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After more than a week of disruption, the final lorry drivers who became stuck in their vehicles in Kent over Christmas are set to cross the Channel and return home to France and beyond. The backlog of lorries – of which there were 1,500 lined up along the M20 at one point last week – was caused by France temporarily closing its borders on 20 December in response to the discovery of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant in the UK. But the Department for Transport (DfT) said on Monday that the systems put in place to return traffic flow to normal were keeping pace with demand.It comes after the PA news agency reported that some 3,000 hauliers were waiting to enter the Eurotunnel or gain access to the Port of Dover on Christmas Day evening. Despite restrictions being eased on 23 December and borders reopening, the large accumulation of lorries meant thousands have remained stuck in Dover and Folkestone for over a week. Under new legislation, drivers seeking to enter France from Britain must now show proof of a negative Covid test taken in the last 72 hours. As of Monday, a total of 21,849 coronavirus tests on hauliers had been carried out with 66 positive results – which amounts to just 0.3 per cent of those tested so far. Some of the stranded drivers were held at Manston Airport during Christmas week where they waited to receive tests before heading to Dover to board ferries. DfT said there were now only 59 heavy goods vehicles left across Manston and the M20 waiting to cross to France, and added that as of Monday a total of 14,659 HGVs had departed via Dover and the Eurotunnel since both were reopened.Transport secretary Grant Shapps tweeted on Sunday that the M20 motorway had been reopened, but warned those travelling to Kent to follow updates from Kent County Council and Highways England.“Current delay for Eurotunnel & Ferry is 30mins for test result,” he added.Volunteers from local communities – including the Salvation Army, Muslim group Al-Khair Foundation, HM Coastguard and Kent County Council – delivered thousands of warm meals and water to the drivers stuck in their vehicles in the days leading up to Christmas. Tesco also provided 600 food parcels, 24 pallets of staples and thousands of sausage rolls, which were sent out on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.Images of lorry drivers coming together to celebrate Christmas did the rounds on social media, with one particularly memorable image (as seen above) showing a group of men who had made a Christmas tree out of beer cans.  More

Former diplomat Andy Wigmore has told of his family’s last-minute dash from a skiing holiday following the news hundreds of Britons broke Covid guidelines to flee Switzerland and avoid having to quarantine there. Mr Wigmore, a well-known Leave.EU figure, was with his family at the popular Swiss Wengen ski resort when he was informed that a mandatory 10-day quarantine was coming into effect in the area, on 22 December, following the discovery of the new coronavirus variant. It was at this point the Brexiteer and his family decided to travel home to Oxford, in the UK, via France immediately. Taking to Instagram on 23 December, the father-of-two posted that he was among “a number of Brits” who managed to “escape Switzerland”. He said he had arrived in London that morning after catching a train from Paris. “Just like the Sound of Music, the Wiggy von Trapps decided to make a run for it, from the slopes to the Swiss border in less than 3 hours,” he said. “Ended up in Paris at midnight and then caught the last EuroStar to London this morning, just in time for Christmas.”Mr Wigmore, his wife and two children had been in Switzerland for a “few days”, he wrote on Instagram – but cut the trip short after news of the quarantine broke. Speaking to The Independent on Monday night, Mr Wigmore said he had done “nothing wrong” and that he and his family had tests “before and after the trip, which were negative”. “Switzerland was open when we went and there were no restrictions on travelling there, we all had tests before departure and on our return. I am part of the Oxford Vaccine trial so I’m fully aware of responsibilities re travel etc,” he said.About his journey back to Britain, Mr Wigmore said a “Swiss friend” advised the family to “make a run for it before the quarantine became official and at that point we decided to get across the Swiss border into France using the train network”. He said the group then went to Paris and got “the Eurostar to London”.“I have a house in Wengen and have done so for over 20 years. I visit 3 to 4 times a year,” he added.It comes after separate reports over the weekend that some 200 Britons holidaying in Verbier – also in Switzerland – decided to abandon a coronavirus quarantine and return home. According to a spokesman in Valais canton, 420 British guests had been booked into Verbier accommodation before Christmas and only about a dozen remained. More

Margaret Thatcher branded EU plans for a single currency as a “rush of blood to the head” newly-released archive materials have revealed.The former prime minister also criticised the “politburo” in Brussels and vowed not to be dictated to during talks with her Irish counterpart.The Tory leader likened giving away powers of taxation to gifting sovereignty to Europe, Dublin archives from 1990 show.Evidence of Thatcher’s dislike for the EU comes just days after Britain secured a Brexit trade deal with Brussels.The Irish government note recorded that Thatcher said: “In talking of a single currency, Delors must have had a rush of blood to the head.“We are not going to have a single currency.”Jacques Delors was European Commission president at the time and an advocate of deeper integration.The Tory leader was engaged in discussions with Irish premier Charles Haughey in June 1990, state files showed.She wanted to turn the commission into a professional civil service, without the power of initiative, whose job would be to service the Council of Ministers which represents national governments in Europe.And she told Haughey that cultural differences between member states over the internal market in goods would remain.“The Italians will continue not to pay taxes.”Boris Johnson announces historic Brexit trade deal with EUShe accused the European Court of Justice of giving more powers to the commission.“The days of appointed commissioners must be numbered.