Lockdown in north-west England: What are the new rules? July 31, 2020 Last night health secretary Matt Hancock announced via Twitter that millions of people in northern England would be subject to new restrictions after an increase in coronavirus cases. The new rules, which met with criticism over how they were announced, apply to people in Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire. The measures [...]
DEBATE: With Alistair Darling standing down from the House of Lords, is it time to consider term limits for peers? July 31, 2020 With Alistair Darling standing down from the House of Lords, is it time to consider term limits for peers? John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, says YES. The House of Lords needs to be reformed. It is too big, too opaque, and too expensive. With Alistair Darling deciding to stand down from the [...]
Pay no attention to the EU negotiator behind the curtain July 31, 2020 In the film the Wizard of Oz, the heroine, on finally arriving in the presence of the unseen Wizard, hears his booming voice telling her to go away and come back another time. When her dog Toto pulls back the curtain in the grand room to reveal a small, old man operating the levers of [...]
Household visits banned in northern England July 31, 2020 Separate households have been banned from meeting indoors in Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire, as the government last night slammed the brakes on lockdown relaxations due to a sharp spike in cases. Health secretary Matt Hancock said the fresh wave of infections was “largely due to households meeting and not abiding [...]
This pandemic has not spared our children — we face a youth mental health catastrophe July 31, 2020 The coronavirus crisis has changed us all. Whether through bereavement, job losses, isolation, or drastic changes to work and schooling, 2020 has radically altered the world as we know it. We are yet to know how long we will have to live with Covid-19 — the government oscillates between telling us things will be back [...]
A data arms race has begun — it’s not a game, it’s a national security imperative July 31, 2020 Data privacy is a human right. It is also a matter of national — and international — security. If the “new Cold War” is upon us, as has been claimed on City A.M., it will be fought with information. However, the west seems less serious about the “data arms race” than China and Russia, leaving [...]
City View exclusive: Foreign Affairs Committee chief labels Chinese ambassador ‘bully’ July 30, 2020 The chair of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee has called China’s ambassador to the UK a “bully”, after the Beijing official accused Britain of cooking up “lies and slander” about the country and of getting too involved in its internal affairs. Speaking on City A.M.‘s daily podcast The City View, Tom Tugendhat said China’s recent [...]
Republicans reject Trump’s call for US election delay July 30, 2020 Leading Republican politicians have rejected US President Donald Trump’s calls to delay the US 2020 presidential election, saying the ballot should be held as planned on 3 November. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters from his home state of Kentucky that the election would go ahead as scheduled. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy also [...]
Liberal Democrats leadership race: The long road to relevance July 30, 2020 For the second consecutive summer, Liberal Democrat members will be dragged to the polls to vote in a leadership election. While last year’s contest had a palpable feeling of optimism and excitement for many members, this year’s affair will likely represent the most abject contrast. The Liberal Democrats had surged to an unlikely lead in [...]
Boris Johnson: Coronavirus ‘bubbling up’ in 30 UK areas July 30, 2020 Boris Johnson has warned that coronavirus rates are “bubbling up” in 30 different areas in the UK as fears grow that the country may be on its way to a second wave. Johnson said today that the UK must be alert to the threat of a “really damaging second wave”. Latest figures from NHS Digital [...]