UK Today in Coronavirus
In a huge blow to the music industry the glastonbury music festival has been cancelled for a 2nd year running due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It really comes at little surprise as it was increasingly unlikely that things would not yet be back to normal enough for it to go ahead, and may not yet be for a while longer. The organisers are allowing people to rollover their October 2019 deposit for a ticket in 2022.
Meanwhile the coronavirus lockdown in Northern Ireland has been extended until at least the 5th March. This means schools and non-essentials shops will remain closed, and people will be encouraged to keep working from their homes, and family gatherings, as well as any other gatherings will remain to not be allowed.
A UK government advisor has also said that bars and restaurants should be kept closed until at least May. To be fair I am myself resigned at this point to having my birthday in March be another takeaway at home like what it became last year, it is fully what I expect at this point. And likely even if restaurants do reopen by that time I will still choose to have a takeaway at home instead to be safe. So here’s hoping to my 2022 birthday that I will be in a position to head out to a restaurant again!
The reason for the advice to the UK government on the above position is that even if 90% of people are vaccinated the 10% still pose a serious threat to drive up the infection rate, and that not enough is known the effects the vaccines will have on transmissions. The advice is to instead lift restrictions much more slowly. At the same time though the Prime Minister is facing opposition from many of his own MPs against taking this route, with the hospitality sector itself concerned that further extended lockdown could kill off many businesses. There are calls from others for the UK Government to lend/extend financial support during any possible extended lockdown.
The government is also planning to possibly give one-off £500 handouts to anyone who tests positive for coronavirus and then has to self-isolate, coming from a “leaked” government plan. This dramatic decision comes after worrying research showed that only 17% of people who have coronavirus-like symptoms come forward for a test as many are afriad of losing their work income. The report also says only one-in-four self isolate for the full 10-days while 15% continue going to work. There have also been previous reports on this phenomenon.
Currently such a £500 payment is only available to those on certain benefits. Councils also have discretionary funding but there have been complaints that this system is too strict and the majority who apply are rejected. The plan for £500 payments to everyone who tests positive is not set in stone and is yet to be fully decided, and is likely to face opposition within the Cabinet.
The UK Government has also considered completely closing its borders to foreigners in the face of new coronavirus variants, according to the Environment Secretary. The Prime Minister is apparently under pressure from a number in his Cabinet to close the UK’s borders.
And finally on news related to the Tokyo Olympic Games, Japanese officials have denied that it is yet cancelled for this year. The Tokyo Oympics was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and rolled-over to 2021, but a report has claimed that Tokyo may not host the Games until 2032.
The report included a senior official of the ruling coalition saying that he doubted the games would go ahead. The report also says that Japan is now aiming to host the Olympic Games in 2032 instead as the 2024 and 2028 slots have already been awarded to Paris and Los Angeles respectively. But both the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo Board have continued to insist that the Games will go ahead this year in Tokyo. Polls on the other hand show that public opinion in Japan no longer favours the Games being held during these times, with as many as 80% against it. If the Games do fail to go ahead it will be a massive blow to the country which has already spent billions on its organisation.
Latest BREXIT Impacts
In some upside to BREXIT the carmaker Nissan has said it is expecting to capitalise on the BREXIT Deal. They are also planning to create more jobs in Wearside as part of starting to make electric car batteries for one of their car models and their Chief operating officer has said the company has a chance to redefine the industry. So far the company has said that the only problems it has faced have come from coronavirus struggles rather than BREXIT. Nissan was strongly against a no-deal BREXIT due to tariffs, but the company is now quite happy with the tariff-free deal.
The reason for moving the electric-car battery production to the UK is in-fact partly to avoid new tariffs that would apply outside of the UK due to European exports rule-of-origin regulations. And so BREXIT supporters will likely see this as a win, bringing in production that would otherwise happened outside of the UK without BREXIT. Nissan also said new customs rules also had no impact on Nissan as the company was sizeable enough to deal with it. Nissan is hoping to be at the forefront of electric car models from 2024 onwards due to a planned ban on sale of new internal combustion vehicles from 2030.
Google Vs. Australia
Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia over the country’s planned laws to make Big Tech companies pay money to news media for displaying their content. Facebook itself has also threatened to ban news media in Australia from being shared on its platform if such new rules are passed into law.
The showdown once again shows the power of the Big Tech companies but also the worrying encroachement of new internet rules in a number of countries that may indirectly lead to the restriction of services or content. Certainly the impact from Google pulling its search engine out of a country such as Australia would have a massive impact, considering there are very little viable alternatives or large competitors to Google’s dominant search engine.
Under the new rules Australia is proposing, tech giants such as Facebook and Google would need to negotiate payments with local publishers and broadcasters, with a government-appointed arbitrator that would settle any payment disputes if the two sides fail to come to a compromise.
Google’s Australia managing director has said at a Senate inquiry for the bill that the implications of the new rules would have unmanageable financial and operational risk and would give them no real choice but to pull their search engine out of Australia.
The director also said this would be a bad outcome for the Australian people, media diversity, and small businesses who rely on Google products from day-to-day.
The director did say they would be up for paying a wide and diverse group of news publishers for value they have added, but not under current rules that are proposed, such as payments for links and snippets.
The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the other hand has responded defensively to what the director has said, saying the government does not respond to threats and that Australia makes rules for things you can do in Australia.
The legislation came about after it was concluded via an investigation last month that Google and Facebook held too much market power in the media industry, which it concluded posed a possible threat to well-functioning of democracy.
The US Government has urged Australia to scrap the proposed rules and instead pursue a path of voluntary code instead. The US government stepped into this as the companies are headquarted in the United States.
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