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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61968607">Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has set a target date of October 19, 2023,</a> to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.<a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/letter-from-the-first-minister-to-the-prime-minister-on-independence-referendum/">Sturgeon has written to UK prime minister, Boris Johnson,</a> saying that she “stands ready to negotiate the terms of a section 30 order” which would grant formal consent from Westminster for a legal independence vote.However, the UK government has previously suggested that consent will not be forthcoming, and the PM said ahead of Sturgeon’s statement on Tuesday that it is “not the time” for another independence vote and that the UK was “stronger working together.”Speaking in Holyrood, Sturgeon said that if consent was not granted by Westminster, then she would continue her push for a referendum anyway.The first minister believes that she has a “cast-iron mandate” for a second independence referendum, with her pro-independent Scottish National Party [SNP] and the Scottish Greens holding a majority at Holyrood after the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.Together, the power-sharing partnership of the SNP and Scottish Greens hold 72 of the 129 seats in Scotland’s Parliament.Sturgeon has already asked the Lord Advocate of Scotland to refer the consent case over a second referendum to the Supreme Court, which will rule on the legalities of holding an independence vote without Westminster’s consent.If the Supreme Court were to rule that the Scottish government could hold a referendum, Sturgeon said that Holyrood could mobilise rapidly to pass through a Referendum Bill.The proposed referendum would put the same question to the Scottish people as was in the first referendum in 2014: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”The first minister indicated that if the Supreme Court’s conclusion did not uphold the right for the Scottish Parliament to hold a referendum, then she would fight the next general election solely on Scottish independence to make the vote a “de facto referendum”.Sturgeon said: “What I am not willing to do, what I will never do, is allow Scottish democracy to be a prisoner of Boris Johnson or any prime minister.“My determination is to secure a process that allows the people of Scotland, whether yes, no or yet to be decided, to express their views in a legal, constitutional referendum so the majority view can be established fairly and democratically. The steps I am setting out today seek to achieve that.”Sturgeon’s plan to pave the way for indyref2 has been criticised by opposition parties in Scotland, who raised concerns that the independence issue was taking precedence over more pressing matters such as the cost-of-living crisis and education.Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said that his party would not “take part in a pretend poll” and accused Sturgeon of having a “selfish obsession” with independence which was the “wrong priority”.Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton referred to the push as an “appalling waste of energy and focus”, while Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, suggested that two-thirds of Scots did not want a second referendum.Sarwar said: “Covid hasn’t gone away, and our recovery hasn’t even started.“Isn't it the case that the ‘Pandemic Nicola’ that said she wanted to pull us through is gone and the ‘Partisan Nicola Sturgeon’ that wants to divide our country is back pursuing a referendum that two thirds of Scots don't want right now?“Frankly, Scotland deserves better.”&nbsp; Image by <a href="https://admin.leaderscouncil.co.uk/admin/articles/By%20Scottish%20Parliament%20-%20https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/committee-on-the-scottish-government-handling-of-harassment-complaints-march-3-2021,%20OSPL,%20https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106958995">Scottish Parliament on Wikimedia Commons</a></div>

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has set a target date of October 19, 2023, to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Indyref2: Sturgeon wants October 2023 referendum

