First train from the UK to China completes its 7,500-mile journey

Business reporter(wp/es):

The first rail freight service from the UK to China has completed its 7,500-mile journey.

The train carrying 30 containers filled with British produced goods arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu on Saturday.

It was greeted by traders and shipping company officials when it arrived at Yiwu West station after departing London on April 10 carrying items such as vitamins, baby products and pharmaceuticals.

The first freight service from China to the UK arrived in London in January.

The service, which is cheaper than air freight and faster than sea freight, is part of China’s One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes with the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago.

Yiwu Timex Chairman Timmy Feng told Reuters TV channel: "This freight train is a reflection of the achievements of trade."

After leaving London the bright red train passed through seven countries -- France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan -- before arriving in Yiwu at about 9.30am local time on Saturday.

For Britain, the train is part of an effort to strengthen trade links with the rest of the world as it prepares to leave the European Union in two years' time.

May Day report by MPs damns growing UK gig economy

Business reporter(wp):

Companies in Britain’s growing gig economy are forcing workers into bogus self-employment and free-riding on the welfare state, an influential committee of MPs has said.

In a damning assessment of modern employment practices, the parliamentary work and pensions committee calls on the next government to bring laws up to date so that workers are better protected from exploitation. Given concerns about the rising number of workers classed as self-employed contractors with no access to sick benefit or holiday pay, it wants the default status for people in the gig economy to be “worker” rather than “self-employed”.

In an inquiry now curtailed by Theresa May calling a snap election, the committee questioned companies including Uber, Amazon, Hermes and Deliveroo that use self-employed workers widely. It also heard from their drivers.

An abridged report into the committee’s findings on Monday accuses companies of propagating a myth about self-employment and rebuffs their claims to be providing flexibility for workers. 

The committee, led by the Labour MP Frank Field, criticised such arguments as fiction. It also highlighted that forcing people into self-employment as couriers, taxi drivers and other roles, rather than taking them on as employees, was depriving the state of badly needed tax revenues and creating an extra burden on the welfare system.

“Companies in the gig economy are free-riding on the welfare state, avoiding all their responsibilities to profit from this bogus ‘self-employed’ designation while ordinary taxpayers pick up the tab,” said Field.

“This inquiry has convinced me of the need to offer ‘worker’ status to the drivers who work with those companies as the default option. This status would be a much fairer reflection of the work they undertake which seems to fall between what most of us would think of as ‘self-employed’ or ‘employed’. It would also protect them from some of the appalling practices that have been reported to the committee in this inquiry.”

The committee’s report found self-employment could indeed be “genuinely flexible and rewarding for many”, but that people on employment contracts were also able to work flexibly. “Flexibility is not the preserve of poorly paid, unstable contractors,” said the report, published ahead of Wednesday’s dissolution of parliament.

Field said: “It is clearly profit and profit only that is the motive for designating workers as self-employed.”

The report comes ahead of the government’s Taylor review of modern working practices, which is likely to recommend that self-employed gig economy workers should be granted greater protections and benefits.

The MPs’ report will pressure companies further to change staffing practices. It follows an employment tribunal ruling last year that found Uber drivers were wrongly classified as self-employed and should be classed as workers.

Uber plans to challenge the ruling in the courts later this year, and in the meantime has sought to quell criticism of its practices. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing firm said last week that it would start to offer its drivers in the UK sickness cover in exchange for a £2 per week fee.

Field dismissed Uber’s move, saying the plan was “just another way of pushing costs onto the workforce”.

Uber said: “The vast majority of drivers who use Uber tell us they want to remain their own boss as that’s the main reason why they signed up to us in the first place. But we know drivers want more security too, which is why we are investing in a heavily discounted illness and injury cover offer for drivers.”

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced plans to increase those contributions in his maiden budget in March, but was quickly forced into an embarrassing U-turn following a backbench revolt.

Monday’s report also notes that self-employed people and employees receive almost equal access to the services funded by national insurance contributions “yet the self-employed contribute far less”. “The incoming government should set out a roadmap for equalising employee and self-employed national insurance contributions,” it said.

Juncker tells May he is '10 times more sceptical than before' on Brexit

Pic:Theresa May greets Jean-Claude Juncker ahead of a ‘very constructive’ meeting at Downing Street
Political reporter(wp):

A devastating account of a dinner in Downing Street between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker has emerged, claiming the European commission president ended discussions about a potential Brexit deal by telling the British prime minister: “I’m leaving Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before.”

