Page 29 - Smith Commission News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

WITH all the bad news about Covid-19, Brexit and borders, there is at least one bit of excellent news to celebrate. Because of Brexit, we were was able to start vaccinating two weeks before any EU nation and order vaccine in sufficient quantity to treat the entire population. Owing to the involvement of the European Medicines Agency, the EU did not order vaccine until mid-November and then only from German and French companies, and not in sufficient quantities for the entire population. By contrast, the UK Government had placed orders for 340 million doses by the end of September, so that...

THE European Union has a common market, a single market, in which low-friction trade takes place across the continent. We get tariff free access to as much camembert, gorgonzola, halloumi and feta as we can eat. This Internal Market Bill, in contrast, is pathetically provincial. It sets its sights no further afield than Welsh cheddar and Cornish blue. Not only is the internal market tiny, it is also tawdry. The European Single Market provides relatively high standards of food safety, consumer protection, workers’ rights, and environmental protection. One of the sticking points in the Brex...

WHEN the Scottish Parliament was re-established in 1999, I was a student sitting in a common room yards from the Royal Mile and watching the ceremony unfold on a communal TV, hearing Concord and the Red Arrows roaring overhead as they simultaneously appeared on screen. I didn’t know what a Scottish Parliament would be, what it would look like or how it would function. I certainly didn’t think I’d ever sit in it. But, watching Donald Dewar’s opening speech, there was a line that touched a chord. “This is about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how...