The Brexit campaign is about to be fought all over again August 19, 2018 If you thought you would return from your summer holiday to find the country coming together behind a coherent Brexit plan, think again. With the departure date just over 200 days away, one could have been forgiven for thinking that the old arguments about Leave versus Remain would have given way by now to something [...]
Labour Party suspends former MP as anti-semitism row shows no sign of quieting down August 18, 2018 The Labour Party’s ongoing anti-semitism row has hit the headlines again today following the suspension of a former MP over a social media outburst. Jim Sheridan, who lost his parliamentary seat in 2015, was alleged to have said he had lost his respect and empathy for the Jewish community and their suffering “due to what they and [...]
City concerned at lack of EU no deal plans August 17, 2018 The City is growing frustrated with the EU’s apparent failure to grapple with the regulatory challenges posed by a no deal Brexit. Work in the UK has begun on a “temporary permissions regime”, allowing EU firms to continue passporting into the country in the event of a hard Brexit. But senior figures in the Square [...]
Congratulations, students – welcome to a broken system August 17, 2018 It is hard to think of a more eccentrically British fixation than the national obsession with A-level results day. And there’s something for everyone in the results announced yesterday A rise in the proportion of students achieving As and A*s (“exams have become too easy”), a fall in the numbers achieving above a C grade [...]
MPs tell Hammond: Don’t even think about a vape tax August 16, 2018 An influential committee of MPs has urged the government to ease its rules on e-cigarettes in the wake of reports that the Treasury plans to slap vapers with a new sin tax. In a report which hits out at the government for “missing significant opportunities” to tackle smoking-related deaths, the Science and Technology Committee has called [...]
Turkish President Erdogan has no one to blame but himself August 15, 2018 US President Donald Trump has done everything in his power to help fuel the narrative his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to portray, stoking the fires of the country’s currency crisis through sanctions and, of course, tweets. Erdogan has cast himself as a man of the people fighting against external forces, and now the [...]
Tory MPs hit back over rail fare hike August 14, 2018 The government has come under fire from Tory MPs for hiking train fares amid a growing dispute over the measure used to determine price rises. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said tonight the government will “freeze regulated fares in line with inflation” for the sixth year running, a move that will potentially add hundreds of pounds to [...]
Emergency COBRA meeting to be held after terror attack August 14, 2018 An emergency COBRA meeting is being convened this afternoon, following a terror attack outside Parliament this morning. Armed police officers arrested the man, who drove a silver Ford Fiesta into the security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament shortly after 7:30am, on suspicion of terror offences. He is not believed to be known to police, [...]
Jobs miracle is a real achievement for the UK August 14, 2018 Brexit, Boris and burqas. These are hardly halcyon days for the Conservatives, who – according to the latest opinion poll – trail Labour by two points, despite Jeremy Corbyn’s hapless and controversy-laden leadership. Nonetheless, yesterday held a reminder of a genuinely remarkable achievement that successive Tory inhabitants of Downing Street can point towards – namely, [...]
Bad Apple: Erdogan threatens iPhone boycott after spat with US August 14, 2018 Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a boycott of iPhones and other American electronic products yesterday as tensions between the two countries escalated. Erdogan remained defiant amid what he called an “economic war” with the US after Washington imposed punitive sanctions on Ankara. “Whatever we buy from abroad we are going to produce here in [...]