Boris Johnson delaying choice on Covid lockdown as rapid testing nears October 18, 2020 Boris Johnson is reportedly delaying any decision on a national lockdown in the hope that new rapid turnaround Covid tests can be deployed before the end of the year. Johnson said last week that 1m “swab in the gob” tests, that give a result in 15 minutes, could be used every day by the end [...]
Tony Blair accused of breaching Covid restrictions after not quarantining October 18, 2020 Tony Blair has been accused of breaking the UK’s Covid restrictions, after being seen out at a restaurant when he should have been quarantining. Photos have emerged today in the Sunday Telegraph of the former prime minister leaving a restaurant in Mayfair last month just 10 days after arriving back from the US. He had [...]
Michael Gove says UK is ‘well prepared’ for no-deal Brexit October 18, 2020 Michael Gove has said the ball is in the EU’s court as to whether trade talks continue and that the UK is “well prepared” for a no-deal Brexit in January. Gove, who has been until now a leading voice in the cabinet against no-deal, said today that it was the EU that “effectively ended” trade [...]
PM threatens to ‘intervene’ over Manchester’s Tier 3 lockdown refusal October 16, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham to “reconsider” his opposition to new coronavirus restrictions, and said he would “intervene” if progress in talks is not made. Burnham has resisted the government’s plans to put Manchester under “high alert”, meaning it would face the tightest restrictions. The Labour mayor has argued that [...]
BA and Virgin bag £70m of taxpayer money to fly PPE back from China October 16, 2020 British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have been paid more than £70m of taxpayer money to ferry personal protective equipment (PPE) to the UK from China, as the government scrambles to stock up supplies in time for winter. BA, which is the second-largest airline in the UK, was handed £46m between May and July through a [...]
Pound swings wildly after Boris Johnson steps up no-deal rhetoric October 16, 2020 The pound swung wildly and gave up its gains after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK should prepare for a no-deal Brexit, amid mixed signals from the negotiating process. Sterling was trading as much as 0.3 per cent higher when Johnson started speaking. It then dropped, rose slightly, and fell again to last stand [...]
Is irrational exuberance skewing US election betting? October 16, 2020 It has been an extraordinary week on Betfair’s US election markets. An average of £3million traded per day, amounting to around 15% of the total matched since November 2016. That sharp rise in volume triggered two of the most rapid and substantial market moves seen all year – one for each candidate. By the end, [...]
The Circuit Breakers should be honest about what they’re asking for: lockdown until Christmas and beyond October 16, 2020 “Circuit breaker lockdown”: sounds cool, doesn’t it? Edgy, effective, high-tech. Circuits involve electricity, electricity is physics, so a circuit breaker must be about science — the kind of science that makes light bulbs flash and powers cutting-edge revolutions that can save a nation from ruin. With pressure building for the government to impose this two-week [...]
Covid is an opportunity to scrap business rates altogether October 16, 2020 No business can rightly complain about paying a reasonable amount of tax on profits it earns. Taxes on turnover, such as VAT and stamp duty, are less justifiable, as they are a tax on transactions. In these straitened times such taxes should be cut. But by far the worst kind of tax is property tax, [...]
Donald Trump needs to get back to basics on the campaign trail October 15, 2020 Tuesday’s Opinium poll showing Donald Trump trailing Joe Biden by a staggering 17 points will likely be the death knell for the President’s campaign. Even at the nadir of Trump’s 2016 campaign, when a leaked tape showed him bragging about him sexually assaulting women, the President’s poll deficit never dipped below 15 per cent in [...]