Brexit

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Amber Rudd has said she believes the risks of a no-deal Brexit are no more than a challenge that can be countered by government action, going back on her previous assessment in which she said it would cause “generational damage” to the UK. The work and pensions secretary, who kept her job when Boris Johnson became prime minister by renouncing her previously resolute opposition to no deal, said she still believed this would be much less preferable than a managed Brexit.

 Risks of no-deal Brexit can be managed by government, says Rudd | Politics | The Guardian

Arron Banks has been criticised after he appeared to wish harm upon Greta Thunberg as the 16-year-old activist set sail across the Atlantic in a solar-powered yacht on a zero-carbon two-week voyage. The controversial Brexit backer warned the teenager that “freak yachting accidents do happen in August” as he responded to a tweet by Green party MP Caroline Lucas who said Thunberg was carrying “the vital message to the UN that time is running out to address the climate emergency”. His comments sparked outrage among MPs, celebrities and academics, but he defended the remark in a series of late-night tweets on Wednesday in which he accused “lefties” of having no sense of humour.

 Arron Banks jokes about Greta Thunberg and 'freak yachting accidents' | UK news | The Guardian

the launch of a devastating report on the impact of a no-deal Brexit. The report rings the death knell for upland hill farming, but sheep are only the first in the line of fire: it also warns that half of Britain’s farms would go out of business and calls for a public vote before any Brexit. Today’s report, written by Séan Rickard, the former chief economist of the National Farmers’ Union – and launched by Farmers for a People’s Vote – is a forensic analysis of the effect of a crash-out Brexit, which the government will struggle to refute. The high proportion of UK farm exports to the EU would stop, barred by regulatory barriers and deterred by tariffs: 27% on chickens, 46% on lamb and 65% on beef. Cereals would be hit too. The government says it will remove or sharply lower all tariffs on imported food to keep prices down as the pound plunges. But this report shows how that import surge would wreck British farming.

 Brexiteers promised a new dawn for UK farming, not agricultural Armageddon | Polly Toynbee | Opinion | The Guardian