London Tories slam Mayor Sadiq Khan over housing pledge and say he’ll miss home completion targets October 29, 2020 New figures reveal less than a third of the homes London's mayor started building in his first term have been completed.
Shaun Bailey accuses Sadiq Khan of wasting nearly £10bn of TfL cash October 29, 2020 Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has today accused Mayor Sadiq Khan of wasting nearly £9.6bn in Transport for London (TfL) finances since 2016. According to Bailey, the failure to deliver the Crossrail rail link on time has cost £5.2bn, while pensions have drained £828m from TfL’s finances over the period. A freeze of Tube [...]
Second lockdown ‘not inevitable’, says Robert Jenrick October 29, 2020 Ministers are doing “everything we can to avoid a full national lockdown”, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said this morning. Speaking to Sky News after France and Germany both ordered new coronavirus lockdowns last night, Jenrick said that a second set of full restrictions was not “inevitable”. He added that the government believes it can control [...]
Can Boris Johnson forge a special relationship with Joe Biden? October 29, 2020 Boris Johnson’s victory in the Tory party leadership contest on 24 July last year was immediately hailed by Donald Trump as a great step forward for Britain. The US President was effusive in his praise for the Brexit pin-up boy, calling him “tough and smart”. “They’re saying ‘Britain Trump’, they call him ‘Britain Trump’ – [...]
I won’t let the government cancel Christmas — will you? October 29, 2020 It is hard to believe that just weeks ago, there appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel. The autumn sun was bringing people out of the house and back into offices, shops, restaurants and bars. But the period of positive convalescence for the mental, physical and economic trauma this country has been [...]
Joe Biden White House will work closely with Boris Johnson, says potential Biden appointee October 28, 2020 Joe Biden will work closely with Boris Johnson and the UK government if elected President despite concerns from Downing Street, according to a potential administration appointee. Former Bernie Sanders adviser Robert Hockett – who has been tipped in some Democratic circles to be appointed to a government position by Biden as a standard bearer of [...]
Brexit: UK ‘will not back down’ on fisheries policy October 28, 2020 The UK will not back down on its demands to the EU over fisheries in Brexit trade talks, Michael Gove has said, as the two sides hold crunch talks today in the hopes of hammering out a last-minute trade deal. Responding to concerns set out by Jeremy Miles, the Welsh minister for European transition, Gove [...]
Management consultancies cash in £180m for Brexit planning October 28, 2020 Management consultancies have been awarded more than £180m to deliver Brexit, as the government faces mounting criticism for handing out taxpayer cash to private firms during the pandemic. Documents released yesterday showed the government has signed six Brexit contracts each worth £30m with KPMG, McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture and PwC. Ministers said the £180m sum [...]
Forget the polls endorsing lockdowns and look at how people actually behave October 28, 2020 Economics is at long last storming the bastions of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). This citadel of epidemiologists and health professionals has for many months resisted the lessons which the so-called gloomy science can bring. In the context of Covid-19, economics is in fact a beacon of hope. This week, news broke of [...]
The Trump train hits Pennsylvania: A day in the key US election swing state October 27, 2020 Billy Joel’s 1982 song Allentown tells the tale of disaffected steel industry cities in North East Pennsylvania that were ravaged by deindunstrialisation and globalisation. Joel talks about blue collar workers from places like Allentown and Bethlehem that were left unemployed and pushed to the fringe of American culture in exchange for cheaper labour and products. [...]