On Tuesday 4th May, France threatened to cut Jersey’s electricity supply over the UK’s perceived breaking of the Brexit deal, which caused Downing Street to send two naval vessels to the area. 95% of Jersey’s electricity supply comes from three underwater cables from France, so this threat carried no small force. Boris Johnson, not necessarily known for his diplomatic abilities, verbally signalled his ‘unequivocal support for the island of Jersey after a French boat rammed a British vessel.

The nautical conflict is the most recent instance of tensions arising from the shortcomings of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation deal (TCA), which was notoriously delayed in December over what was perceived at the time to be excessive scrutiny of British rights to fishing in Channel waters.

It was agreed that French fishermen, with a history of working in coastal waters, would be able to apply for licenses to continue fishing in these areas, but French fishermen argued that having to provide electronic monitoring data unfairly restricted their rights, especially given the fact that smaller boat operators are less likely to have the GPS equipment required.

Brussels accused the UK of not obeying the terms of the deal when the Jersey government introduced new fishing licenses, introducing new terms which limit the number of days and gear that can be used for fishing. Brussels stated that “Under the EU-UK TCA, any proposed management conditions have to be notified in advance to the other party, giving them sufficient time to assess and react to the proposed measures,” and that “The commission has dedicated to the UK that the provisions of the EU-UKTCA have not been respected. Until the UK authorities provide further justifications on the new conditions, these new conditions should not apply.”

French PM Emmanuel Macron sought to defuse tensions, as a senior politician described how retaliatory measures would be a “last resort”. But in a French journal entitled Journal du Dimanche, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune described how France “will not hesitate to take retaliatory measures in other areas, such as access to financial services” if pending fishing licenses are not approved.

Michel Barnier described Boris Johnson’s government as behaving like “buccaneers“, and “not for the first time”. “I think the French fishermen are right and they must be supported,” Barnier said. “The French authorities, the government and the European Commission must support these fishermen.”

Jersey’s Senator Gorst said that “We agreed that all sides remain committed to engaging with our partners in the EU and France to resolve the concerns arising from the issuing of fishing licenses under the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, which led to today’s protest”.

French boats left the harbour of St Helier at 2:30 am on Thursday, feeling that their plan to raise awareness of the situation on the international stage had been achieved. British naval patrol vessels remain in the area “to monitor the situation as a precautionary measure”.

Dimitri Rogoff, the President of the fishing association in Normandy, said that “The show of force is over, now it’s politics that has to pick up the baton”. No official resolution has been brought to the crisis, and it will now be up to diplomatic efforts to address any further tension, which is likely to continue until French fishermen feel problems surrounding the issuing of fishing licenses are addressed.

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Over 6,000 ravers visited a warehouse in Liverpool as part of a two-day event that began last Friday, at which partygoers were not required to wear masks or socially distance, but had to have a negative LFD (lateral flow) test before entry. By June, clubs will have been closed for 15 months, and it is hoped that with the success of the third UK lockdown and the rapid pace of the vaccination programme, that all restrictions will be able to be lifted by June 21st.

The nightlife industry is the UK’s fifth biggest sector and has taken a battering during the COVID-19 pandemic, with an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report finding that 51% of nightclub staff have been let go over the course of a year. By contrast, only 32% of bars, and 25% of pubs, have had to lay off staff, in recognition of the fact that these two types of venues, unlike clubs, have been able to be open intermittently throughout the various release of and re-entry into lockdown.

The event, led by events promoter Circus as part of their The First Dance series, took place at the Bramley-Moore Dock Warehouse and featured live performances by Jayda G, Sven Väth, the Blessed Madonna, and Saturday night’s headliner, Fatboy Slim.

The latter tweeted a positive review of the event: ‘Such a joyful night. Best government pilot scheme I’ve ever been involved in…Big thanks to @CIRCUSmusic @yousefcircus and everyone involved. If you were there please get your test next week the results could help more events get up and running sooner.’

On Sunday, Stockport guitar band Blossoms headlined an outdoor gig at Liverpool’s Sefton Park, to a crowd of 5,000 people. The ERP is designed to test the viability of outdoor entertainment with the anticipation of festivals returning later this summer, although, in recent days, fresh fears over the likelihood of these occurring has come to light amidst concerns over a lack of insurance in the event of forced cancellation.

Sport trials have already begun in the UK, with the FA Cup semi-final and final forming part of the pilots. Anna Chapman, a university student attending the semi-final, told BBC Sport: “I just wanted to get back in a stadium… Although it’s limited, it’s just to get back to experience the aura of a stadium, the emotions, the atmosphere. I’m looking forward to it… We have to show our text saying we’re negative to get in the stadium, so I do want to test negative so I can get in.”

As of Thursday 6th May, at least 52.1% of the UK population have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, equating to 37.4m people. The government hopes to have offered at least the first dose to all UK adults by the end of July. In England, people aged 40 and over are currently being invited to book a vaccination slot.

