LyrArc Article Gist
The Novavax vaccine to be manufactured in Britain faces a shortage of 2000 litre bags, bags in which the vaccine cells are grown. The first of 60 million doses ordered by the British government are already in production in Teeside, a factory in Britain.

LyrArc Article Gist
British regulators say they have"absolute confidence" in the Pfizer vaccine after analysis of over 1000 pages of data on the vaccine. The vaccine was approved by the Medicine and Health care products Regulatory Agency. The first vaccines to be shipped to Britain are being packed in Belgium. Britain has secured 40 million doses enough for 20 million people. Vaccination will begin as soon as doses reach Britain. The NHS will prioritize, first care home staff and residents, then healthcare workers, followed by people over 80 years age. Clinically vulnerable people will get a jab alongside people ages 70-74. People with severe obesity and underlying conditions will get jab after people over 60 years, followed by people over 50 years. About 34% of the 66 million population of Britain is over 50 years age, which is about 22 million. This means the Pfizer vaccine ( with doses already secured by Britain enough for 20 million people) covers over 90% of these people or 19 million people and the 1.1 million workers in NHS. Rapid progress in vaccinating these people would make Britain the first country in the world to have done this, a remarkable achievement. By the end of the year the Oxford vaccine should also be available making it possible to proceed with vaccinating the rest of the population of 46 million people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Rachel Reeves is Shadow Chancellor in Britain, that is a way of saying Finance Minister when Labor currently in the Opposition forms a new government. Speaking at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC she says how Labour will bring about a transformation of Britain's economy with ambitions that borrows from and matches what Biden is doing in the US, and Scholz in Germany. This is very different from anything Britain has seen in its history. The Labour government of Clement Attlee made some institutional changes such as setting up the Bank of England as Britain's central bank in 1946, creating the structures that would help workers and families and the British economy recover from the war, and declaring in parliament that Britain would leave India by June 1948. Blair's response to the Thatcher government did not rival the changes brought by Attlee by any comparison. What Britain following the US is facing today is an FDR or Attlee moment because of the scale of changes needed to create an American or British economy that matches the aspirations of the people, and creating a meaningful role in the world economy and supply chains. Investments have to be made in public goods such as renewable energy, health, education and transportation infrastructure that have no parallel in history including that of FDR or Attlee. Biden is investing on a scale that is designed to overcome two decades of neglect of infrastructure and public goods such as education, health care, and public services. The same is true for Britain. The same is true for Germany and for the European Union.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
By August 6, Britain had 16 gold, 11 silver and 10 bronze medals at the 2012 Olympics in London, more than any nation except the U.S. and China. Andy Murray won the Olympic gold medal in tennis defeating Federer in straight sets. Britain won gold medals in cycling, sailing, long distance running. Runner Mo Farah won the 10,000 metre race. At one point Britain won three medals in one hour in track and field events as Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Farah won gold.

LyrArc Article Gist
Greg Ip provides useful insights into the nature of the economic recovery in Britain compared to the U.S. by 2015. The recovery in Britain has done better than in the U.S. in job creation, but has lagged behind in productivity gains. The labor force participation rate is 72% in Britain compared to 68% in the U.S., going back up to 2007 levels in Britain, whereas in the U.S. it has steadily declined with some older working class Americans too discouraged to look for work and left behind. Stagnant wage growth is a major issue in Britain, more so than in the U.S. where wage growth is slow. Economic austerity is not the main cause of the economic difficulties as the coalition government of prime minister Cameron relaxed earlier goals for austerity by 2012 with tax revenues and growth below forecasts. The structural budget deficit has been reduced by 6.6% of GDP since the peak, and the Office of Budget Responsibility estimates the UK economy was 1.5%-2% smaller by 2013 because of the austerity policies. Britain was also affected by the eurozone crisis to a larger degree than the U.S. Productivity remains a long term challenge- with needed investments in housing, education and infrastructure, improved lending for new business, and higher tech improvement exports....

