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No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK

Questioning the Universe With Wonderment: ‘Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery’

Science, with people believing that the truths it offers are absolute, has become a source from which many people gather their beliefs. The Age of Enlightenment was a philosophical catalyst in helping science gain a foothold over religion and faith, with some of the era eventually seeing them as outdated and even harmful modes of belief. Science is always advancing, however, and the scientific truth of yesterday—despite being thought of as absolute—is often overturned by new evidence tomorrow. As science continues to develop and evolve, is there a place for those things that exist outside the domain of science, such as religion and faith? Asking these questions makes me think of a scientific artist I loved as a young boy, Joseph Wright of Derby. As an adult, however, I find myself…

No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK

A no-deal Brexit will cause the prices of imported household items to jump as much as 30 percent, said a business group representing hauliers on Sunday.

In a letter to the Sunday Times, David Wells, chief executive of Logistics UK, wrote, “Everyday household items we import will become more expensive under World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs, some by 30 percent or more; and because of WTO quotas, we could see restrictions on all the products we import.”

He added, “the cost of moving goods will increase if new vehicles, parts and tyres are subject to tariffs.”

No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK Lorries queue at the entrance of the port of Dover on the south coast of England on March 19, 2018. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)

“Without a deal, UK logistics operators will also be restricted by the number of lorry access permits available to enter the EU—a quarter of what we need.”

Logistics UK, previously known as the Freight Transport Association, is one of the biggest business groups in the UK. It represents businesses in logistics, including firms in the road, rail, sea, and air industries.

Britain left the European Union on Jan. 31, and the Brexit transition period will end on Dec. 31. If no trade deal with the EU is reached by then, Britain would by default need to trade under WTO rules.

No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK Union and European Union flags are flown in unison during an anti-Brexit demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, on June 20, 2018. (Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images)

The government launched a “Time is running out” campaign last week to tell businesses to urgently prepare for a no-deal Brexit, warning business leaders “not to get caught out” by new trading regulations.

But the necessary preparations will be costly. “Our members are preparing as fast as information becomes available, but the risk to the economy is significant,” said Wells. “Logistics businesses, operating with 2 percent margins, cannot afford to take on these increased costs.”

Last week, more than 70 British business groups representing more than 7 million workers issued an urgent call for politicians to revive the stalled Brexit talks, stressing that “securing a quick agreement matters greatly for jobs and livelihoods.”

No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a virtual news conference on the ongoing situation with the CCP virus disease (COVID-19), at Downing Street in London, UK, on Oct. 12, 2020. (Toby Melville/Pool via Reuters)

More than three-quarters of UK firms say they need a deal quickly, they said, because UK businesses “face a hat-trick of unprecedented challenges: rebuilding from the first wave of COVID-19, dealing with the second, and uncertainty over the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Oct. 16 that it was time to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, as the EU had “refused to negotiate seriously.”

But Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said on Oct. 18 that the door remained “ajar” for talks on a post-Brexit trade deal to continue if the EU changed its approach.

Talks resumed last week, and the British government said on Friday there had been good progress since the restart.

Brandon Lewis, the UK’s secretary for Northern Ireland, told the BBC on Sunday and there was a “good chance” of striking a deal, “but the EU need to understand it is for them to move as well.”

Mary Clark and Reuters contributed to this report.

Focus News: No-Deal Brexit Will Spark Price Hike in Everyday Household Items: Logistics UK

Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘High Noon’: A Moving Western About Standing Up for What’s Right

PG | 1h 25min | Drama, Thriller, Western | 30 July 1952 (USA) Similar to 1960’s “The Magnificent Seven,” director Fred Zinnemann’s “High Noon” (1952) is a Western about courage and standing up for what’s right, no matter the odds. And although this film shares that message, it doesn’t begin as dramatically as the later film does. “High Noon” starts off much more subtly, with shots of scruffy henchman Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef) smoking a cigarette under a tree. Soon, he is joined by a couple of similar, devious-looking men, Jim Pierce (Robert Wilke) and Ben Miller (Sheb Wooley). The three men travel via horseback to a lone train station to await the noontime arrival of their leader, Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald). Not too far away is the dusty…