For those itching to return to the dancefloor but were not able to participate in the Liverpool trial last weekend, footage of the event, featuring dancers mingling together as if the pandemic had never happened, can be seen here.

The Music Venue Trust, however, has called on the government to test how smaller, grassroots venues will be able to open, especially those with fewer resources than large scale events to be able to operate in a COVID-safe manner. 20 of the UK’s grassroots venues are at risk of closing forever, not having benefited from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, if unable to open this summer.

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Grieve’s comments follow fresh on the heels of those made by the PM’s former advisor, Dominic Cummings, who around this time last year infamously broke lockdown to ‘test his eyesight’ by driving to Barnard Castle.

Cummings – who served as an unelected official in Johnson’s cabinet – attacked the PM in a post on his online blog when it was revealed that Johnson had private text messages with the British entrepreneur, James Dyson. Johnson, who has a long history of using his mobile phone for political activity, personally guaranteed Dyson that his employees would not pay additional tax rates if they came to the UK to make ventilators, claiming: ‘I will fix it tomo!‘

Cummings, who may himself be wary that the spotlight could quickly turn on his own conduct during the Brexit campaign, was accused by No. 10 of leaking Johnson’s texts to Dyson. Multiple government insiders expressed their bafflement over the PM’s handling of Cummings’ departure, which set the stage for what is being called “Cummings’ revenge”.

Having only left Downing Street in November, the PM’s former aide criticized Johnson as having behaved in a ‘mad and unethical’ manner, claiming that ‘it is sad to see the PM and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves’.

Cummings also criticised Johnson’s lack of transparency over how the PM paid for the renovation of his flat at No. 11 Downing Street, which reportedly cost up to £200,000, in which he lives with his fiance and child. Labour’s Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, told Andrew Marr on Sunday that the British public deserves answers: ‘Where are you getting money, Boris, to do up your flat?’

Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that Johnson paid out of his back pocket, but questions remain as to where he got the money. Cummings referred to a secret plan in which Johnson used political donations, which he described as ‘unethical, foolish, possibly illegal’.

It was revealed in an Opinium poll for The Observer that four out of 10 voters think the Conservatives are untrustworthy, in a snapshot taken before Cummings’ blog post on Friday. The Tories, who have enjoyed a period of favourable polling after the success of the vaccine rollout, still stand eleven points ahead of Labour (44% to 33%), but 37% of respondents described Johnson as mostly or completely corrupt, compared with 31% who described him as honest. 38% described the Conservative Party as a whole as corrupt, compared with another 31% who described it as honest.

This compares with a drastically lower 16% of respondents who described the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, as corrupt, and 40% who described him as clean and honest, with 22% of respondents describing the Labour Party itself as corrupt. Matt Hancock, who has been under fire for his distribution of Covid contracts and failure to disclose business links, was also described by 33% of respondents as corrupt.

Labour has described the Tories as ‘fighting like rats in a sack’ and showing ‘breathtaking contempt for the British public’. With local elections less than two weeks away, the potential political damage for the party will be revealed very shortly.

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The move comes after an agreement made between the United States and the Taliban in early 2020 which negotiated that American troops were to evacuate Afghanistan by May 1st 2021 if the Taliban pledged for less violence and agreed to cut ties with al-Qaeda.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Biden described “the way forward in Afghanistan”, pledging that whilst America plans to bring an end to military action in the region, ‘our diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue.’

Preempting criticism of the move – which indeed did materialise in the form of Republican Mitch McConnell’s condemnation of the decision as a ‘grave mistake’ – Biden claimed that military presence in Afghanistan has ‘never proved effective – not even when we had 98,000 troops in Afghanistan, and not when we were down to a few thousand.’

The US sent 100,000 troops into Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, and the war has persisted, as Biden noted, through the terms of four presidential terms: two Democrats, two Republicans. Biden himself opposed Obama’s “surge” in the conflict during his first term in office, and has a strong history of wanting to put an end to violence in the region.

Pledging ‘not to pass this responsibility onto a fifth’, Biden stated his intention to refine ‘national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in Afghanistan, but anywhere they may arise – and they’re in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere.’

Biden hopes to use diplomatic negotiation, rather than coercive force, to secure an Afghanistan that will never again be susceptible to control by international terrorist groups. Indeed, as the Taliban see Isis as an enemy, rather than an ally, there is a chance his hopes could ultimately transpire.

But Biden has been warned by his intelligence committee that the Taliban could regain control in the region within 2-3 years. In the wake of Biden’s conference, CIA Director William J. Burns said that the withdrawal comes with ‘significant risk’: ‘Both al-Qaeda and Isis remain intent on recovering the ability to attack U.S. targets, whether it’s in the region in the west, or ultimately in the homeland.’ Burns qualified this remark, however, stating that ‘After years of sustained counterterrorism pressure, the reality is that neither of them has that capacity today.’

