Theresa May on the NHS, Sir Ivan Rogers and Brexit negotiations January 8, 2017 Theresa May has insisted the government is not "muddled" over Brexit and will unveil her plans in the coming weeks. In a wide-ranging interview, her first of 2017, on Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday show she also hit back at claims the NHS is suffering a humanitarian crisis. She said she believes she can still get [...]
This trade expert has warned of a “catastrophic” Brexit January 8, 2017 In the week that one of the UK's most "seasoned and tough" negotiators spectacularly resigned with a dig at the government's "muddled thinking", another negotiation expert has warned of the potentially "catastrophic" decision to leave the EU. Jason Langrish, a Canadian trade expert who worked on the country's deal with the EU, has said a deal between [...]
Theresa May’s ditching Cameron’s “big society” for the “shared society” January 8, 2017 Forget "big society", now it's all about the "shared society". Theresa May is ditching the "big society" agenda of her predecessor David Cameron, instead vowing to tackle "everyday injustices" and "build a shared society for everyone". The Prime Minister will lay out plans for social reform in a speech on Monday, to "build a country [...]
One of the Tory’s leading donors said he’ll cut his funds if we lose access to the European single market January 7, 2017 A leading donor to the Conservative Party said he'll cut his funding if the government takes Britain out of the European single market. Andrew Cook, chairman of engineering firm William Cook (and staunch Remainer), has said he couldn't support the party if it risked losing jobs in the UK by leaving the single market, Reuters reported. He has donated more than [...]
The British Red Cross has stepped in to support the NHS, calling it a “humanitarian crisis” January 7, 2017 NHS hospitals face a "humanitarian crisis" as A&E departments experience one of their busiest weeks ever, The British Red Cross has said. The charity has called on the government to invest more in health and social care as its volunteers and staff have been required to help patients get home from hospital. British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said: "The [...]
A new US intelligence report says Russia helped Trump win the US election, but gives little evidence of how January 7, 2017 The Russian government helped Donald Trump win the US election by discrediting his rival Hillary Clinton, US intelligence agencies said in a report released last night. "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election," the report said. "We further assess Putin and the Russian government developed [...]
It looks like Theresa May is going to Davos January 6, 2017 If you're a recently-anointed world leader with two-and-a-bit months to organise a major geopolitical upheaval, there are few better places to be this January than the World Economic Forum in Davos, the annual billionaires' knees-up. So it's hardly surprising that ahead of the beginning of Brexit negotiations, it appears Theresa May is planning to follow [...]
A big year, but it won’t Trump 2016’s shocks January 6, 2017 2016's events made fools of most pundits, and looking back at my column exactly a year ago, I fared little better. True, I correctly said that Santander UK would re-engage in an effort to buy Royal Bank of Scotland's Williams & Glyn unit, but I was well wide of the mark arguing that the FTSE-100 [...]
A liberal Brexit means continued EU-UK cooperation – but this time as equals January 6, 2017 Brexit means something remarkably straightforward: at some point before the middle of 2019, the UK will no longer be under the jurisdiction of any EU court or legislature. The fact of our impending departure does not, however, mean cutting ourselves off from Europe. If Brexit is easy to define, the details of what our post-EU relationship [...]
Labour is collapsing because it’s losing the battle of ideas: Free marketeers take note January 6, 2017 The Fabian Society’s latest report, which paints a doom-and-gloom picture of Labour’s chances at the next election, seems to have hit a nerve among the left’s most prominent commentators. Surely this is because there’s some truth to it: the Fabians’ estimation that Labour will struggle to win even 200 seats backs up the other evidence [...]