HOWEVER...
Yesterday, of course, Jeremy Corbyn launched his Peace and Justice Project, to much excitement on here. Laudable goals too:
Take on Murdoch ✅
Green New Deal ✅
Support for food banks ✅
Speed up vaccine delivery in developing countries ✅
That's all excellent.
HOWEVER...
The sort of blindness which makes me tear my hair out.
https://t.co/YimyrjqhCO
We\u2019re delighted to have the backing of Rafael Correa, who cut poverty and inequality by record levels as president of Ecuador.
— Peace and Justice Project (@corbyn_project) January 8, 2021
There is no limit to what we can achieve when we bring people together to take on injustice.
Join us https://t.co/w6QOdSqkeC pic.twitter.com/aT8atxSYvy
Slashed poverty from 36.7% to 22.5% ✅
Reduced inequality from 0.55 to 0.47 on the Gini index ✅
So far, so good. Except, um...
Tremendous. How 'just'. 🙄
It gets worse too.
- Ecuador defaulted on its national debt and international obligations
- He was accused of involvement in kidnapping a political opponent
- His government filed a criminal charge against a critical newspaper
- When a 17-year-old gave him a middle finger gesture in Quito, Correa stopped his motorcade, berated the teenager, and he received 20 hours' community service.
When ordinary citizens and newspapers are threatened by the government for 'offending the President', that is not a democracy. It's an authoritarian state.
Exactly the same reason he looks the other way on Venezuela, on Bolivia, on anywhere in this continent where someone claiming to be of the 'left' is in charge.
He romanticises the place. He thinks the Latin American left is Robin Hood.
But he doesn't. Because his whole world view is so ludicrously black and white.
And there's really no excuse for that. To say that it plays straight into the hands of his many enemies is a huge understatement.
These are countries which gained their independence only 30 years ago. They NEED our protection.
And that's where Corbyn's whole peace and love thing really starts to collapse. It doesn't deal in reality.
We all NEED that sort of world if we're to avert climate catastrophe too.
But just as his supporters adore him for his views never having changed at all, that's also his giant, almighty flaw.
In this continent, for example, Venezuela is a completely failed state.
“There is nothing we can do for Venezuela. No country in the history of humanity has seen a contraction as deep as Venezuela without a war or natural disaster or both".
That isn't supporting human rights at all. That isn't supporting peace and justice at all. It's inexcusable.
Before anyone interjects with "1973.. CIA..." - Venezuela was a rich, successful place once.
https://t.co/58cJn2jNvz
This continent and its people deal with the appalling consequences of Venezuela's rogue regime every day.
By the way: in international affairs, he's been right on many many many things.
- An implacable fighter against Pinochet
- Absolutely correct on the Iraq war
- Quite right about US imperialism and its many evils too
- Our horrendous coddling of and deals drenched in blood with Saudi Arabia
- The demonisation of Iran (but has he ever spoken out about its human rights record? I ask because I don't know)
- Israel's treatment of the Palestinians
It saddens me, truly. Because he's a good man who wants to HELP PEOPLE.
More from Uk
Better late than never. Here we go. What does this deal mean for borders, border formalities, customs & trade facilitation?
Long one. TL:DR very little at the moment but has potential
/1
Borders
When compared to no deal the deal changes very little in terms of border procedures. All formalities and checks will still be required.
Reminder - we're not starting from 0 here – both our container ports and our ro-ro ports are already congested
/2
On top of that, all the issues related to border readiness: lack of capacity and space, IT systems not ready, shortages of customs agents, treader readiness – have not been solved.
The deal doesn’t help with that.
/3
Here is where we are:
☑️The UK will phase-in border formalities over 6 months (customs and SPS)
☑️The EU will introduce full formalities in 3 days (customs + SPS)
☑️Irish Sea border also fully operational in 3 days with some short-term SPS easements
/4
Pre-notifications (safety & security declarations) not initially required on the UK side, needed for imports into the EU.
So what's in the deal?
/5
Long one. TL:DR very little at the moment but has potential
/1
Lots of stuff on technical barriers and customs cooperation. See @AnnaJerzewska for more on the latter. pic.twitter.com/3sC5xHD3Z8
— Steve Peers (@StevePeers) December 26, 2020
Borders
When compared to no deal the deal changes very little in terms of border procedures. All formalities and checks will still be required.
Reminder - we're not starting from 0 here – both our container ports and our ro-ro ports are already congested
/2
On top of that, all the issues related to border readiness: lack of capacity and space, IT systems not ready, shortages of customs agents, treader readiness – have not been solved.
The deal doesn’t help with that.
/3
Here is where we are:
☑️The UK will phase-in border formalities over 6 months (customs and SPS)
☑️The EU will introduce full formalities in 3 days (customs + SPS)
☑️Irish Sea border also fully operational in 3 days with some short-term SPS easements
/4
Pre-notifications (safety & security declarations) not initially required on the UK side, needed for imports into the EU.
So what's in the deal?
/5
Just finished reading an article by Iain MacWhirter that is so full of demonstrable falsehoods & logical fallacies that it requires a firm response: So seeing as I’ve done one nuclear thread this week already, I might as well do another... 🧵☢️🏴🇺🇳
Iain is able to correctly identify that the submission that @SNP_SITW group made to the UK #IntegratedReview - and therefore wasn’t policy about an independent Scotland - but that’s where his grip on reality ends.
We called for unilateral disarmament, as I pointed out on Monday: https://t.co/DwHt9knqHh
Iain chooses to elide the fact that our submission was clearly not about policy in an independent Scotland, and therefore seeks to portray our request to the UK Government to be serious about its own commitments to multilateral arms control treaties — like the NPT — as SNP policy
Despite revealing that he knows a thing or two about internal SNP procedures, he then goes on to conflate two unconnected things — our submission, and a putative conference motion that the democratically-elected conferences committee (not the Leadership) decided not to accept
Iain is able to correctly identify that the submission that @SNP_SITW group made to the UK #IntegratedReview - and therefore wasn’t policy about an independent Scotland - but that’s where his grip on reality ends.
We called for unilateral disarmament, as I pointed out on Monday: https://t.co/DwHt9knqHh
Firstly, the easy part: our submission states @theSNP position clearly and unequivocally. It looks pretty unilateral to me \U0001f9d0 https://t.co/03btr7UBVh
— Martin Docherty-Hughes \U0001f3f4\U000e0067\U000e0062\U000e0073\U000e0063\U000e0074\U000e007f\U0001f3f3\ufe0f\u200d\U0001f308 (@MartinJDocherty) November 23, 2020
Iain chooses to elide the fact that our submission was clearly not about policy in an independent Scotland, and therefore seeks to portray our request to the UK Government to be serious about its own commitments to multilateral arms control treaties — like the NPT — as SNP policy
Despite revealing that he knows a thing or two about internal SNP procedures, he then goes on to conflate two unconnected things — our submission, and a putative conference motion that the democratically-elected conferences committee (not the Leadership) decided not to accept
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Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.
https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d
Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.
...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.
Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.
https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d
Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.
...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.
Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