LyrArc Article Gist
For the first time deaths in Britain from coronavirus exceed 100,000. Deaths reached 103,602 on January 27, 2021, with all of the UK in lockdown again. Britain now has the highest coronavirus deaths per million population in the world. Analysis in The Times looks at what went wrong.

LyrArc Article Gist
Comment by a former Tory leader, Sir Ian Duncan Smith, on negotiations with the European Union's Ursula Leyen, show how much the term sovereignty has become the word on which everything depends. Smith said on December 10 about the EU demands that Britain adhere to EU environmental and other rules after leaving the EU, "either Britain is sovereign, or it is not."  The word sovereign is discussed in this context in this Times analysis. The word comes from the old French word "sovereinete" during the period when the King's authority was being contested by feudal lords in 16th century France. The Oxford dictionary defines it as the authority of a state to govern itself, and to do this without outside interference. Tory leaders such as David Davis and others including Smith see this as meaning making your own laws. For the European Union to insist on its laws being primary and British law asked to conform with EU law making it secondary, would not only be outside interference, but also divided authority. Older French and British political philosophers Hobbes and Rousseau see this as divided authority. Even though the meaning has changed in modern times, the essential definition in the Oxford Dictionary remains undivided authority. Which is why these Tory leaders insist on the original definition as the right one. Behind the wrangling there is the sense among Leavers that Britain could do better in economic terms by setting its own direction, and doing business its way. How would a new economic power in India by 2030 affect Britain, would it create many more opportunities for Britain to grow because of its history and cultural ties. Could the relationship with the U.S. provide more opportunities for growth? What about French indifference and even disdain of Britain, does Britain have other options? Isn't the European Union merely a Franco-German alliance led politically by France and economically by Germany, and propelled by their three wars since 1871, with a bunch of European countries added in, and what has Britain got to do with it? Closer to the negotiations with Leyen there is also the question - isn't France trying to make certain with its demand that Britain not violate EU law, that Britain's ingenuity and free wheeling spirit outside the European Union does not let it grow faster than France? Where one gets Boris Johnson's immediate reply that Britain is better off not being stuck inside "EU's regulatory orbit."   At the other end of the world you have India with "Atman Nirbhar Bharat" calling for a self-reliant economy and taking the time for transitioning out of the trade relationship with China, at short term cost and long term advantage. Britain is closely watching India as it makes big strides in developing infrastructure, in renewable energy, and setting a bold vision for the future. Even France is mapping out a pathway to self-reliant economy as it looks at ways to bring production home after the pandemic. The pandemic has only reinforced the drive to be self-reliant. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
There is serious lack of depth in leadership in the Tory party today. Names proposed in The Guardian for Tory leaders after the July 4 election should Rishi Sunak have to resign are clearly short of what Britain needs in leadership. It depends on which Tory MP can hold on to his seat. Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Kim Badennoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Penny Mordaunt, all lack what is needed to lead the Conservatives on July 5, 2024. This has been true all through the last two decades.  David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Liz Truss who preceded Sunak for most of the last decade were also lacking in leadership. The decade wasted with Nigel Farage and David Cameron, Boris Johnson trying to get Britain out of the European Union has hurt Britain. Today most Britons want to go back to a Britain that is growing as part of the EU and Europe. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain sees the transmission rate for coronavirus in September "high or rising exponentially." The daily cases on September 21 reach 4,368 and the chief scientific and medical advisors to the government of Britain say this could double every 7 days if nothing is done to reach 50,000 cases a day.

LyrArc Article Gist
Prime minister Boris Johnson of Britain says in a Times article that Britain will honor its obligations to the people of Hong Kong and find an alternative to allow 350,000 overseas British passport holders in the city to live in Britain and a path for 2.5 million Hong Kong citizens.

