Mark English

European Movement UK has launched a petition calling for the UK to join the EU single market. Six years outside our largest trading partner has meant more barriers, more costs and lost growth for British businesses. It is time to repair the damage. Sign the petition and demand a reset with Europe. Sign the petition.

Today, European Movement UK have launched our petition calling for the UK to join the single market. Europe is the largest trading bloc in the world, and joining the single market would remove barriers to trade, support growth of British businesses and strengthen cooperation with Europe.

Businesses urged to take simple steps for smoother trade with the EU Businesses are being urged to take simple steps to prepare for the landmark EU agri-food deal, that will cut costs, slash red tape and open up opportunities for exporters and importers.

This is clear no SPS deal yet done with EU. I suspect UK govt now realises the huge work needed for alignment. If that work began only *after* a deal agreed, it would be 2028 at earliest before it came into effect - too late for gains before election. Hence the hurry!
www.gov.uk/government/n...

Unless/until there is a deal with EU, alignment will not cut much red tape. Does announcement mean a) a deal is imminent b) parts of negotiations (carve-outs, ECJ)are hard, so govt wants to get ahead on easy bits c) govt has now realised alignment is complex and will take time, so must start now...?

The only thing on which I agree with Donald Trump is the wisdom of avoiding Nigel Farage...

Farage=CRAPOTUS....Crawling Risibly Around President Of The United States...(ruder acronyms are available)

I suspect there might be some dissent within Reform about the three-bags-full-Donald policy line and Farage's fawning....

Probably should not be happening this early....but beautiful....

The best and simplest argument for UK rejoining the EU single market is that every other country in the region is in it or wants to be in it. We can't afford not to be.

Thank God Farage is in Mar-a-Lago today only as a grifting crawler and chancer and not as UK Prime Minister with lives in his hands....

Farage heads to Mar-a-Lago as Starmer-Trump relations plummet The MAGA-friendly politician has been vocally lobbying against British prime minister’s deal over the Chagos Islands.

Farage-a-Lago unpatriotic farrago...
www.politico.eu/article/nige...

Axel Springer buys Telegraph in £575mn deal [FREE TO READ] German media group has gatecrashed a proposed acquisition by the owner of the Daily Mail

Will Sir Bufton Tufton soon be getting a diet of in-depth analysis of EU negotiations mixed with strident German scandal-sheetery? Crossover between Springer-owned Politico and Bild and the Telegraph could be interesting... www.ft.com/content/e5cb...

I wonder how many of these dangerous products are getting into the UK, now it is no longer part of the EU's rapid alert system?

Unless you mean to do what Trump wants forever, surely it is best to say no earlier rather than later, after already making huge concessions? Given he will turn on you at some point anyway? Doesn't that make the Sánchez approach common sense, as well as politically sensible in a Spanish context?

"would otherwise receive immediate access to welfare and social housing" is BS.

Correct: "after 5 years working in a care home, would be eligible to apply for welfare and social housing on the same basis as the rest of us."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Deliberately misleading/disingenous.

Furthermore, for UK - as a medium-sized state in a region where all other states are in the single market - the path to maximising national sovereignty can only be via European sovereignty.

I particularly resent rags like Daily Mail gleefully reporting Trump’s bullying of Starmer. It’s disloyal and hypocritical - they’d be screaming from rooftops if U.K. meekly followed European diktats, yet would have us unquestioningly kowtow to Trump. Starmer’s task is incredibly difficult.

Sauce andalouse?

Europe will probably never have fully united positions on most foreign policy issues, due to different histories and relationships. But responses would be much more disunited without EU, because it convenes, influences...and partly aligns interests via collective economic and trade policies.

Europe will probably never have fully united positions on most foreign policy issues, due to different histories and relationships. But responses would be much more disunited without EU, because it convenes, influences because it partly aligns interests via collective economic and trade policies.

Good that Trump has noticed he is not dealing with Winston Churchill. No doubt Starmer for his part noticed long ago he is not dealing with Roosevelt or Truman (or even Gerald Ford or George W Bush)...

And only those Reform voters who pledge undying allegiance to the Supreme Leader....

Evita Perón...Great feet. And shoes. But could she have coped with the intensity of the modern game...? We shall never know.

Summary - Brexit= inevitable failure.

Brexit campaigning turns 10. Here's how promises to voters hold up Brexit campaigning kicked off on 20 February 2016. The trail saw big promises made to voters. A decade on, how they stand up?

“The Brexit campaign kicked off a decade ago. Here's how 10 promises made to voters hold up today” www.bigissue.com/news/politic...

The EU is home to:
🌍 24 official languages
🎉 60 regional or minority languages spoken by 40 million people

And, over half of Europeans are proficient in a second language!

Multilingualism is a founding principle of our Union.

Diversity is our strength!

Critical materials are the next major challenge for EU autonomy In a geopolitically tense world, dependency has become a hot topic. As the EU decouples itself from Russian gas and strengthens its defence and digital capabilities, it must tackle the risks…

EU is indeed in a challenging position regarding access to critical raw materials. But UK's position is much worse and joining forces with EU seems the only hope of a sustainable solution. encompass-europe.com/comment/crit...

Starmer: Britain must move closer to EU single market. Britain must align itself more closely to the EU single market as soon as this year, Sir Keir Starmer has declared. The Telegraph, 14 February.

Aligning with the Single Market isn't enough - fully joining both the Single Market and Customs Union would reduce duplication, cut costs, and help UK businesses trade more easily and confidently across Europe. The longer we delay taking action, the longer businesses are going to suffer.

Security paradox dominates Chile’s Presidential race despite low crime rates - EFE Chile’s presidential campaign has been overtaken by fears over crime, even as the country remains one of the safest in Latin America.

I am in Chile where a far right President has just come to power based partly on fomenting fear of crime through massively exaggerating its extent. This far right tactic works...a response that reassures without dismissing fears is needed. But not easy...
efe.com/en/other-new...

Farage's claims here are straightforward lies (and it's about time the media/press said so)

The correct figures are 160K (0.3%) and 900K (1.5%)

www.gbnews.com/news/video-n...

Streeting still ready to challenge Starmer despite show of unity, allies say Health secretary poised to make leadership bid after May local elections to pre-empt a potential challenge from rival Rayner, MPs close to him say

Personal ambition, conflicts and gossip are more interesting than policy - that's human nature - but matter less. Surely the job of serious journalism is to make sure the focus is not only, or even mostly, on tittle-tattle? But even The Guardian isn't doing it...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...