Guardian sticks to carp

Very revealing item exclusive to the Graun from what I can see: 

Brexit trade deal 'disastrous' for Scottish seed potato farmers, says Sturgeon 

 Many points arise, of course. Is this some bizarrre quid pro quo or is there some reason for suddenly excluding Scottish seed potatoes from some alignment deal, any special reason for thinking our seed  potatoes will not align for some reason in the face of some imminent major EU upgrade? Is this typical of the sort of thing they have been discussing for the last 4 years? What would Sturgeon have us do -- reverse the whole thing to keep some Scottish farmers happy?

 

I also remember, although I can't find it now, another problem raised by the Graun yesterday which turned on haddock repatriation costs as another recent unresolved problem. Same issues for me -- how many hours of civil service time were expended discussing these fer Chrissake? Why would the Graun think them important enough to block the whole thing?

  

In further signs that the GHRaun's favourite fish is carp,in one of those inexplicable convergences of the right and the good, Gruan coverage (eg here), reported a comment by Barnier, ran a story 'of its own', and asked a question to Johnson at his press conference all stressing that UK students would no longer participate in Erasmus. Terrible shaming day showing what little Englanders we have become -- except that it was expensive for us, UK students participated at a low rate (probably because few spoke foreign languages well enough) and there was another scheme proposed anyway which would allow study all over the world.

The GRaun did have to report the news of the deal as well, of course, but with a certain lack of good grace as you would expect

After nine months of tortuous talks, a Brexit deal was secured at 1.44pm GMT on Christmas Eve, avoiding a no-deal exit from the transition period with just a week to go....The deal delivered on the promise of a “giant free-trade zone” characterised by “regulatory competition”, Johnson said. “We have taken back control of laws and our destiny …We have taken back control of every jot and tittle of our regulation in a way that is complete and unfettered.”...The prime minister said the UK had won the right [sic]  “set our own standards, to innovate in the way that we want” in key sectors such as biosciences and artificial intelligence. “British laws will be made solely by the British parliament; interpreted by British judges, sitting in the UK courts,” he said.

 [BUT] Boris Johnson [is] vowing to pit the country against the EU in a race for economic success [a very bad thing for the Graun, of course], [and]...the Office for Budget Responsibility... expects Brexit to shave 4% off GDP in the medium term.

Worse, still, in a demonstration of cosmopolitanism and sophistication showing exactly what we are giving up:

 The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, gently questioned Johnson’s understanding of sovereignty....

“For me, it is about being able to seamlessly do work, travel, study and do business in 27 countries. It is about pooling our strength and speaking together in a world full of great powers. And in a time of crisis, it is about pulling each other up. Instead of trying to get back to your feet, alone.

“And the European Union shows how this works in practice. No deal in the world can change the reality of [the] gravity in today’s economy. And in today’s world, we are one of the giants.”

Interesting use of the collective pronoun throughout and quite a few euphemisms which would amuse the poor in Greece, Italy and Spain especially. Bit of a threat at the end too?