Dido Harding slammed for ‘three per cent’ Test and Trace success rate November 10, 2020 Baroness Dido Harding has been slammed by MPs for the “three per cent” success rate of England’s contact tracing programme, as the Test and Trace chair faced her first formal grilling in the Commons. Health and social care committee chair Jeremy Hunt pressured Harding to explain why only “three per cent of the total theoretical [...]
House of Lords defeats Boris Johnson’s controversial Brexit bill November 10, 2020 The House of Lords has rejected Boris Johnson’s controversial Brexit bill that could potentially breach the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and break international law. Peers voted to remove two clauses from the Internal Market Bill, which deal with the status of Northern Ireland after the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December. The legislation will now [...]
Exclusive: Ex-Labour mayor defects to Tories over Sadiq Khan’s record on crime November 10, 2020 A former Labour mayor of Islington has defected to the Tories and is campaigning for the party’s mayoral candidate after being disappointed with Sadiq Khan’s handling of violent crime in London. Islington councillor Rakhia Ismail, who was mayor of the London council last year, quit Labour in September alleging she had experienced racism within the [...]
Joe Biden can end the misery wrought across the world by the Global Gag Rule November 10, 2020 While the world continues to process Donald Trump’s loss of the US presidency after a single term, something else will likely be thrown out of the White House with him when he leaves office: the so-called “Global Gag Rule”. The Mexico City policy, originally implemented by Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1984, prohibits non-governmental organisations which provide, [...]
Cronyism and incompetence: The government is undermining trust in the private sector November 10, 2020 It should surprise no one that a Conservative government turns to the private sector for the efficient delivery of services. Private enterprise is agile, responsive, innovative and provides good value for money (or at least, it can do), and public money should always be spent in the most effective way possible. This is the ideology [...]
Our Covid-hit young deserve a new social contract from older generations November 10, 2020 Covid-19 demands immediate action. It also demands a major reconsideration of policies to create a new social contract between the generations. We are all aware that the elderly have a higher risk of death from coronavirus than other age groups. We are also aware that protecting them by locking down the economy has had a [...]
Averting a dental disaster: Don’t let the pandemic take our smiles November 10, 2020 The first lockdown had a crippling effect on dentists, with two thirds of the practices I work with experiencing financial difficulty, and many even considering shutting down altogether. There was almost no clear guidance while dentists were closed — for practitioners or for patients — and confusion abounded. And thanks to gaps in the financial [...]
Ukrainian businessman allegedly asked to invent dirt on Hunter Biden November 10, 2020 Ukrainian businessman Hares Youssef has alleged he was promised a US visa in return for information that would damage Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Speaking on the Stories of our Times podcast, Youssef alleged he was asked to lie about Hunter Biden’s business dealings to damage the reputation of Joe Biden. In return he was promised [...]
Rishi Sunak announces post-Brexit outline for City of London November 9, 2020 Rishi Sunak has outlined the City of London’s future after Brexit, which will aim to provide stability for EU financial services firms operating in the UK while also trying to open up the sector to more international markets. Sunak said the Treasury today was unliterally publishing “a set of equivalence decisions for EU and EEA [...]
Lords look to defeat Brexit bill that breaks international law November 9, 2020 The House of Lords will today vote on whether to remove clauses from Boris Johnson’s controversial Brexit legislation that could breach international law. Peers, who are expected to vote to remove the clauses, voted overwhelmingly against Johnson’s Internal Market Bill in a symbolic “regret” motion last month. The bill would see the UK unilaterally override [...]