Shaun Bailey vows to restore free travel for pensioners in London mayor bid October 27, 2020 London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey has vowed to restore the Freedom Pass if elected as Sadiq Khan’s replacement in the 2021 mayoral election. The Conservative party candidate told City A.M. he has pledged to reinstate free travel for people over the age of 66, after it was suspended in June as the coronavirus crisis crippled [...]
Too harsh or too generous? Rishi Sunak walks the job support tightrope October 27, 2020 Last Thursday, the chancellor gave his third economic statement in a month — U-turning on plans to replace the furlough scheme with a far less generous new Job Support Scheme (JSS) at the end of October. Instead, the JSS will now offer a level of government support almost as generous as that provided by the [...]
More than 50 Tory MPs lash out at local lockdown restrictions October 27, 2020 More than 50 Tory MPs have lashed out at the Prime Minister, warning that Northern constituencies risk being left behind unless there is a clear strategy for leaving local lockdown restrictions. MPs from parts of England currently under Tier 3 restrictions have written to Boris Johnson to warn him that his “leveling up” agenda risks [...]
Why I’m calling the US election for Biden and the Democrats October 27, 2020 Given the absolute lunacy of this past year, the American presidential campaign of 2020 has followed a strikingly consistent pattern. Since the coming of the virus in the spring, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has held a clear (if not quite overwhelming) lead over the incumbent Donald Trump. Last Thursday’s Real Clear Politics aggregator of polls [...]
US election: Nervous New Yorkers sleepwalking toward polling day October 27, 2020 Taking a bus from New York’s John F Kennedy airport and through Long Island provides an insightful snapshot into some of the realities of 21st century America. In the one hour it took yesterday to drive from one of America’s largest airports to my accommodation in Brooklyn, I saw poverty that was akin to that [...]
Doctor, Doctor: How can we cure our chronic NHS shortage? October 27, 2020 Shortages of PPE and ventilators have been at the top of the agenda during this pandemic, but such attention has masked a far more intractable problem: the global shortage of doctors. According to one forecast, in 10 years there will be a global deficit of 400,000 doctors, with that undersupply spread between 32 OECD countries. [...]
Modern Monetary Theory: A shared delusion that will destroy the economy October 27, 2020 As Rishi Sunak announced another multi-billion-pound support package last week, most numerate people would have been boggling at the numbers. How are we ever going to pay all that money back? Surely it means years of austerity, high taxes, or debt for our children and grandchildren to repay? But there is a growing and increasingly [...]
Sunak spars with education secretary in free school meals row October 26, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak locked heads with the education secretary today as both ministers attempted to shirk the blame for the government’s decision not to extend free school meals throughout the October half-term. Sunak rebutted claims made in the Sun on Sunday yesterday that the Treasury had “parked the bus” on providing free school meal vouchers [...]
EU to allow post-Brexit share trading for London-listed firms October 26, 2020 The EU markets regulator today said investors on the continent will be able to trade sterling-quoted shares of European companies listed in London after the transition period, in a bid to calm fears of post-Brexit trading jitters. The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) revised previous guidance that states EU shares must be traded inside [...]
Boris Johnson promises ‘no children will go hungry’ as free school meals row escalates October 26, 2020 Boris Johnson has promised “no children” in England “ go hungry this winter”, as the Prime Minister faces mounting pressure to U-turn on a decision not to extend free school meals over the October half-term. “We certainly recognise that there is an issue. We have been dealing with it continuously throughout the period of the [...]