LyrArc Article Gist
Without a final Brexit agreement Britain has the advantage of being able to use Northern Ireland, which would remain in the EU, as a way to send British goods into the European market including goods from companies subsidized by Britain. This and related reasons on Britain being able to set its own rules on the borders between the two Irelands, and on its trade and movement of goods, is why Boris Johnson says Britain does not absolutely need an agreement on Brexit with the EU.

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain's High Court gives a ruling on November 2, 2016, that the government must consult parliament, and that parliament has to approve the plan for Brexit before invoking Article 50. This means that the government has to lay out the details of its plans which make it harder to conduct negotiations. The Conservative Party also does not have a majority in the House of Lords. Legal experts say the decision which caught the government by surprise was expected from a constitutional law standpoint which looks at whether the sovereign or parliament is supreme in making such a decision. Members of parliament in general were not in favor of leaving the European Union, making this add an element of uncertainty about Brexit. Political experts say one way out for Theresa May who earlier announced that she would invoke Article 50 by March 2017, is to call a general election. Today she has 329 seats in a 650 member parliament, with many of the MP's opposed to Brexit. May's government is expected to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Boris Johnson looks ahead to a vision of Britain ten years from now as it did in the depths of the second world war, as Britain faces a second wave of the pandemic with doubling of cases to 14,000 new infections daily in 11 days. His speech was made to the Conservative Party conference.

LyrArc Article Gist
Labour party and Tories party have lost touch with working class people in Britain says The Guardian. The working class itself has more of a base in service sectors as the manufacturing sector has declined. Fewer and fewer leaders in both parties in Britain have a working class background and can identify with workers. 

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in the Economist after the Chequers meeting and the resignation of Boris Johnson and David Davis says this has improved May's position, yet there are dangers with the hardline Brexiters likely to continue their efforts to take Britain out of the EU. It says the Labor Party is hardly interested in what happens with the infighting in the Conservative Party, and the Labor Party would like to see the collapse of the May government with fresh elections later in 2018.

