Consequences Of Brexit [Part 9] Read First Post Before Posting

[El Cid]

4 minutes ago, West 77 said:

Brexit has shown more can be achieved quickly as a non EU member and independent sovereign state.  The  UK's Government contracts with the vaccine manufacturers have the same equal clout as contracts made with the companies and the EU.  The EU have embarrassed themselves by making private contracts public. The EU have shown they are prepared to override the Brexit agreements and they should have no complaints if the UK Government  decide to so in the future if by doing so it is in the best interest of any part of the UK.

Italy have vaccinated the most, of EU countries. Not too far behind the UK, like the UK they have lots of COVID cases, so they went it alone. Italy had vaccinated more than the UK up until Jan 16th

Even though the EU may be late in approving the vaccines, it was saying on radio four that they had got the vaccine cheaper.

 

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations0000

[KinderKid]

2 hours ago, El Cid said:

Italy have vaccinated the most, of EU countries. Not too far behind the UK, like the UK they have lots of COVID cases, so they went it alone. Italy had vaccinated more than the UK up until Jan 16th

Even though the EU may be late in approving the vaccines, it was saying on radio four that they had got the vaccine cheaper.

 

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations0000

I'm afraid this simply isn't right.

Looking at the data for 16th Jan from the "Our World In Data" link you provided:

UK = 6.31% 

Italy = 1.90%

 This is over comparable population sizes, 66.5m in the UK and 60.4m in Italy. 

 

Looking at the cumulative data you'll also note that Italy have not been ahead in absolute or percentage terms at any point and remain behind now. 

 

Unless I'm totally missing something from your argument?

 

Haggling over the price of AZ vaccine also seems a poor political choice - not only has it wasted months for the EU production, it has been clear from the outset that AZ do not stand to make a profit here - reducing price in wealthy Western regions ultimately means less supply for those who can't afford it. 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by KinderKid

[Baron99]

5 hours ago, El Cid said:

Italy have vaccinated the most, of EU countries. Not too far behind the UK, like the UK they have lots of COVID cases, so they went it alone. Italy had vaccinated more than the UK up until Jan 16th

Even though the EU may be late in approving the vaccines, it was saying on radio four that they had got the vaccine cheaper.

 

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations0000

Here's some more up-to-date data based on inoculations per 100 of a country's population. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html

 

Based on these stats, the UK is 12.6 per 100 vaccinated , compared with Italy's 3 & nearly 7 million people in front, vaccination wise. 

 

The UK are currently 4th, well above the World average & just behind 3 much smaller populated countries. 

 

Just watching the BBC News & the above figures / vaccinations per hundred people is the data the BBC is choosing to use. 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Baron99

[El Cid]

1 hour ago, Baron99 said:

The UK are currently 4th, well above the World average & just behind 3 much smaller populated countries. 

 

Just watching the BBC News & the above figures / vaccinations per hundred people is the data the BBC is choosing to use. 

I am surprised that the USA are so high up.

[nikki-red]

If you want to solely discuss Covid vaccine rates please do so in  the other thread.

 

Thank you.

[sadbrewer]

19 hours ago, tinfoilhat said:

As a remainer, not very by the look of it. L00b on another thread called it an emergency- from the EUs point of view it might be. Not sure from ours. 

 

Not a contract expert - and that's all this is - a contact despute.  

I'm pretty sure it will never become a contested contract dispute. Although it's made little news here it's been a hot topic in the European press since midsummer. UK contracted with AZ back in June...signed and paid, four European countries including Germany were set to do the same until the Commission asked them to desist and throw their lot in with the EU's common procurement programme, which they did. They started to voice concerns when the Commission had not signed any deal by August, the Commission being criticised openly for spending time negotiating lower prices and specifying production sites on EU soil rather than just ordering vaccine. Apologies but I cant find the link from the German press, but it basically said that in mid August they requested x millions of vaccine and were told by AZ that they could not contract to do it, largely because the EU specified site in Belgium had filtration issues that led to low yields, leaving the Commission with no contract to demonstrate, Stella Kyriakides then asked for the term "best efforts" to be inserted so that AZ could sign...no guarantee...but best efforts. Had AZ managed to up production in Belgium, or Pfizer/Biontech exceeded theirs no one would have been the wiser. The criticism of the Commission though goes deeper, when they signed the initial Pfizer/Biontech contract for 200m doses they were offered an option for an extra 300m, which for some incredible reason they turned down.

