Senior Tories urge Theresa May to drop Brexit appeal case November 19, 2016 Senior Conservative Party members have urged Theresa May to abandon an appeal against the Brexit High Court ruling that means MPs must vote on the UK leaving the EU. The former head of the government's Brexit unit, Oliver Letwin, and two former justice officers have said the case should not go to the Supreme Court and that [...]
US President-elect Donald Trump agrees to pay $25m to settle Trump University lawsuits November 19, 2016 US-President elect Donald Trump has reached an agreement to settle lawsuits in connection with his Trump University for $25m (£20m). If the settlement, announced yesterday, is approved, it will put to rest fraud allegations brought forward by former students at the now-defunct for-profit education company that offered real estate training from 2005 to 2010. New York attorney [...]
There are now 50/1 odds Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones will be the UK’s next Prime Minister November 19, 2016 If British politics follows the US example, allowing an outsider businessman to ascend to the helm of the nation, Peter Jones could soon be swapping the set of Dragons' Den for Number 10. There are now 50/1 odds that Jones will be the UK's next Prime Minister, according to online betting site BetStars, after the entrepreneur [...]
US President-elect Donald Trump nears $20m settlement in Trump University fraud case November 18, 2016 US President-elect Donald Trump is reported to be close to agreeing a settlement of around $20m (£16.2m) in fraud lawsuits connected with Trump University. Lawyers for Trump are dealing with cases brought by former students who claim they were lured by false promises into paying up to $35,000 to learn Trump's real estate investing "secrets" from [...]
Autumn Statement sell-offs? Land Registry, Lloyds, Channel 4 and more could be on the privatisation agenda November 18, 2016 Last year was a record for sell-offs of publicly-owned assets, with David Cameron and George Osborne’s government making more than £26bn from stakes in Royal Mail, Eurostar, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and other companies. Next week’s Autumn Statement should provide an insight into how far Theresa May and Philip Hammond will seek to continue [...]
Editor’s notes: Whatever your view of him, Farage should sit in the House of Lords November 18, 2016 There are many ways to get a peerage these days. You could conduct a white-wash inquiry into the Labour party’s problem with emboldened anti-semites; you could bounce from quango to quango until a seat on the red benches is the next logical step; you could donate to a political party; or you could have the [...]
The CBI has been accused of “hypocrisy” over staff diversity by a centre-right think tank November 18, 2016 A blazing row has broken out over diversity in business after think tank Policy Exchange branded the CBI “hypocritical” for its failure to employ a single non-white director. The think tank, which was credited with many of the central themes behind David Cameron's premiership, blasted the business group as part of a new report into [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond has been urged to show caution in an Autumn Statement infrastructure splurge November 18, 2016 Chancellor Philip Hammond has been urged to use caution in backing public infrastructure spending in next week's Autumn Statement. Speculation is rife that Hammond will use his first fiscal event to announce new road and rail projects. However, think tank Centre for Policy Studies warned that 90 per cent of large infrastructure projects are over budget, [...]
When Obama met Merkel November 18, 2016 Outgoing US President Barack Obama is currently on a trip to Berlin to say farewell to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to Reuters, Obama described Merkel as his "closest international partner" shortly before jetting off to Germany. Obama has also used the trip as an opportunity to remind President-elect Donald Trump that he might want to cool it [...]
We all have lessons to learn from Trump’s shock victory November 17, 2016 Nobody was talking about Wisconsin. There were murmurs about Michigan. There were questions about voter turnout in rural areas of Pennsylvania compared to the cities. Keep in mind, these debates weren’t reflected in the polls; pollsters were almost unanimously calling the election for Hillary Clinton the morning of 8 November. All talk of upsets was [...]