Manchester city centre on lockdown after suspicious packages found May 3, 2019 Parts of Manchester city centre have been put on lockdown following reports of suspicious packages. A cordon is in place around Piccadilly Gardens and some office workers in the city have been asked to stay indoors after a suspicious package was found. https://twitter.com/Kieron_Curtis/status/1124296352232542208 A 26-year-old man has been formally arrested and is in custody, Greater [...]
UN human rights body expresses concern over ‘disproportionate’ Assange sentence May 3, 2019 A UN group has criticised the 50-week prison sentence given to Julian Assange by Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday. Wikileaks founder Assange, who has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, was found guilty of breaching bail conditions handed down in 2010 when he left house arrest to request asylum from the South [...]
Tory grandee Boris Johnson accused of pretending to vote in local elections May 3, 2019 Boris Johnson has been ridiculed for allegedly pretending to vote in the local elections on Thursday, despite none being held in his constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. "I just voted Conservative in the local elections. Make sure you do too! You’ve got two hours left to get out and vote!", Johnson tweeted. Read more: Brexit [...]
Brexit bites: Tories and Labour suffer local election backlash amid deadlocked negotiations May 3, 2019 Voters expressed their frustration with Theresa May’s Conservative party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour at the ballot box yesterday, it has emerged, as results continue to pour in across the UK. So far both major parties have accepted they have suffered a backlash over gridlocked Brexit negotiations, with representatives having made little progress in cross-party talks. [...]
The tangled Huawei web isn’t just about Gavin Williamson May 3, 2019 To say that Gavin Williamson was neither widely liked nor widely respected in Westminster would be an understatement. Often a figure of ridicule for the pet tarantula kept on his desk when he was chief whip, his former life as a fireplace salesman, and gaffes like saying Russia should “go away and shut up”, he [...]
DEBATE: With another strike planned, should industrial action on the Tube be banned? May 3, 2019 With a strike planned over the FA Cup weekend, should industrial action on the Tube be banned? Keith Prince, the GLA Conservatives’ transport spokesman, says YES. Workers should have a right to redress, for example if they have legitimate safety concerns. But all too often, we have seen “safety” being used by unions as an excuse [...]
It’s time to fix regulation and scrap socialism for the banks May 3, 2019 For too long, it has been possible for bankers to make massive profits while socialising losses through subsidies, deposit schemes, public ownership, and bailouts in times of crisis. This creates a moral hazard: bankers are encouraged by the regulatory regime to take on excessive risk, allowed to issue limited equity, and in case of a [...]
Pennies saved as Philip Hammond sets up committee to protect access to cash May 3, 2019 Cash machines will be protected by a new government-led committee, Philip Hammond will announce today as he unveils a new taskforce to safeguard access to physical money. The Treasury-led group will coordinate work across the country to ensure people can still get to their cash in an increasingly digital payment focused economy. The Chancellor will [...]
Margaret Thatcher voted top Prime Minister on 40th anniversary of her first election win May 3, 2019 Margaret Thatcher has been ranked as the UK’s greatest post-war Prime Minister in a survey marking the 40th anniversary of her first election victory. Read more: CBI expresses 'deep concern' at prospect of Prime Minister Boris Johnson A Yougov poll placed Thatcher top of the pile, with 21 per cent of respondents saying she was [...]
Guilty until proven innocent? May 2, 2019 The brutal but surgical dismissal of Gavin Williamson, the secretary of state for defence, came like a sudden bolt from a clear blue sky. The Huawei leak scandal had been brewing for a while, but Whitehall veterans assumed, as did many, that it would go the way of a thousand government leak inquiries before it; [...]