“We must give power to the Council of Ministers.“I am not handing over authority to a non-elected bureaucracy.”Taoiseach Haughey said the commission was contacting Irish local authorities and inviting groups over to Brussels.“They are going behind the back of the government.”Thatcher said the deciding body must be the Council of Ministers.“We must take away the power of initiative of the commission.“I am getting completely fed up with the European Community trying to tie us up with bureaucratic regulations.”At the time, Soviet Union control over eastern Europe was collapsing.The prime minister added: “We are trying to get eastern Europe to accept democratic standards and here we are recreating our own politburo.“They are just too much.“She said she would not accept a central bank of the 12 EU member states and wanted to keep inflation down by allying with the deutschmark.Thatcher noted Germany had experience of inflation – hyper-inflation prompted by printing of paper money heralded the rise of Nazism – and kept its currency like a gold standard, where cash had a value directly linked to that of the precious metal.She said the central bank of the 12 would not have the same will to fight inflation as the Germans had.“They would think of economic growth and jobs and inflation as equal objectives and mix them all up.“All we want is an effective gold standard and the deutschmark provides us with that.”The newly published papers are contained in National Archives file reference number 2020/17/31. More

The UN’s child protection wing will for the first time intervene to support those at risk of hunger in the UK following the “unprecedented” impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable communities.Unicef has put its funding behind a scheme designed to provide breakfast boxes to 1,800 families over the course of the Christmas holidays – marking the first emergency response in the UK by the organisation since it was founded in 1946.It comes as charitable groups and appeals including The Independent’s Help the Hungry campaign work to tackle surging rates of food poverty across the UK brought on by the impact of the pandemic.Unicef’s £25,000 grant will see food distributed through schools to vulnerable children in Southwark, south London, across the winter break by charitable group School Food Matters.The programme will also provide 6,750 breakfasts to families over the February half-term breakThe UN agency warned that the pandemic is the most urgent crisis affecting children since the Second World War.Anna Kettley, director of programmes at Unicef UK, said: “This is Unicef’s first ever emergency response within the UK, introduced to tackle the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus crisis and reach the families most in need.“The grant for School Food Matters will address the gap in current provision for children, providing approximately 1,800 children with breakfast bags during the Christmas holidays and February half-term.“This funding will help build stronger communities as the impact of the pandemic worsens, but ultimately a longer-term solution is needed to tackle the root causes of food poverty, so no child is left to go hungry.”Unicef’s intervention serves as a stark reminder of the growing levels of food poverty in the UK – a crisis that The Independent’s Help The Hungry campaign has worked to tackle since the beginnings of the outbreak, with more than 100,000 meals given out to vulnerable people by our appeal partners.Our campaign has partnered up with The Felix Project, one of the UK’s largest food redistribution charities, which uses an army of volunteers to save high-quality food destined for the dustbin and get it to those in need.Nutritious ingredients from the charity are then handed over to the team at With Compassion, who cook up 1,000 free meals a day to offer people across London the sustenance and the comfort that comes with healthy, delicious food.The Labour Party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said: “The fact that Unicef is having to step in to feed our country’s hungry children is a disgrace and Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak should be ashamed.“We are one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should not have to rely on humanitarian charities that are used to operating in war zones and in response to natural disasters.“Charities and businesses across the country have done a brilliant job stepping in where the government has failed, but it should have never come to this.”A spokesperson for the prime minister said the government had taken “substantial action” to “ensure that children don’t go hungry through the pandemic” as well as pledging £16m “not too long ago” to food distribution charities.This November and December we will be delivering food directly to 1,000 people a day through our partner With Compassion. Please donate here to help us do all we can to ensure no one goes hungry this Christmas.  More

A leading panel of tax experts, academics and policymakers have recommended a “one-off wealth tax” as a way for the UK to repair the damage wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and public finances.The Wealth Tax Commission, a panel of experts from LSE and the University of Warwick, found that such a measure would raise about a quarter of a trillion pounds over five years, and said it should be considered rather than levying increased income tax or VAT.A wealth tax would see individuals taxed only once based on the net wealth they owned at the time of reckoning, the commission said, and could raise up to £260bn if levied at 5 per cent on those with assets worth £500,000 or more. The commission’s report found that an alternative threshold such as £2m or above would raise a third of that, about £80bn in total.At thresholds of £500,000 and £2m per person, a wealth tax would respectively cover 16 per cent and 1 per cent of the adult population in the UK.The tax would apply to a person’s total wealth including their home and any other properties, pension pots, business holdings and bank accounts.The commission proposed that the one-off wealth tax should be levied with a provision allowing individuals to pay the tax in instalments over a number of subsequent years at a rate of 1 per cent.“This would reduce the cost in a single year, but the amount of tax they pay would be based on their wealth on the initial assessment date,” said the experts in their report.  