America’s NATO allies have also agreed to remove troops from the region. NATO currently have 9,600 troops officially in Afghanistan, and have stated that the process of removing soldiers will begin on May 1st and will be complete ‘within a few months.’

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken claimed that the withdrawal of troops does not mean an end to humanitarian support, although his remarks only concentrated on anti-terrorism efforts, making no mention of NATO’s efforts in the education and liberation of women and girls, amongst other things. Blinken stated that ‘we have achieved the goals we set out to achieve… now it’s time to bring our forces home.’

800,000 American veterans have served in Afghanistan since 2001. Craig M Mullaney, who led troops in Afghanistan, wrote a moving reflection for The Guardian, describing the deep-rooted sense of ambivalence regarding the decision to remove troops, especially as after twenty years there has been no tangible sense of outcome in terms of victory and loss: ‘It’s fair to ask whether the end of the war affects how one views his or her small role in the effort. If we didn’t “win”, whatever winning means in a war like this, did we matter? Were the sacrifices in vain?’

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The Greensill Scandal – sufficiently developed that it has its own Wikipedia page – has exposed the all-too-cosy relationship between Whitehall and the private sector, and a political culture in which former MPs (and more senior holders of the office) can influence the next generation of cabinet members on behalf of multinational conglomerates.

David Cameron’s activity on behalf of Lex Greensill consists of at least four things: the adoption of a Greensill app (Earnd) by the NHS after the former PM took Matt Hancock out for drinks, texts to Rishi Sunak to help Greensill gain access to a Bank of England loan scheme, the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), virtually meeting with the German Ambassador and Deputy Finance Minister to introduce the same app to the German Civil Service; even an attempt to win over Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince.

The scandal around the company, which collapsed in March, is but the latest example of in a string of corruption disputes that have plagued British politics over the last thirty years (see the 1994 “cash-for-questions” scandal; the 1997 Bernie Ecclestone affair; the 2007 “cash-for-honours” affair). But unlike some of these examples, which saw police involvement, what is notable about the Greensill scandal is that Cameron seems to (almost) have gotten away with it.

No one has put it better than the economic historian Max Hastings, who wrote in The Times at the end of March: ‘No matter how his story comes out, and even if Cameron escapes legal sanctions, his reputation is blasted, his absence of judgment laid bare.’ Whilst Cameron will never work in politics again, and it is questionable what role he will have in future private sector operations after this affair, in the strictest legal terms, Cameron has not broken any rules.

But Cameron knows full well the implications of his activity on behalf of the firm. In a 2010 speech on lobbying just before he became Prime Minister, Cameron outlined the process of modern political lobbying: ‘We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.’

Boris Johnson’s government have claimed innocence given that Cameron’s attempts to secure Greensill access to the CCFF were ultimately denied by the Treasury, but whether this can be truly corroborated at a time when the current PM sought private donations to fund the renovation of his private Downing Street flat, is a matter of individual judgment.

Cameron’s actions, at the very least, expose the gaps in regulations on lobbying in Westminster and violate, if not the law, then at least the spirit of the principle that a private sector should remain separate from the control and distribution of public funds.

Johnson has called for an inquiry into the Greensill affair but has appointed Nigel Boardman – who sits on the board of the Arbuthnot Banking Group which employs former civil servants – to lead the report, raising questions as to how unbiased such an inquiry could be.

Indeed, George Eustice, the environment secretary, told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that the inquiry is not expected to make any recommendations, describing current regulations on lobbying as ‘quite robust’. An exasperated Sophy responded: ‘If it has no powers, is not going to make policy recommendations, what’s the point of it?’

The scandal has also called into question the role of Lex Greensill when Cameron was himself in office, who was given an office in Downing Street and allowed to work as an ambiguously titled “Senior Advisor” for his government. It has also exposed that another civil servant, Lord Heywood, was allowed to work for Greensill whilst still in Whitehall.

Amongst the COVID-19 pandemic, Boris Johnson’s conservative government has been repeatedly under fire over its lack of transparency with regards to the awarding of government contracts, with Matt Hancock giving his local pub landlord a £30m contract to produce vials for COVID tests despite his lack of previous experience, and most recently, it was revealed on Friday that Hancock failed to declare a conflict of interest in Topwood which has long-standing links with his family, at one time run by his sister.

This culture of secrecy at the heart of government, in which jobs, contracts, and public funds are awarded to friends, allies, and family, has led Labour to denounce the current government as ‘infected with widespread cronyism‘. Starmer criticized Johnson’s cabinet at PMQs on Wednesday for failing to look at the current lobbying rules, condemning ‘Tory sleaze’ and asking: ‘Does this prime minister accept there is a revolving door – indeed an open door – between his Conservative government and paid lobbyists?’

Johnson has been warned by the powerful chair of the Commons liaison committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin, that failure to act on the “sleaze crisis” will cause potential electoral damage with the “red wall” seats the Conservatives won from Labour in 2019. With more governmental figures being exposed as having links to the firm every day, it is unlikely we have heard the last of the affair.

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