So what if Sajid Javid has a new job? Outside interests can make for better MPs August 19, 2020 A former Deutsche Bank board member has joined JP Morgan as part of the US bank’s EMEA advisory council. Hardly front-page news, you would imagine — notices in brief in a financial publication, at best. Except that the DB alumnus is Sajid Javid, former chancellor of the exchequer and currently MP for Bromsgrove. The reaction [...]
Gavin Williamson smirks on — proving that this government values loyalty over competence August 19, 2020 If a picture is worth a thousand words, then there is one image that sums up the whole sorry mess of the A-level results fiasco. No, not one of the photos of tearful students, quivering with outrage and despair that their university places had been snatched away by a heartless algorithm. Rather, it is a [...]
Busting the myth of the selfless bureaucrat August 19, 2020 There seems to be a fundamental problem with quangos. Hardly a day seems to go by without some new story of incompetence and mismanagement emerging. Public Health England (PHE) is at least going to be put out of its misery by health secretary Matt Hancock, and replaced with a new agency specifically focused on pandemics. [...]
Be eco-rational: The world’s environmental problems are too serious for petty political dogma August 19, 2020 On 14 February 1990, a photograph was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the fringes of the solar system. As it sped further away, engineers spun it around to capture an image of the planet Earth, suspended in space roughly four billion miles away. Taking up only 0.12 of a pixel in the image, [...]
Ireland to tighten coronavirus rules after spike in cases August 18, 2020 Ireland will “significantly” tighten Covid-19 rules following a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases over the past two weeks. It comes after the country’s health minister Stephen Donnelly confirmed there had been 190 new cases today. Ireland previously held one of the lowest infection rates in Europe, but its 14-day rolling average has risen from four [...]
UK records 1,089 new positive coronavirus cases August 18, 2020 The UK recorded 1,089 new positive cases of coronavirus today, up from 713 yesterday, government figures showed. A further 12 people died after testing positive for covid-19 within 28 days. The UK has recorded more than 1,000 daily cases on eight out of the last 10 days. Earlier health minister Matt Hancock welcomed figures from [...]
Face masks to be mandatory in French workplaces August 18, 2020 It will be compulsory to wear face masks in most French workplaces from 1 September, a government official has confirmed. The new rules will likely be implemented in shared indoor workspaces, such as offices and factories, as the country’s coronavirus rate continues to increase. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals in France remains low, [...]
Eat Out to Help Out scheme serves up 35m meals in first two weeks August 18, 2020 More than 35m meals have already been claimed on the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, according to the Treasury. Restaurants, pubs and cafes have so far submitted more than 35m claims to the government for meals that have been discounted under the programme. The scheme gives diners 50 per cent off up to £10 [...]
Matt Hancock officially scraps Public Health England August 18, 2020 Health secretary Matt Hancock has officially axed Public Health England (PHE) and announced the formation of the National Institute for Health Protection. The new institute will be formed through a merger for NHS Test and Trace, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and parts of PHE, and will have a mission of “protecting people form external threats [...]
Brexit: City faces wait beyond 2020 for EU financial market access August 18, 2020 The City of London may not know whether it will gain post-Brexit access to EU markets until next year, according to Brussels’ financial services chief. European Commission executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis warned yesterday that regulatory equivalence – which would give City firms access to the EU – could still take months to be granted. [...]