Boris Johnson wants to change ‘defective’ Brexit withdrawal agreement June 7, 2020 The UK is reportedly looking to change the terms of its Brexit withdrawal agreement to fix “unfair defects”. Much of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal was borrowed from Theresa May’s, which was rejected by UK parliament three times. The key change he made was in regards to the Northern Ireland backstop. The Sunday Express reports that [...]
Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck in new UK opinion polling June 7, 2020 The Conservatives’ lead over Labour in UK opinion polling has been dramatically slashed, after three different surveys put the government ahead by three points or less. Opinium and Deltapoll have the Tories ahead by three per cent and a Survation poll gives the party a two per cent lead in a dramatic turnaround from just [...]
Labour not supportive of changing Sunday trading laws June 7, 2020 Labour has said it does not support the government’s move to scrap trading laws in England, which will allow super markets to open for more than six hours on Sundays. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said she wasn’t convinced the changes would help stimulate the economy and that they would also deprive workers of seeing [...]
Boris Johnson moves to ease lockdown faster in face of mass job losses June 7, 2020 Boris Johnson is set to accelerate the speed of easing the coronavirus lockdown, after warnings of impending mass unemployment. Ministers have drawn up plans to bring Britain back to something resembling normal life by July, in order to ensure industries benefit from summer trading. The new plans will see the government allow planning restrictions to [...]
Matt Hancock says government made no mistakes on coronavirus lockdown timing June 7, 2020 Health secretary Matt Hancock has defended the decision to not start the coronavirus lockdown earlier, after a government scientific adviser said the delay cost lives. Hancock said today that the government “took the right decisions at the right time” and that no people lost their lives by not locking down earlier. The UK went into [...]
Putting out the fire in America June 6, 2020 Following almost two weeks of nationwide riots in the US in response to the sickening murder of George Floyd by a brutal Minneapolis police officer, this week I could in good conscience write of nothing else. Now is the time for the bravery to alienate both “sides”. Now is the time for truth-telling if the [...]
WTO deputy director says crisis could lead to greater trade liberalisation June 5, 2020 One of the heads of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said the coronavirus crisis could lead to greater unilateral trade liberalisation. WTO deputy director general Alan Wolff said he was hopeful the crisis could spur countries on to drop trade tariffs as has happened after several economic crashes over the past century. The coronavirus [...]
Face coverings mandatory for all England hospital visitors from 15 June June 5, 2020 It will be mandatory for all hospital visitors and outpatients in England to wear face coverings from 15 June, while all hospital staff will be required to wear surgical face masks. The change was announced today, after the government made face coverings mandatory on all English public transport networks yesterday. Health secretary Matt Hancock made [...]
UK coronavirus death toll passes 40,000 June 5, 2020 The official UK coronavirus death toll today rose past 40,000 after 357 more deaths were recorded. As of 5pm yesterday, 40,261 people have died from the disease, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. The figures showed that just over 5.2m tests have now been carried out, with 283,311 people testing positive for [...]
British Airways-owner mulls quarantine legal challenge June 5, 2020 The owner of British Airways is mulling a legal challenge against the government’s quarantine plan which will require passengers coming in from overseas to isolate for 14 days on landing in the UK. With planes grounded since March, airline bosses fear the quarantine rule which is set to be introduced from 8 June will sink [...]