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/2a0663b10d81cbfc89ab83440991c5d6.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">On Monday, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61959526">MPs gave initial support to the government’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill,</a> which will enable the government to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol within the Brexit deal with the EU.The Bill was backed by 295 MPs and opposed by 221 [majority of 74], as its critics warned that the legislation would be in breach of international law.The EU has already started legal action, but the UK government believes that it is acting within the bounds of international law and foreign secretary Liz Truss insists it is the only means of being able to right the wrongs within the Protocol and was justified by a “worsening” state of affairs in Northern Ireland.Truss also accused the EU of not showing enough “flexibility” during negotiations around the Protocol’s workings and said that solutions the bloc had put forward would not have been sufficient.Legally, Truss argued that the Protocol was directly leading to unrest in Northern Ireland and changes had to be made to the agreement to preserve the Good Friday Agreement and peace in Northern Ireland. While Labour opposed the legislation, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy did concede that the EU had been “too rigid” in negotiations and called for both sides to return to the table for talks.What the government is seeking to do is override how the Protocol enforces checks on goods moving into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.To avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland following Brexit, Northern Ireland effectively remained inside the EU single market and customs union under the Protocol, but checks on some goods entering the country from elsewhere in the UK have now been introduced.Unionists argue that this undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, is damaging to the local economy, and has effectively created an Irish Sea trade border which has led to disruption and shipping delays.MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party [DUP], which has refused to enter a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland following the recent assembly elections as an act of protest against the Protocol, have backed the Bill.Speaking during the debate for the Bill’s first reading, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that the Protocol’s impact on Northern Ireland had been “devastating”. The passing of the draft legislation following its first reading means it can now progress through Parliament to be scrutinised further, and the UK government expects the DUP to return to the Northern Ireland Executive if the Bill continues to make its way through Parliament unhindered.According to parliamentary voting lists, no Conservative MPs voted against the Bill, but former prime minister Theresa May strongly warned of her concerns that the legislation could breach international law and appeared to abstain from the vote.May argued that the Bill was not introduced as emergency legislation, which undermined the legal argument that it was a “necessity” to resolve the situation in Northern Ireland.May said: “There is nothing urgent about this Bill. It has not been introduced as emergency legislation. It's likely to take not weeks but months to get through Parliament.”May added that in her eyes the legislation was “not legal” and would “diminish the standing” of the UK internationally.Despite May's suggestion that the Bill could take some time to pass through Parliament, the government is hoping to get the Bill through the Commons before the summer recess in mid-July, but it is likely to face resistance in the House of Lords.Tory MP Simon Hoare, another who was concerned that the Bill did break the UK’s international law obligations, also suggested it could take until the Spring of 2023 to fully pass through both Houses and reach Royal Assent.&nbsp;Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson insisted that the government could get the legislation through "fairly rapidly".Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@rhox">Rocco Dipoppa</a> on Unsplash</div>

On Monday, MPs gave initial support to the government’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will enable the government to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol within the Brexit deal with the EU.

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill clears first parliamentary hurdle

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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinrozario/2020/09/14/international-tourists-to-uk-set-to-lose-tax-free-shopping-rebates/?sh=409547e415a9">On December 31, 2020, the UK government took the decision to withdraw the VAT retail export scheme,</a> abolishing tax-free shopping for non-EU tourists, a move which the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors say has proven counterproductive.The Treasury’s call made the UK the only European country not to offer VAT refunds to non-EU tourists and, while the government may have sought to recoup funds through further tax revenue following the pandemic, the UK tourism, hospitality and retail sectors believe that ministers have shot themselves and their industries in the foot by putting tourists off coming to the UK altogether.Luxury trade association Walpole, which represents brands such as Burberry, Harrods, Claridge’s and Wedgwood, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinrozario/2022/05/24/burberry-harrods-and-other-luxury-players-call-for-return-of-tax-free-shopping-as-uk-loses-out-to-europe/?sh=51913608208e">has commissioned a report</a> which suggests that the UK has lost out on vital revenue in the post-Covid recovery and argues that bringing the tax-free shopping scheme back could attract a further 600,000 tourists to Great Britain, generating £1.2 billion more in sales.Within Walpole’s report, entitled ‘What It’s Worth: Enabling the Return of the £30 billion High-end Tourism Sector’, there are comparisons to spending by visitors from the US pre-pandemic and post-pandemic in Great Britain and the EU.Comparing the fourth quarter of 2019 with the same period in 2021, US shopping in the EU had returned to 91 per cent while the UK stood at just 49 per cent.The figures relating to visitors from the Gulf states in the Middle East, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were even more concerning. Over the same quarters, their retail expenditure had increased by 153 per cent in the EU, but in Britain it was only at 60 per cent. With visitors from Gulf Co-Operation Council countries previously having made up 26 per cent of the UK’s tax-free spend according to the report, these statistics are of particular concern to industry.One tourism industry leader, <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/chirag-golwala">Chirag Golwala</a> of <a href="https://www.tripcenter.net/">TripCenter.net</a> – a firm which handles chauffeured car, minibus and chartered bus hire – has called on Westminster in the wake of the report to heed the warnings of industry and reconsider the status of the VAT retail export scheme.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytTJRinffrM">Golwala told The Leaders Council:</a> “Getting rid of the tax-free scheme did not make much sense to us in the UK tourism industry. I believe the reasons behind it were the perceived costs of expanding it to cover EU tourists after Brexit as well as those not in the EU, and the fact that comparisons were being made to the US who were also looking at getting rid of their tax-free shopping scheme.“Our competition is directly with close European neighbours like France and Italy when it comes to shopping, so the US situation isn’t comparable to ours. One of the major attractions for any international tourists when you look at the Middle East and Far East Asian market of tourists was the tax-free shopping. And in 2019, about 20,000 such travellers coming to the UK collectively spent about half a billion pounds in the UK.“Obviously during Covid, all of this stopped, but during the pandemic the government abolished tax-free shopping. Now, we’re seeing the moments of international travel picking back up again and the UK will be losing out significantly because these tourists are more inclined to travel to other countries where tax-free shopping is in place.”Golwala fears that if the UK government does not revisit the scheme, then the industry will significantly lose out on some much-needed revenue as it seeks to recover in earnest from the effects of the pandemic.“If this is not revisited by the government, the UK tourism sector will lose out on a lot of momentum. Tax-free shopping is a big reason behind why these tourists travel long distances to come to the UK and Europe. However, it is clear to me that there is a lack of vision, strategy and mindset by the government to help rebound UK Inbound tourism and rather, they let it continue to suffer by taking it for granted.”Suggesting how the government could revisit its strategy to entice tourists back to the UK, Golwala called on ministers to look at the experience of visiting Great Britain from a foreign traveller’s perspective.As well as the status of tax-free shopping, the tourism boss also singled out the new post-Brexit visa regime and lengthy queues at passport control as being further damaging to the tourism industry’s prospects.He said: “Unless the government thinks more from the traveller’s perspective, there is only more difficulty to come with losses from the slump in tourism from the Middle East and North America already visible in the post-Brexit and post-Covid UK.“The government must realise that those who can afford to travel here can very easily afford to go elsewhere, where they will not need to suffer the agony of two-to-three months waiting time to get a visa and pay expensive fees before landing here to find long immigration queues. On top of that, they are having to pay more out when they go and buy in the UK, when they can avoid all this hardship anywhere else.“It is too late to salvage 2022, but the government can review this and relaunch the scheme to bring benefit to our sector in time for the year 2023 to be saved.”Listen to Chirag Golwala expand upon these issues on The Leaders Council Podcast below.<div class="medium-insert-embeds">
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</div>Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://unsplash.com/@photomasala">Kristina Gadeikyte</a> on Unsplash</div>