   What is noticeable is that no leader of any of the EU27 has come forward to make the Commission's case over the contract.

 Der Spiegel ran this headline yesterday....unfortunately it's paywalled but does look interesting.

[Baron99]

1 hour ago, sadbrewer said:

I'm pretty sure it will never become a contested contract dispute. Although it's made little news here it's been a hot topic in the European press since midsummer. UK contracted with AZ back in June...signed and paid, four European countries including Germany were set to do the same until the Commission asked them to desist and throw their lot in with the EU's common procurement programme, which they did. They started to voice concerns when the Commission had not signed any deal by August, the Commission being criticised openly for spending time negotiating lower prices and specifying production sites on EU soil rather than just ordering vaccine. Apologies but I cant find the link from the German press, but it basically said that in mid August they requested x millions of vaccine and were told by AZ that they could not contract to do it, largely because the EU specified site in Belgium had filtration issues that led to low yields, leaving the Commission with no contract to demonstrate, Stella Kyriakides then asked for the term "best efforts" to be inserted so that AZ could sign...no guarantee...but best efforts. Had AZ managed to up production in Belgium, or Pfizer/Biontech exceeded theirs no one would have been the wiser. The criticism of the Commission though goes deeper, when they signed the initial Pfizer/Biontech contract for 200m doses they were offered an option for an extra 300m, which for some incredible reason they turned down.

   What is noticeable is that no leader of any of the EU27 has come forward to make the Commission's case over the contract.

 Der Spiegel ran this headline yesterday....unfortunately it's paywalled but does look interesting.

Well there you go then.  The  EU Commission Commission, (approximately 32,000 staff), decide / dictate to 448 million people. 

 

Common Agricultural Policy; Common Fisheries Policy & now a Common Pharmaceutical Procurement Policy.  Well the fault is with the general politicians of the 27 member states for putting up with it all, by accepting such dithering  policies. 

 

Really is a prime example of tail wagging dog.  EU civil servants believing they know best to justify their own positions.  

Edited January 30, 2021 by Baron99

[hauxwell]

A nice bit of news I’ve just seen.  The UK is applying to Join a  free trade deal made up of

11 Asia and Pacific nations under post Brexit plans.  
 

This bit is for the economist on here, it’s expected to generate more than 13% of the worlds income.  I’m not sure how that compares with the trade deal we had with the EU.  However it sounds good to me.

[andyofborg]

5 minutes ago, hauxwell said:

A nice bit of news I’ve just seen.  The UK is applying to Join a  free trade deal made up of

11 Asia and Pacific nations under post Brexit plans.  
 

This bit is for the economist on here, it’s expected to generate more than 13% of the worlds income.  I’m not sure how that compares with the trade deal we had with the EU.  However it sounds good to me.

it depends on your definition of good. 

 

for consumers, they generally mean lower or at least slower rising prices,  for manufacturing workers, imports and exports tend to get easier both ways so while some jobs are lost there are gains, though  it does tend to become easier to relocate production to less expensive places. services tend not to be included in these deals, so it kinda depends on what actually gets negotiated. for democracy its generally not so good, there is generally a dispute resolution procedure which revolves around a secretish tribunal and allows foreign corporations to sue soverign governments over domestic laws which affect their profits, the risks to the nhs related to the possible eu-us trade deal in 2016 were perhaps overblown but were real. 

[RJRB]

1 hour ago, hauxwell said:

A nice bit of news I’ve just seen.  The UK is applying to Join a  free trade deal made up of

11 Asia and Pacific nations under post Brexit plans.  
 

This bit is for the economist on here, it’s expected to generate more than 13% of the worlds income.  I’m not sure how that compares with the trade deal we had with the EU.  However it sounds good to me.

It’s applying to join an organisation of countries,the majority of which we already have deals with.

Just a bit of good news spin.