Brexit deal agreed

Quoted from Humbercod

The fact we had access under pre- withdrawal doesn’t hide the fact that we still had to ask permission! But don’t be fooled into thinking we were completely free on an emergency vaccine’s as Ireland are now finding being denied the Oxford vaccine at the click of a dirty EU finger -
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s.....-brexit-19672792.amp

??


"The Facts

When the UK medicine regulator approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine, it made a decision that is available to all EU member states.

There is provision in European law, still in effect in the UK now, to allow temporary and limited use of a non-EMA approved vaccine (or other medicine) in limited cases such as to fight a pathogen or a nuclear incident."

The EU are now showing their true colours......

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/remainers-turn-on-the-eu

The EU are doing their best for the members of their club, as you'd expect. We're not in the club any longer so, from the viewpoint of the Commission (who are getting a lot of flak from within the EU due to their handling of the vaccine deals), it will go well for them to play hardball and be seen to be trying to keep as many vaccines in the EU as possible. I think it's probably meant to be a negotiating ploy to ensure that they get plenty of the AZ vaccines from the UK in exchange for the Pfizer vaccines produced in the EU.

If the boot was on the other foot, you can absolutely guarantee that UK.Gov would have been doing the same.

However, they've certainly overreached as it's a real blunder to mess around with the Northern Ireland protocol out of the blue like this. I reckon it was intended as a negotiating ploy but they've only successed in enraging pretty much everyone in Ireland with the move and it wouldn't surprise me to see them row it back extremely quickly.

Ultimately, we need some of the Pzifer vaccine to complete the second dose for all of those already vaccinated and the EU need some of any vaccine to get on with things. I'd imagine there will end up being some sort of a fudged deal where they get a bit more of the AZ vaccine than we get the Pfizer vaccine coming the other direction.

Well, the U-turn didn't take long:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55865539

They screwed up royally there. Probably won't help their negotiations for more doses of the AZ vaccine.

An absolute disasterclass in diplomacy. Seems to have been a decision taken by an individual without consulting anyone else. Wonder if any world leaders (possibly newly elected) had a word with NI and GFA involved? Not sure the EU want the AZ vaccine now that the great scientific minds of Macron and the German Govt have questioned the testing either. Weird tactics all round.

The only thing I can imagine is that they must have become absolutely convinced that the pharmaceutical companies are surreptitiously shifting vaccines out of the EU factories to sell elsewhere in the world (where higher prices have been agreed). The Belgians inspected documents at the Pfizer factory today (or was it yesterday?) as well. It's the only thing that seems to explain the pumped up rhetoric and badly-judged actions taken by the Commission over the past couple of days.

I wonder if we'll ever find out what really happened here?

Interesting reading here:

https://www.theguardian.com/so.....e-covid-vaccine-race

If the article is accurate, the EU were basically much too cautious about supporting the production of the vaccines for the sake of just a few billion Euros which is an absolute drop in the ocean for the economic bloc that side. Hence, they are suffering more with delays we're seeing now due to lower yields from the AZ/Pfizer vaccines.

Mind-boggling that they didn't just take a bit of a gamble (as did the UK and the US) and push some money to get the show on the road much sooner. It actually seems as though it's one thing that our government got right despite their many failures in other areas.

Quoted from Maringer

Interesting reading here:

https://www.theguardian.com/so.....e-covid-vaccine-race

If the article is accurate, the EU were basically much too cautious about supporting the production of the vaccines for the sake of just a few billion Euros which is an absolute drop in the ocean for the economic bloc that side. Hence, they are suffering more with delays we're seeing now due to lower yields from the AZ/Pfizer vaccines.

Mind-boggling that they didn't just take a bit of a gamble (as did the UK and the US) and push some money to get the show on the road much sooner. It actually seems as though it's one thing that our government got right despite their many failures in other areas.

Fair play Maringer! Gritted teeth no doubt but even you can’t defend the indefensible. They’ve dropped their guard showing all the Nazi credentials I and many others have been saying for many years.
Surprised the other fishy Remainers are so quite today because if Trump had behaved like this they’d of been frothing at the mouth to get on here.😄

The EU is lashing out because it is becoming more apparent that they are a bloated, slow-moving relic, and more and more people are seeing them for what they are - unreliable bullies.

The noble aims when the project started have evaporated into a culture of mismanagement, bloated bureaucracy, power struggles and ludicrous expenditure for those with their noses in the trough.

The British people had the good sense to say thanks, but no thanks.

The club is so mismatched, where a lot of members have not put any money into the project but are fed handouts; that cannot possibly work in the longer term, can it? There are already riots in some EU capitals as they realise the failings, and more and more countries will start to express their disquiet when the freebies start to dry up.

Why do so many believe the facts that are brought out ?

There are so many truths and lies out there just believe what you want to believe.

Me ? I don't believe most of what the mainstream news people bring out.

I am more inclined to wait and see what reality brings.