Greater Manchester to move into Tier 3 from Friday October 20, 2020 Greater Manchester will move into Tier 3 restrictions from midnight on Thursday night, Boris Johnson has announced. The city will receive an extra £22m of financial support after talks between central and local government fell apart. Mayor Andy Burnham described the offer as “brutal”. “This is no way to run the country in a national [...]
Andy Burnham turns down £60m in Tier 3 funding for Manchester October 20, 2020 Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has refused the government’s offer of £60m in return for accepting new draconian Tier 3 Covid restrictions. Burnham told a press conference today that he asked for £100m in extra funding originally, but was willing to accept as little as £65m. Downing Street would not budge from its £60m figure [...]
Peers push back on Brexit bill in largely symbolic move October 20, 2020 The House of Lords has voted against Boris Johnson's Internal Market Bill, which seeks to breach the Brexit withdrawal treaty if the UK does not get a trade deal with the EU.
Brexit: EU not serious about restarting trade talks, says minister October 20, 2020 The EU’s offer to restart broken down Brexit trade talks amounted only to “lip service”, according to a UK business minister. Nadhim Zahawi said today that the UK still wanted a Brexit trade deal, despite Boris Johnson refusing to come back to the negotiating table, but that talks would not continue until Brussels treats Britain [...]
Sadiq Khan calls for 10pm Covid curfew to be scrapped October 20, 2020 Sadiq Khan has called for England’s 10pm curfew to be scrapped in a bid to save London’s ailing hospitality industry. The mayor of London said the curfew made no sense now that household mixing was banned indoors as a part of the latest Tier 2 restrictions placed on the capital last week. “Immediately scrapping the [...]
Rishi Sunak: Circuit breaker would be ‘enormously damaging’ to economy October 20, 2020 A new circuit breaker lockdown would be “enormously damaging” for the economy and the government will continue to pursue a localised Covid approach, according to chancellor Rishi Sunak. Sunak told MPs this morning that a two to three week lockdown, which Labour is recommending, would cause “unnecessary pain and suffering on those in parts of [...]
Record 30m Americans vote early ahead of US election October 20, 2020 Almost 30m US citizens have already voted ahead of November’s presidential election, more than a fifth of 2016’s total tally of ballots. With early voting today having opened in the swing state of Florida, over 29.6m in person or postal votes have already been counted. In 2016, there were 136.6m votes cast in total, but [...]
Calls for a circuit breaker are out of date, misguided, and not grounded in science October 20, 2020 The politicians supporting a circuit breaker lockdown, like the one due to come into effect in Wales on Friday, say they are “following the science”. They appear to be referring to a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) document dated 21 September. If so, it’s science, Jim, but not as hard as we know it. [...]
The world needs a coordinated Covid policy — based on social realities, not just ‘the science’ October 20, 2020 The measures recommended by Victorian epidemiologist Dr John Snow to prevent cholera contain many that we’re now advocating today in response to Covid-19. Dr Snow advised better personal hygiene, checking the health of arrivals from abroad, and getting the homeless off the streets — all strategies taken by the UK government over the past few [...]
Brexit: EU vows to ‘intensify’ trade talks to get UK back to negotiating table October 19, 2020 EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said he is available to “intensify” trade talks, in a bid to get the UK back to the negotiating table, just moments before Michael Gove told MPs that Brussels needed to “fundamentally change” if a deal is to be done. Barnier also said the EU would also prepare [...]