The commission believes that it would be economically efficient, when compared to increased income tax for example, because it would be based on wealth at one point in time. Greater income tax on employment can reduce the incentives to work, the report argues, while capital taxes can staunch investment.  To address concerns that a new wealth tax could hurt people who are “asset rich but cash poor” and would be forced to sell their home to pay the tax bill, the commission said the one-off levy could be spread out over five years and people could appeal for more time to pay.The idea of wealth tax was first suggested by Cambridge economist Nicholas Kaldor in the aftermath of the Second World War, but it was first imposed in 1981 when then-chancellor Geoffrey Howe applied a one-off tax of 2.5 per cent of the banks’ non-interest-bearing current account deposits. Prime minister Margaret Thatcher later justified the tax on the basis that the “banks had made their large profits as a result of our policy of high-interest rates rather than because of increased efficiency or better service to the customer.”One-off taxes have been used after major crises in other countries, including France, Germany and Japan after the Second World War. More recently, Ireland levied a one-time wealth tax after the 2008 financial crisis.  In fact, the Labour Party’s top leader Keir Starmer in July said that the government should “look at the idea of a wealth tax”. The party has since backtracked on the idea, arguing that there should not be an increase in taxes while the economy is weak.  However, a YouGov poll in May found that 61 per cent of people would approve of a wealth tax on those with assets of more than £750,000.   More

England’s lockdown came to an end on 2 December and was replaced with a new tiered system of coronavirus restrictions.The new rules mean that more than 32 million people will be placed in tier 2 — allowing pubs and restaurants to sell alcohol inside their premises, but only if a “substantial meal” is purchased by customers.The lockdown regulations have reignited a debate about what exactly constitutes a “substantial meal”. Is it as simple a buying a few bags of crisps? A pasty? Or a more filling meal, such as fish and chips?Some publicans are scrambling to put together a food offering to lure customers back in a key month of trade, while people on social media once again debated what a substantial meal actually consists of and how it could prevent Covid-19 infections.The online bafflement is not cleared up by government guidance, which is frustratingly vague on what sort of meal you need to order.However, the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, previously broached the topic in October and ruled out a packet of crisps. He said that a cornish pasty could be considered a “normal meal” if it was ordered with a side salad and chips.Mr Jenrick clarified on LBC in October: “It would be like a main course, rather than, say, a packet of crisps or a plate of chips.”As England prepared to re-enter the tier system following the second lockdown, the pasty gave way to Scotch eggs as a flashpoint in the debate around what constitutes a substantial meal.Environment secretary George Eustice suggested the sausage and egg combination “probably would count as a substantial meal if there were table service”. However, by the next morning Michael Gove told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the breadcrumb-coated egg was “probably a starter”.He went on to tell LBC “a couple of scotch eggs is a starter, as far as I’m concerned”.However, by the next morning Michael Gove told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the breadcrumb-coated egg was “probably a starter”.He went on to tell LBC “a couple of scotch eggs is a starter, as far as I’m concerned”.He added: “I myself would definitely scoff a couple of Scotch eggs if I had the chance, but I do recognise that it is a substantial meal.”The health minister, Matt Hancock, continued the debate on Wednesday, arguing a substantial meal is a “well-established concept in hospitality”.Mr Hancock told Sky News: “A substantial meal is a well-established concept in hospitality. Of course, a Scotch egg that is served as a substantial meal – that is a substantial meal.”What we need to do is not try to push the boundaries, we all need to take responsibility for our own actions.” He added: “The rules are the two different types of hospitality – those that obviously serve meals and those that don’t.”So, a starter can be a substantial meal, you can have a Scotch egg as a starter.” He added: “The rules are the two different types of hospitality – those that obviously serve meals and those that don’t.So, a starter can be a substantial meal, you can have a Scotch egg as a starter.”Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg also raised the scotch egg in parliament as the once-humble pork product grew increasingly notorious.