US Walruses Endangered. May's Brexit White Papers. Sue Marchant Mammoth Visit

EU - UK Trade talks resume at their usual breakneck speed

Most of the media are focused on President Trump's cryptic comments on 'Wait and See' for Iran and North Korea, or on Senator Senator Bob Corkers frank interview with scathing comments on the President. Hidden amongst this news is that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declines to list Pacific walrus and 24 other species as endangered. Despite acknowledging that the walruses, for example, which rely on sea ice, are facing unusual stresses, the FWS said the population was currently stable and could possibly adapt to the changing environment. This is yet another reversal of an Obama decision back in 2011, that the walruses were imperiled by climate change and should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. (The only reason for Pacific walruses not being listed at the time was the agency considering other at-risk animals to be of greater priority.

The Prime Minister made a speech in parliament today, clarifying her position after the talk in Florence. Two white papers were also introduced. They considered both trade and customs arrangements in the transition and Brexit. The documents are mainly aspirational, with little detail, basically reiterating the hope for relatively hassle free trade with Europe, without having to impose complex excise and VAT controls. One solution was to broadly adopt EU principles for trade with the EU and then to clone the existing EU trade deals and conditions with other countries. The Customs white paper was particularly illuminating, and not just because there was an awful lot of white space in the document.  It listed the current benefits of trade with the EU under the current arrangements and contrasted them with excise and VAT on goods from non-EU countries. 

Anticipating both a hard Brexit and delays in the processing of  goods traversing the border to the EU, the aim is to introduce new procedures that allow procession before reaching ports. There is also the mention of coming to a special arrangement with the EU to minimise paperwork and excise/VAT tariffs needed. See the papers here:

• Trade White Paper: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-our-future-uk-trade-policy
• Customs Bill White Paper: http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customs-bill-legislating-for-the-uks-future-customs-vat-and-excise-regimes

With both wings of the Tory party gearing up for Brexit and leadership infighting, Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested that Labour should take over the negotiations for the good of the country. The conservative benches roared with laughter, perhaps missing the point that the rest of the country actually wants better leadership in the negotiations.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the ball was now in the EU's court. The EU responded with, basically, you want to leave and initiated this - the ball's in your court to come up with concrete proposals.

Our day was enlivened by a visit by Sue Marchant from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. We had a good chat on common issues relating to health, parents and the ever chaninging face of broadcasting before getting on with an interview. The main interest was in my fascination with Mammoths and then segued into how we got into publishing books and encouraging people to tell their stories. People's stories was a shared passion. Fascinating how the interview was recorded using an i-phone. Not only was the sound quality good, the video quality was good enough for Sue's program facebook page.

Before we departed, I took another picture of Sue outside for the Album of 'Unusual Occurrences at Hall End'. This was later edited to show her meeting Moth the mammoth.