On December 31, 2020, the UK government took the decision to withdraw the VAT retail export scheme, abolishing tax-free shopping for non-EU tourists, a move which the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors say has proven counterproductive.

“Look again at tax-free shopping scheme”, tourism and retail sectors urge government

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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.igbs.org.uk/">ISDC</a>, the international provider for British education and skills, has <a href="https://www.freepressjournal.in/education/isdc-announces-partnership-with-liverpool-john-moores-university-uk-for-arts-design-courses">announced a collaborative partnership</a> with <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/">Liverpool John Moores University [LJMU],</a> to help deliver design-related disciplines in India. The International School of Creative Arts [ISCA], the creative education division of ISDC, offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Communication Design verified by Liverpool John Moores University.ISCA has recently been working with the University of the West of Scotland to offer courses in New Media Art and Creative Media Practice, as well as collaborating with the University of Creative Arts.Dr Ashwath Narayan CN, minister of higher education and skills for the government of Karnataka, India, said: “NEP 2020 has created a conducive environment for the internationalisation of education. It has opened the doors for educational institutions around the globe to recognise each other's domain of expertise and collaborate, thereby creating a lot of opportunities for everyone.“UGC has also stepped forward to facilitate this kind of collaboration and partnerships to expand their reach.”Tom Joseph, executive director for strategy and development at ISDC, commented: “ISDC is pleased to expand its operations in India with LJMU for design and arts in the context of ambitious projects like Bangalore Design District and Bangalore Design Festival – we believe that we can supply the best outputs for this.“We are a strong advocate of international education and the partnership with LJMU covers many aspects, including LJMU students coming to India and pursuing a part of their courses with our partner universities in India, and we are expanding this to many other disciplines.”Professor Joe Yates, pro vice-chancellor at LJMU’s faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies, added: “This partnership provides the opportunity for young people to experience the excellent teaching and learning environment that both ISDC and LJMU have to offer. Under the new National Education Policy, Indian HEIs will focus on three ‘I’s – interdisciplinary research, industry connect and internationalisation, the three pillars required to elevate Indian institutions to global standards.“We are confident that ISDC and LJMU can achieve these three objectives through this unique partnership. These collaborations contribute to both the UK and Indian economies and provide wider benefits to students, staff at both institutions”. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@cytonn_photography">Cytonn Photography</a> on Unsplash</div>

ISDC, the international provider for British education and skills, has announced a collaborative partnership with Liverpool John Moores University [LJMU], to help deliver design-related disciplines in India.