LyrArc Article Gist
Birthright Citizenship Case at the Supreme Court of the US.- Arguments live from Courtroom at SCOTUS. History shows that much of the 19th and 20th century was spent keeping Asians out of the US, even the Chinese who built the railroads. One of the Chinese whose parents came to the US Wong Kim asked to stay and the Supreme Court ruled in that individual and single isolated case in 1898 that he could stay. Only after JFK and LBJ was immigration gradually opened to Chinese and Indians and Asians in general. By the end of the 20th century this went to the other extreme from no Asians allowed to birthright citizenship for Asian mothers to obtain citizenship in this way just by arriving in New York, clearly with no justification. Even Britain abandoned this idea of birthright citizenship in 1981,  with parentage required uder a new law, one parent citizenship required, 10 years of residence required. Even this relevant fact was not cited by the Solicitor General of the US when he presented the case to the Court in opening summary on April 1, 2026. With Britain removing itself from this practice, it makes no sense to practice birthright citizenship as there is such thing as the Republican view of this- it is the universal view now of all civilized modern nations. With one or two exceptions for unique reasons ( a largely unpopulated country) such as Canada, which may also amend this law. The fact that Asians were not allowed for a century even after some "coolies" built the railroads in the US does not mean it is now time to go to the other extreme to welcome all who come even under the most egregious means. Asians themselves will recognize and support this, now that the "coolie" culture and colonialism is long gone and Asians are part of the fabric of this country. None of this will be mentioned at the Supreme Court just esoteric argument around what a term was accidentally inserted in the case for the one Chinese admitted under that case in 1898 - "Under the jurisdiction thereof." And lawyers will argue around technical points, one more reason for the public disbelief in the SCOTUS. Yet most Asians can be grateful for the process initiated by JFK and LBJ that opened up lawful immigration to the US for Asians, and have the curiosity and eagerness to learn the history of this new Nation and its boundless energies that reshaped our world, to learn about its European heritage and cultures, not ask for more such as birthright citizenship. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US Naval Blockade Day 10- US stock markets up 4.1% for 4 months, oil price $95 a barrel, prices at pump $4.02 down from $3.94 a month back. If all the US seeks out of an agreement is getting nuclear material out of Iran to keep nuclear weapons out of the Middle East based on 5 decades of war in the Middle East- Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and now Iraq/ Lebanon- this is to protect the people of the world from nuclear weapons, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, EU and other nations. This was the goal of Democratic administrations also, only the Republican approach is to err on the side of safe and take zero chances on future nuclear escalation while the Democratic administrations were based on trust, trust which is not a sure thing in the Middle East political and cultural environment. Some of DJT comments were bluster, but the basic position is the same- against nuclear proliferation for a safer planet. In this light the Naval Blockade only seeks not to block Iran's path to a prosperous economy and a bright future for its people. Iran's economy is affected in the same way that India's and China's, Africa's is affected, for upwards of 4 billion people compared to 100 million for Iran. Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Indonesia, among the poorest in the world, poorer by far than Iran. The economic impact on this part of the world is not part of Iranian perceptions. The economic impact on Gulf kingdoms an adversary of Iran is by comparison only a small fraction of the impact on the poorest countries. In this situation US is working to support the poorest segments of the Chinese people ( the part of China in the hinterland that is the one third not urbanized) and the Indian people through its cooperation and direct or indirect support. In this perspective the US economy stands as a steadfast support for US policy of fairness and respect for all nations since 1900- US is not one of the colonial powers such as Britain and France who created some of the artificial states Syria, Iraq, out of the remains of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in the interest of their Empires by 1921, and setup regimes in Iran for its oil, that are the source of today's problems and wars. No Empire of Britain and France promised Iran $28 billion as this Nation does today if Iran ships nuclear material out of Iran for a 100 percent shift to a peaceful Middle East that works for the modernization and industrial development of its economies in the interests of the people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Jennifer Hassan reminds readers of the significance of the date June 8, election day in Britain. On this day 104 years earlier Emily Wilding Davison lost her life running in front of the king's horse in the Epsom Derby, a desperate act to gain support for women's right to vote. In response women voted in large numbers leading to a turnout above 69%. 200 women were elected to parliament. Preet Kaur Gill, a Sikh woman became the first Sikh woman in parliament, representing the Labor Party in parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston.

LyrArc Article Gist
Tesco plans to hire 20,000 new employees to help improve the shopping experience at Tesco stores in Britain. This would also act as a"shot in the arm" for the UK economy, says Tesco UK CEO, Richard Brasher. Official figures show 2.67 millon people in Britain are unemployed, with unemployment at 22% for young people ages 16-24.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial in September 2014 says Britain plays an important role in the world as a role model democracy. The vote to keep Britain united affirms that there is room for different stories under one nation state. Devolution it says can bring power closer to the local regions, and can be a good thing. The challenge is for the British government to come up with a workable arrangement for devolution of powers. The world needs a united Britain.

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain has fallen way behind under Conservatives Tories misrule. On just about all indicators of the economy the US is ahead of Britain, on cost of living, on investment in infrastructure, on chips and science, on unemployment and on economic growth. The US economic growth was 2% compared to 0.5% for Britain.  Britain under the Tories over the last ten years lost so much ground fighting for Brexit and hurting it's economy. The Tory party is itself torn apart again today by Farage's Reform party, much of it from poor leadership- Cameron, Boris Johnson, Sunak. The result today is that Labour's Starmer says he has a 22 billion pound gap in the Budget that the Tories Conservatives have left him, a hole he says that will lead to Labour cutting winter fuel payment for pensioners this winter.  The US with president Biden is so far ahead of Britain with $1 trillion in investments taking place under the Inflation Reduction Act and $53 billion under the CHIPS and Science Act. Harris plans to build 3 million homes and offer $100 billion to small business to spur growth. There is just no comparison and owes much to president Biden and Harris, and to senior Republicans who supported the administration on the economy. ...