Those close to Juncker are said to have subsequently concluded that the chances of Brexit talks failing were now “over 50%”. An EU spokesman declined to comment, except to point out that Juncker had told reporters at a summit on Saturday that the dinner was a “very constructive meeting, a friendly atmosphere”.

The detailed account of the meeting on Wednesday between May and Juncker, who was accompanied by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and key staff, suggests the two sides are dangerously divided on key issues such as Britain’s divorce bill and the future rights of EU citizens.

According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, May is said to have told Juncker the UK did not legally owe a penny to the EU under existing treaties.

She is also said to have told him the issue of citizens’ rights could be settled in the opening few weeks of formal negotiations, which are due to start in June after the UK general election.

It was reported that May suggested EU citizens would in future receive only the same rights in relation to living and working in the UK as anyone else who was not a British citizen.

Juncker responded that such a scenario would be problematic, because EU citizens currently enjoy additional rights. “I think you are underestimating this, Theresa,” he was quoted as saying.

Juncker reportedly called the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, after the dinner, claiming May was “on a different galaxy”.

The commission has compiled a dossier on the rights it expects EU nationals living in the UK to keep and those it expects EU citizens to be able to acquire should they move to Britain.

On Saturday, at a summit where the remaining 27 EU member states adopted their negotiating guidelines, Juncker told reporters he was doubtful the UK would sign up swiftly to their dossier and suggested London had a simplistic take on the issue.

“I have the impression sometimes that our British friends, not all of them, do underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face,” he said, adding that May had told him in response to each of his questions about the future: “Be patient and ambitious.”

On Britain’s divorce bill, the EU delegation, which estimates Britain’s liabilities to be about €60bn (£51bn), are said to have told May over dinner that the UK had entered commitments with every passed budget and the bloc was not a golf club that could be easily joined or left. The EU, they said, was like a family, and Brexit should be treated as a divorce.

David Davis, the secretary of state for exiting the EU, is said to have retorted that the rest of the EU could not do anything about the financial demands once the UK had left because it would no longer answer to the rulings of the European court of justice (ECJ).

Juncker pointed out that the UK wanted a trade deal, but without agreement on money there would be no desire among the 27 member states to make that happen. The whole exit process would change, the commission president is said to have responded.

“Let us make Brexit a success,” May is said to have beseeched the commission president. According to the German newspaper, Juncker said while he wanted an orderly exit, not chaos, after Britain withdraws from the EU in 2019, it would be a third country state for the EU, adding: “Brexit cannot be a success.”

It is also claimed that Juncker pulled out copies of Croatia’s accession treaty and the recently agreed Canadian free trade deal, which is more than 2,000 pages long, weighing 6kg (13lbs) in total, to point out the complexity of what is to come.

May is said to have been surprised by his response and defended her optimism with reference to her negotiations over Britain’s opt-outs from the justice and home affairs chapter in the Lisbon treaty, which was a symbolic hard break but kept all Britain’s old ties intact.

The article in the German newspaper also suggested that the EU delegation picked up on some irritation on the side of the prime minister at interventions from the Brexit secretary.

Davis is said to have made three separate references during the dinner to having successfully blocked May’s one-time plans for extra powers of surveillance for Britain’s security services via the ECJ. The newspaper claimed that May appeared unamused, leaving Juncker’s circle to discuss among themselves whether Davis would still be in charge of negotiations after the UK election.

As to the coming shape of the negotiations, May is said to have proposed that the two sides meet once a month for four days in Brussels, with positioning papers published beforehand. But she said the talks should take place in private.

“Everything should remain secret,” she is said to have demanded, to consternation from the EU side, which pointed out that the commission needed to keep the European parliament informed throughout the process.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said on Monday: “Theresa May talks about strengthening her hand, but in reality she has misjudged her hand at every turn, weakening Britain’s position.

“By refusing to acknowledge the complexity and magnitude of the task ahead, the prime minister increases the risk that there will be no deal, which is the worst of all possible outcomes.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, said the account demonstrated the chaos at the heart of the government’s Brexit strategy.

“These reports have blown a massive hole in the Conservative party’s arguments. It’s clear this government has no clue and is taking the country towards a disastrous hard Brexit,” he said.

“Theresa May chose a divisive hard Brexit, with Labour’s help, and now has no idea what to do next. This election offers us a chance to change the direction of our country, keep Britain in the single market and give the people the final say over what happens next.”

A government spokesman said: “We do not recognise this account. As the PM and Jean-Claude Juncker made clear, this was a constructive meeting ahead of the negotiations formally getting under way.”