Just when Johnson thought it was all over….

True Dinahmo and I think everyone is sick of empty promises anyway. It may come down to personalities.

A new PM?

Whitewavemark2

???? love it

BREAKING: Boris Johnson’s spokesman says the PM is reviewing whether he still needs an independent ethics adviser, following Lord Geidt’s resignation.

No commitment to hire a replacement.

Well there's a surprise for us all!

Whitewavemark2, since Johnson clearly has no idea of what ethics are, in spite of having read Classical Greats at Oxford, when presumably he dipped into what Aristotle had to say on the subject, there is clearly no point in his wasting our money on an adviser.

Looking back, I can think of PMs I have regarded as incompetent, others whom I have disliked, and of course many with whose policies I have disagreed, but Johnson is the first one whom I have positively despised.

grumppa

*Whitewavemark2*, since Johnson clearly has no idea of what ethics are, in spite of having read Classical Greats at Oxford, when presumably he dipped into what Aristotle had to say on the subject, there is clearly no point in his wasting our money on an adviser.

Looking back, I can think of PMs I have regarded as incompetent, others whom I have disliked, and of course many with whose policies I have disagreed, but Johnson is the first one whom I have positively despised.

You and a lot of other people grumppa

Luckygirl3

Whitewavemark2

???? love it

BREAKING: Boris Johnson’s spokesman says the PM is reviewing whether he still needs an independent ethics adviser, following Lord Geidt’s resignation.

No commitment to hire a replacement.

Well there's a surprise for us all!

I think he’s beyond whitening the sepulchre.

Somebody on Politics Live today said that the Tory government having an ethics adviser is like a brewery having a temperance adviser!

If you never ask them for advice what’s the point in having such an advisor? None.

Johnson only listens to advise that agrees with him, largely giving permission to break the law.

Apparently he resigned over a trade issue. I guess more will come out but it wasn’t Bojo’s personal conduct this time although Geidt wasn’t happy with partygate.

It was because Johnson, or at least his team, asked him for advice about breaking his own code of conduct. It's all to do with Johnson's personal conduct.

One thought that has been offered is that it may be because of some donations to the Conservative party. How and what they are to do with Steel and the WTO, I can't work out.

I expect it will all come out over the next day or so.

DaisyAnne

One thought that has been offered is that it may be because of some donations to the Conservative party. How and what they are to do with Steel and the WTO, I can't work out.

I expect it will all come out over the next day or so.

Manipulating, or breaking, the WTO rules for a steel business owner who makes donations to Johnson, perhaps?

It’s steel import tariffs and the World Trade Organisation. UK producers want to keep tariffs which would be in “accordance with domestic law but could conflict with our obligations under WTO”. Need to find more info as to exactly what.

In fairness to Johnson he should support the steel industry it has been the victim of large scale dumping by China. Do we want a UK steel industry or not?, that can be applied to a lot of other industries as well.

Curiously, the UK blocked imposing tariffs when the EU wanted to do it.

I don't think Lord Geidt's resignation will have much effect if this is the given reason. It would have been more of a blow to Johnson if he'd resigned over Partygate or any one of a number of other issues.

Katie59

In fairness to Johnson he should support the steel industry it has been the victim of large scale dumping by China. Do we want a UK steel industry or not?, that can be applied to a lot of other industries as well.

Suppot, yes, but not as the result of taking bribes from the owners of steel companies, though. (If that was,indeed, what Geidt's resignation was about)

growstuff

Curiously, the UK blocked imposing tariffs when the EU wanted to do it.

I don't think Lord Geidt's resignation will have much effect if this is the given reason. It would have been more of a blow to Johnson if he'd resigned over Partygate or any one of a number of other issues.

Glad you remembered about the EU & Cameron, growstuff Inhad a vague recollection about that and was about to look it up.

I agree that if this was the cause of Geidt's resignation it isn't going to greatly upset voters...

Trying to get my head around what is going on here. My understanding:

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) aims for member countries:

To trade without discrimination — a country should not discriminate between its trading partners and it should not discriminate between its own and foreign products.

Trade should, as far as possible, be tariff free through negotiation.

Foreign companies, investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers (including tariffs and non-tariff barriers) should not be raised arbitrarily; tariff rates and market-opening commitments are bounded in the WTO

The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), set up under post-Brexit reforms to advise on trade policy, investigates whether new trade remedies are needed to prevent injury to UK industries caused by unfair trading practices and unforeseen surges in imports. These remedies usually take the form of additional duties on those imports. Their work helps to create a level playing-field for UK industries.

In June 2021, the TRA told the government that nine out 19 tariffs the government had imposed on steel imports could be removed because there was no evidence that British producers were being hurt by cheap foreign imports.

With political considerations after winning “red wall” seats from Labour, and amid intensive lobbying from the steel industry, Truss launched emergency legislation to overrule the TRA. Extended for the past year after this change, the 25% taxes above a set quota are due to expire on 30 June 2022, prompting a fresh push by industry to extend them again. Labour has also pushed for an extension.

The war in Ukraine has brought into sharp focus how the TRA has been able to use its independent powers to act swiftly to consider how Russia's quotas for steel that can be imported without safeguard tariffs can be reallocated to other countries. Their aim is to ensure UK manufacturing and construction industries can still source competitively priced steel without compromising the protection afforded by the safeguard for UK steel industry.

The issue seems to be the conflict between reallocating those quotas to other countries and any proposed extension to Truss’s emergency legislation beyond the end of June expiry date.

A further complicating factors could be that international steel exporters who could take up those former Russian quotas could be Tory donors e.g Lakshmi Mitall of ArcelorMittel and would lobby against Truss's tariffs claiming that they are in breach of WTO commitment to non-discrimimination between own and foreign products.

Am I undertanding this correctly?

My brain aches Brian.

25Avalon

My brain aches Brian.

That's why, if this is the resignation issue, it's not going to damage Johnson with the electorate.

(No disrespect meant to you, Avalon, it's just a complex and not emotionally charged issue, isn't it?)

In my opinion the UK should support its own strategic industries and protect them from cheap imports produced in countries that have minimal Labour regulations and less environmental controls. Those industries include Steel, Energy, Farming and these days include electronics, ( any others?, being dependant on imports has really bitten us this year.

Katie59

In my opinion the UK should support its own strategic industries and protect them from cheap imports produced in countries that have minimal Labour regulations and less environmental controls. Those industries include Steel, Energy, Farming and these days include electronics, ( any others?, being dependant on imports has really bitten us this year.

I don't think that WTO rules allow that do they?

Further, leave the WTO and we are truly alone...

MaizieD

25Avalon

My brain aches Brian.

That's why, if this is the resignation issue, it's not going to damage Johnson with the electorate.

(No disrespect meant to you, Avalon, it's just a complex and not emotionally charged issue, isn't it?)

Good point MaizieD. According to the DM Robert Peston of ITV had to apologise for falsely claiming Geidt quit over a plan to help Tory linked firms.

I also understood that our steel manufacturing industrywas affected by the closure of our coal mines, in the effort to get to net zero, as this increased their production costs giving overseas suppliers such as China advantage.