“We better finish on Scotch eggs because I know it is a matter of great interest,” he told MPs. “I’ve been looking up the elephant bird. Did you know the elephant bird’s egg – it is now extinct – could weigh up to 22lbs, which is quite a big egg. And if you turned that into a Scotch egg, I think that would unquestionably be a substantial meal.”If, on the other hand, you were to take a quail egg and make that into a Scotch egg, I think that would be a mere snack.”And, in between, the great British people will make their mind up along with publicans up and down the country as to whether it is a snack or a substantial meal.”The Local Government Association (LGA) has said the rule is “open to interpretation”.It added: “It would be difficult to argue that a single sausage roll or a snack pork pie constitutes a main meal, whereas if it was served plated with accompaniments such as vegetables, salad, potatoes it could be considered substantial.” The guidance also does not state how many alcoholic drinks you are allowed to order with your food.However the term ends up being defined, the PM’s spokesman did say how long people could stay in the pub after purchasing a meal.They said:  “We’ve been clear that, in tier 2 I believe, that you need to have a substantial meal if ordering any alcohol and it remains the case that the guidance says that once the meal is finished, it is at that point.” More

Drinkers in England could get around the government’s limitations on ordering in a round under tier two coronavirus restrictions by purchasing a scotch egg, a government minister has suggested.New coronavirus rules to come into effect on 2 December rule out the sale of alcohol without a ‘substantial meal’ alongside it – leading to confusion from punters and publicans alike on what constitutes a large enough food offering.Environment secretary George Eustice has suggested the British pub stable snack made up of an egg, sausage meat and breadcrumbs could be sufficient to qualify as a meal.“I think a Scotch egg probably would count as a substantial meal if there were table service”, he told LBC.“Often that might be as a starter but yes I think it would, but this is a term that’s understood in licensing since it is, you can have the concept of a table licence for alcohol that also requires you to serve a substantial meal.“That is the model that is being followed.”It comes after housing secretary Robert Jenrick fuelled debate last month by suggesting the same logic could be applied to pasties.“If you would expect to go into that restaurant normally, or pub, and order a plated meal at the table of a Cornish pasty with chips or side salad or whatever it comes with, then that’s a normal meal,” he explained in October.Mr Eustice added that the idea of a substantial meal was “understood very much by the restaurant trade,”  despite reports to the contrary.Tim Foster of the Yummy Pub company wrote on Twitter: “I’ve been in this game for 22 years – I have never used the term ‘substantial meal’ until I saw it in Covid government guidelines”.
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England’s lockdown will be ending on Wednesday and replaced with a new tiered system of coronavirus restrictions.The new rules mean that more than 32 million people will be placed in tier 2 — allowing pubs and restaurants to sell alcohol inside their premises, but only if a “substantial meal” is purchased by customers.The lockdown regulations have reignited a debate about what exactly constitutes a “substantial meal”. Is it as simple a buying a few bags of crisps? A pasty? Or a more filling meal, such as fish and chips?Some publicans are scrambling to put together a food offering to lure customers back in a key month of trade.And social media once again debated what a substantial meal actually consists of and displayed confusion at the new tier rules and how they prevent Covid-19 infections.The online bafflement is not cleared up by government guidance, which is frustratingly vague on what sort of meal you need to order.However, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick did previously broach the topic in October and ruled out a packet of crisps.He said that a cornish pasty could be considered a “normal meal” if it was ordered with a side salad and chips.Mr Jenrick clarified on LBC in October: “It would be like a main course, rather than, say, a packet of crisps or a plate of chips.”Since then, there has been no further clarification and the Local Government Association (LGA) said  the rule is “open to interpretation”.It added: “It would be difficult to argue that a single sausage roll or a snack pork pie constitutes a main meal, whereas if it was served plated with accompaniments such as vegetables, salad, potatoes it could be considered substantial.” The guidance also does not state how many alcoholic drinks you are allowed to order with your food.And George Eustice, the environment secretary, has suggested alongside his ministerial colleague’s suggestion of a pasty, another picnic staple could be considered substantial enough to merit a pint.“I think a Scotch egg probably would count as a substantial meal if there were table service”, he told LBC radio.“Often that might be as a starter but yes I think it would, but this is a term that’s understood in licensing since it is, you can have the concept of a table licence for alcohol that also requires you to serve a substantial meal.“That is the model that is being followed.”However the term ends up being defined, the PM’s spokesman did say how long people could stay in the pub after purchasing a meal.They said:  “We’ve been clear that, in tier 2 I believe, that you need to have a substantial meal if ordering any alcohol and it remains the case that the guidance says that once the meal is finished, it is at that point.” More