London Calling is a weekly rundown of the top ten emerging issues from the past seven days shaping US-UK commercial relations.
London Calling is for global communication strategists and C-Suite executives.
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Memo: London Calling | Edition 12 | April 7, 2021
1. Scottish independence likely to win supermajority at Holyrood elections: Tactical voting for party leaders Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond could tip next month's election result in favor of independence.
Forecasts give the SNP 65 seats (+2), the Tories 24 (-7), Labour 20 (-4). Lib Dem 5 (unchanged), Greens 8 (+2), Alba 6, and All for Unity 1.
2. Alex Salmond is a gift to the Unionist cause: Alex Massie writes even if Salmond's new Alba party did not exist, pro-Union parties would find it necessary to invent them. Perhaps, of course, that is what has happened. Be that as it may, Salmond's emergence from the swampy waters of his own disgrace is the best thing to have occurred for Unionism in a long, long time.
3. Northern Ireland riots: The Times reports as many as 41 police officers in Northern Ireland have been injured in what a senior officer called senseless violence.
The causes are complex, but tensions over Brexit and the failure of prosecutors to take senior Sinn Fein politicians to court over the funeral for the former IRA leader Bobby Storey at the height of last year's lockdown have all played their part.
The White House has urged Britain and the European Union to preserve the Good Friday accord protecting peace in Northern Ireland after the EU launched legal action against Britain for changing trading arrangements Brussels says breach the Brexit divorce.
4. Brexit ignites the debate about a united Ireland: The FT reports Brexit created new trading arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland that have simultaneously unnerved unionists and, opinion polls show, emboldened nationalists who see the region's placement within the bloc's economic orbit as another stepping stone towards a united Ireland. The centenary of Ireland's partition falls on May 3.
5. Boris Johnson launches a mass testing program as the UK economy reopens: All retail, outdoor hospitality, and hairdressers can reopen on April 12 in England.
Plus, the Moderna COVOD-19 vaccine will be rolled out for the first time in the UK to residents in west Wales from Wednesday, the Welsh government has announced.
6. Boris Johnson is heading for a showdown with his own MPs after throwing his weight behind domestic "COVID passports," with the government saying it was "right" to provide a way for people to prove their virus status and reassure business.
The move came as the PM confirmed England would move to step two of the "road map" for lifting the lockdown.
7. The UK's leading airlines have called on PM Johnson to give them the green light for international travel within weeks.
The request was made by chief executives from British Airways, EasyJet, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair, Tui, and Virgin Atlantic and trade association Airlines UK.
UK ministers have repeatedly stated that the ban on foreign travel will be in place until at least May 17.
8. Forget equivalence, the City of London needs a post-Brexit plan: Helen Thomas writes the latest "deal" between the UK and the EU was meant to clear a path to a new way of operating for the City of London. In reality, it feels more like the end of the road. The memorandum of understanding agreed last month, depending on who in the City and Brussels you talk to, was minimalist, bare-bones, a nothing-burger.
The City generates 11 percent of the UK's tax revenues.
9. The Red Wall reconsidered: The truth behind the Tories' northern strongholds: The Economist reports both parties are hunting for big ideas that will allow them to hold (or win back) these seats. They include "leveling up" the British economy, delivering the opportunities of post-Brexit "global Britain," and unleashing a culture war over statues and flags.
10. Westminster polling intention:
CON: 42% (=)
LAB: 35% (-3)
LDM: 8% (+2)
SNP: 4% (=)
GRN: 3% (=)
-- Savanta ComRes on April 2-4 | Changes w/ March 19-21
