: what are consumers’ rights on holidays, banking and more?
• How did your MP vote on the Brexit deal bill?

The Labour leader said his party had to be honest with the public, and that if it won the next general election a major renegotiation of the Brexit treaty would not be possible

• Starmer accepts end of EU free movement in Brexit reversal

Journalist and photographer Max Duncan was told his green residency paper was no longer valid as he interviewed Britons barred from flying home to Spain.

People were prevented from boarding a joint BA-Iberia flight to Madrid on Saturday night after airline staff said their pre-Brexit residency papers were no longer valid

• Britons living in Spain barred from Madrid flight in post-Brexit travel row

Boris Johnson signed his post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Wednesday, adding his signature to that of EU chiefs after the document was flown from Brussels to London

Industry leaders warn of invisible chaos as businesses grapple with trading rules and software systems

• Brexit: what are consumers’ rights on holidays, banking and more?
• How did your MP vote on the Brexit deal bill?

The bells of Big Ben will chime to mark the occasion but there will be no street parties or chaos on the roads for the arrival of Brexit at 11pm, when the transition period ends.

Covid curbs mean the roads of Kent and streets of Dover, emblematic of the divorce from the EU, are expected to be deserted with little public sign of the abrupt end of a 47-year relationship with the EU.

EU (future relationship) bill to pass through all parliamentary stages - and get royal assent - on Wednesday

• Live coverage: MPs and peers to rush through Brexit bill

MPs and peers are expected to approve the Brexit trade deal with the EU on Wednesday, in a frantic day of parliamentary activity.

European Union (future relationship) bill is expected to go through both the Commons and Lords in just a day

It is a time of year when MPs might typically still be at home chomping through Christmas leftovers. But, instead of devouring turkey sandwiches during the festive break, they will probably be leafing through pages of draft legislation in preparation for Wednesday’s vote on the historic Brexit trade deal with the EU.

When the history of Brexit is written, the Lib Dems’ decision to let Johnson hold this election will be seen as a key strategic error.

The post Why we lost – and where we go from here appeared first on InFacts.

We can kick Johnson out. So brave the elements and vote for the candidates with the best chance of beating the Tories.

The post 7 reasons to vote Johnson out appeared first on InFacts.

Relying on the WTO for our trade was always a terrible idea. Now that the US president has ripped a hole in it, it’s economic suicide.

The post Trump sabotages Brexiters’ last-ditch safety net appeared first on InFacts.

Good news from YouGov poll is Tory lead is shrinking. Bad news is they are still ahead because too many pro-European votes are being wasted.

The post With a final tactical voting push, we can beat Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

A Tory victory means more chaos. The only way to end the arguments over Brexit and fix our real problems is to vote them out.

The post Johnson won’t stop the chaos – that’s just propaganda appeared first on InFacts.

Johnson yesterday hinted he would axe the licence fee. This had two purposes: cover up his NHS blunder and pummel the BBC into submission.

The post Tories bully BBC because it’s easily cowed appeared first on InFacts.

PM rips off Love Actually in his video but misses out the punch line: “Just because it’s Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth.”

The post At Christmas you tell the truth, but not if you’re Johnson appeared first on InFacts.

Right-wing press has branded Corbyn unelectable. They are right - he is. Not for the reasons they suggest, but because of simple maths.

The post Don’t worry about voting tactically for Corbyn. He won’t win appeared first on InFacts.

To cover up Johnson’s NHS disaster, Tories fabricate story about Labour activist punching Hancock aide.

The post Tory “punch” propaganda backfires appeared first on InFacts.

Not only is Johnson lying about surrendering to the EU demand for an internal UK border, he isn’t ready to deliver a deal by December 2020.

The post Johnson’s dishonesty and disorganisation on Irish Sea border appeared first on InFacts.