ISDC and LJMU announce collaborative partnership to expand operations in India

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/ba59ed650f9706e8faf0e05459a6d9d7.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">Later on Monday, UK prime minister Boris Johnson will call on his fellow G7 leaders to take action to help safely get Ukrainian grain exports out of the country, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/g7-summit-zelenskyy-to-urge-leaders-to-do-more-to-help-war-effort-as-johnson-to-demand-action-on-ukrainian-grain-12640921">reports say</a>.Since Russia’s invasion, several major Ukrainian ports have been blocked while farms and warehouses have fallen victim to assaults.Prior to the war, 10 per cent of the world’s wheat and almost 18 per cent of global maize supplies were exported from Ukraine, while together Ukraine and Russia accounted for around 55 per cent of the world’s sunflower oil exports.The squeeze on foodstuff supplies coming out of Ukraine has left countries across the world affected by price hikes and shortages, while around 25 million tonnes of corn and wheat are stationary in silos and at risk of spoiling.With Turkey controlling access to the Black Sea, Johnson’s government has called on the country to do more to help get grain supplies out of Ukraine by ship.Johnson is expected to tell G7 leaders on Monday: “Putin's actions in Ukraine are creating terrible aftershocks across the world, driving up energy and food prices as millions of people are on the brink of famine.“Only Putin can end this needless and futile war. But global leaders need to come together and apply their combined economic and political heft to help Ukraine and make life easier for households across the world. Nothing should be off the table.”<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61938351">Speaking in Rwanda at a Commonwealth summit last week</a>, the PM announced a further £372 million in aid for countries that have been most heavily affected by rising food prices and supply squeeze.Speaking earlier at the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps, Johnson said that Ukraine was left on a “knife-edge” after missile strikes hit the capital city of Kyiv, and he said in a meeting with Canadian premier Justin Trudeau that Ukraine needed greater defensive capabilities, training and intelligence if it was to win the war.The PM also warned that Ukrainians should not be forced into a “bad peace” settlement, where they “give up chunks of their territory in return for a ceasefire”.Johnson said: “Ukraine can win, and it will win. But they need our backing to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine.”The UK leader has also highlighted that his country, Canada, Japan and the US were taking another step of banning Russian gold imports to further hit oligarchs and “strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine”.The UK government has said that Russian gold exports were worth £12.6 billion to the Russian economy in 2021 and exports are regularly used by oligarchs as a means of circumventing the restrictions of economic sanctions.Addressing the likelihood of a global recession as a result of the war, Johnson said that there was little sense in contemplating “how bad things might get” and was confident that inflation would eventually cool, and that the situation would ease.The PM also pointed out how Germany had recently taken the decision to take emergency measures after gas supplies from Russia were cut and praised their sacrifice.He said: “They're making the effort; they're making the sacrifice. That's because they see the price of freedom is worth paying.“The price of backing down, of allowing President Putin to hack off parts of Ukraine, to continue with his programme of conquest - that price will be far, far higher and everyone here understands that.”Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will address leaders himself at the G7 and NATO summits this week.Ahead of his own speech to the G7 on Monday, Zelensky said that he’d request further air defence systems to help guard against missile attacks.He said: “We need a powerful air defence - modern, fully effective - which can ensure complete protection against these missiles.“We talk about this every day with our partners. There are already some agreements. And partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers.“Delays in the transfer of weapons to our state, any restrictions are actually an invitation for Russia to strike again and again.“The occupiers - these terrorists - must be beaten with all our might so that they do not think they can put pressure on and outplay someone.”Image taken from <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnson_speaks_at_2019_G-7_summit.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></div>

Later on Monday, UK prime minister Boris Johnson will call on his fellow G7 leaders to take action to help safely get Ukrainian grain exports out of the country, reports say.

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Indyref2: Sturgeon wants October 2023 referendum

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill clears first parliamentary hurdle

“Look again at tax-free shopping scheme”, tourism and retail sectors urge government

ISDC and LJMU announce collaborative partnership to expand operations in India

G7 summit: Johnson to call for action on Ukrainian grain exports