Labour’s top priority is ‘financial responsibility’, says Starmer February 17, 2021 Sir Keir Starmer will tomorrow say Labour’s priority will “always be financial responsibility” in a speech expected to reveal the party’s future economic direction under his leadership. Starmer will also say there can be “no return to business as usual” post-Covid, while outlining policies that he says will provide “long-term security to the economy, support for [...]
Covid: Half a million self employed still excluded from government’s SEISS scheme February 17, 2021 Half a million self-employed still excluded from government help despite having no work
Right-wing US radio host Rush Limbaugh dies aged 70 February 17, 2021 Controversial right-wing US radio personality Rush Limbaugh has died aged 70. Limbaugh’s wife Kathryn Adams announced his death this afternoon, after being diagnosed with lung cancer last year. The shock jock became one of the most prominent voices of America’s conservative movement in the 1990s, with many pundits crediting him with paving the way for [...]
UK to announce secretive £800m science research agency called Aria February 17, 2021 The government is set to announce a new £800m research facility that will invest in high-risk military projects. It will be called the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) and is based on the US’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which has overseen the creation of experimental military technologies. Darpa and its predecessor agency [...]
Mass Covid testing blitz to be launched as lockdown is lifted February 17, 2021 The government is reportedly planning to launch a mass Covid testing blitz in England as lockdown is lifted. NHS Test and Trace is preparing to send out more than 400,000 rapid lateral flow tests by post each day in a bid to get the country back to normal. The campaign – provisionally titled “Are you [...]
Sadiq Khan to keep London rent control policy in election manifesto February 16, 2021 Sadiq Khan is set to keep his trademark rent control policy as a key part of his mayoral election manifesto, despite London’s plummeting rental prices. The mayor of London will double down on his call for central government to hand him powers to implement a cap on rents in London if he wins the May [...]
Labour should become the party of AI and tech under Keir Starmer February 16, 2021 Sir Keir Starmer has had a rough start to 2020. The Labour leader has taken a battering in the past few weeks for a perception that Starmerism has no impetus or direction, leaving some pundits to question whether he has cut through beyond the SW1 bubble. While much of this criticism should be dismissed when [...]
Eurozone GDP fell as lockdown restrictions tightened ahead of Christmas February 16, 2021 Eurozone GDP fell as lockdown restrictions tightened ahead of CHristmas
Sadiq Khan proposes to invest over £1b in city policing with new cash injection February 16, 2021 London Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to boost police investment with an additional £30m, taking the total to over £1b in the next four years, to ensure over a thousand Met officers keep their jobs. The mayor said he will divert funds from council tax and business rates receipts from local authorities to policing, ahead of [...]
EU Brexit chief Maros Sefcovic says Northern Ireland issues to be fixed by 24 February February 16, 2021 European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic has told Irish lawmakers today that he wants Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit issues solved next week. Sefcovic, who is in charge of UK-EU relations for Brussels, said he wanted the border problems solved by the end of his meeting with Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove on 24 February. He also [...]