Positive November/December

[FloridaAnn & Co]

Am trying to keep positive for beginning of December...

[Yorkie2021]

Reports tonight that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is receptive to relaxing the ban, but Biden is still saying no.

Not sure I believe that Biden is in control of anything…

[State27]

He will follow what Zients recommends.

Do you have any links on Bkinkens comments.

I’m trying to ascertain where the journo who posted that Zients said nothing would change until 2022 got the info from but the minutes for the meeting haven’t been published yet .

[Jack&LucysMumy]

Trying very very very hard to stay positive but it’s not really the build up to the holiday I would like. I want the excitement again.

[Yorkie2021]

Originally Posted by State27

He will follow what Zients recommends.

Do you have any links on Bkinkens comments.

I’m trying to ascertain where the journo who posted that Zients said nothing would change until 2022 got the info from but the minutes for the meeting haven’t been published yet .

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The link they used doesn’t work, have asked for it and will post it on here if I get it.

That French journo does seem to be the sole person reporting that, would have thought there would be more if it was true.

[State27]

Originally Posted by Yorkie2021

The link they used doesn’t work, have asked for it and will post it on here if I get it.

That French journo does seem to be the sole person reporting that, would have thought there would be more if it was true.

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Yeah I wonder if it’s lost in translation. I’m sure Reuters would have picked up on it.

I’m not sure the minutes will be forthcoming as it looks like the previous meeting still only shows the agenda months after

[sophiepop]

Originally Posted by Jack&LucysMumy

Trying very very very hard to stay positive but it’s not really the build up to the holiday I would like. I want the excitement again.

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I agree. I miss the excitement of looking forward to going. We can't talk about it as it may not happen. We are on the 4th try

[Yorkie2021]

From the Times:

Boris Johnson has been warned not to “destroy” the Northern Irish peace process if he wants a US trade deal as he prepares to meet President Biden. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and a crucial powerbroker in the Democratic Party, said that a breakdown in talks over the Northern Ireland protocol would prove “problematic” for the post-Brexit trade deal the UK is determined to strike. Pelosi was speaking in London the morning after a meeting in Downing Street with Johnson, who is expected to fly to the US this weekend. He will address the annual United Nations general assembly in New York but, as The Times revealed this week, he has also pencilled in a summit with Biden at the White House. Johnson is likely to be accompanied to the US by Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, in her first big diplomatic engagement in her new position. The question of Northern Ireland is likely to be uppermost in the mind of Biden, who even before he became president raised concerns about Britain’s approach to the post-Brexit protocol that governs the province’s relationship with the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The protocol, which avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland and in effect keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, has disrupted trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, provoking significant unease among unionists. Pelosi, 81, told an event by the Chatham House think tank she was “glad that more time” had been allowed for talks between the UK and the EU on the protocol. But she said there “has to be an agreement” that respected the terms of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland or transatlantic relations and the prospect of a trade concord could suffer. “If it takes a little more time then so be it,” she said. “This is not said as any threat, it is a prediction: if there is destruction of the Good Friday accords it would be very unlikely to have a UK-US bilateral [deal]. We have to have a path that includes it. It would be problematic in terms of a bilateral.” She revealed that Johnson had given her “reading material” about the issues faced by Britain around the protocol when they met at No 10 on Thursday. The House of Representatives, where Pelosi has been the Democratic leader since 2003, would have to approve any trade deal. Though there are senior American leaders in both parties who feel strongly about the issue, Biden and Johnson’s diplomatic agenda is likely to range much wider. One issue preoccupying the UK is the travel ban which has been imposed on almost all British and EU citizens since March last year. Britain and the US set up a working group on the issue this year but although American tourists are now permitted to cross the Atlantic the US has still not reciprocated. Diplomatic sources believe Antony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, is increasingly receptive to the prospect of easing the ban but the president is said to be holding firm. Any meeting between Biden and Johnson will come after a rocky period in transatlantic relations following the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Johnson was said to have felt “let down” by the president’s refusal to change his August 31 departure date. Downing Street was kept waiting for 36 hours on its request for a call between the leaders after the fall of Kabul, although Johnson was the first world leader to whom Biden spoke. This week Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, told The Times that the government had been right to be “annoyed and disappointed” by America’s approach to leaving Afghanistan but that Johnson could not allow that to damage the bilateral relationship. Aside from two brief visits to Brussels, Johnson has not travelled abroad since the start of the pandemic. A planned visit to India in April was cancelled as the coronavirus swept that country. Before the pandemic, Johnson’s diplomatic visits were concentrated in Europe because of the urgency of resolving Brexit. His visit to the United Nations general assembly in 2019 was overshadowed by the Supreme Court’s ruling that his prorogation of parliament was unlawful.

[Stokieuk]

As it stands now, I'd take October being cancelled for us if it guaranteed we could go on 16th Dec.

Hopefully Fionn is right

twitter/fionndavenport/s...058359810?s=19

[unixgirl]

Originally Posted by Stokieuk

As it stands now, I'd take October being cancelled for us if it guaranteed we could go on 16th Dec.

Hopefully Fionn is right

twitter/fionndavenport/s...058359810?s=19

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I hope so too but it's coming down to the wire with cancellations.