Johnson dismisses referendum talk despite polling January 14, 2021 Over half of Scots would vote in favour of Scottish independence if a referendum were to be held tomorrow, according to an opinion poll published today. According to the poll by Savanta ComRes, 57 per cent of Scots said they would vote in favour of independence, as opposed to 43 per cent who would vote [...]
Exclusive: UK eyes adding climate provisions in US trade talks to woo Joe Biden January 13, 2021 The UK will try to add new provisions on climate change and environmental standards in US trade negotiations in a bid to woo incoming President Joe Biden. Trade secretary Liz Truss wants to build on current negotiations with the Donald Trump administration and potentially add things like enhanced protections on air pollution and corporate transparency [...]
Smart politicians will be looking to cities as a springboard for greatness January 12, 2021 For much of the second half of the 20th century, powerful city politics was dying. As the great industrial centres went into decline, so too did their once-proud corporations and mayors. County boroughs like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds were gathered together in 1972 and melded into metropolitan counties like “Merseyside” or “West Midlands”, and [...]
Lockdown: Tougher Covid restrictions on horizon, ministers warn January 11, 2021 England may face tighter lockdown restrictions amid scientists’ warnings that current measures are not doing enough to reduce Covid rates, the UK’s vaccine tsar has suggested. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, today said current restrictions may be scaled up as he admitted he was “worried” at the current picture. “We’ve got to review everything [...]
Coronavirus: Patients to receive breakthrough drugs that cut risk of death by a quarter January 7, 2021 Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care are set to receive breakthrough drugs that cut the risk of death by almost a quarter, the government has announced. Data from clinical trials published today showed that tocilizumab and sarilumab, which are typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, reduced the relative risk of death by 24 per cent [...]
Lockdown could last until 31 March, government smallprint reveals January 6, 2021 England’s third national lockdown could last until 31 March, according to smallprint in the government’s newly-published Covid regulations. It comes despite Boris Johnson earlier this week telling the public that restrictions will last until mid-February. Speaking in an address to the nation from Downing Street on Tuesday, the PM said he had “no choice” but [...]
National lockdown looms as teachers go head-to-head with government January 4, 2021 Ministers have refused to rule out a third national lockdown in England, as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations surge beyond numbers seen in the peak of the first wave. Health secretary Matt Hancock said this morning that the new strain of coronavirus was spreading rapidly across the country. “We can’t rule anything out,” he told Sky [...]
Boris must find the bandwidth to take on Sturgeon – and keep the UK united December 30, 2020 Being prime minister is not an easy job. Whether you adopt the approach of Thatcher’s four-hours-a-night, or Macmillan’s retreating to Trollope novels at moments of extreme stress, it is a position which occupies your every waking (and probably many a sleeping) moment; the situation is not helped by the fact that the vast majority of [...]
Covid: London now has highest proportion of positive tests in the UK December 18, 2020 The number of people testing positive for coronavirus has risen sharply in London, as the Prime Minister faces mounting pressure to U-turn on plans to lift restrictions over Christmas. London is now tied with the East Midlands as having the highest proportion of positive Covid tests in the UK, after reporting a sharp spike in [...]
London and southeast in Tier 3: What are the rules? December 17, 2020 Most of the southeast of England is set to join London in Tier 3 from midnight on Friday, as the government scrambles to contain a sharp spike in coronavirus cases. The move will see Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Peterborough, and the whole of Hertfordshire move into the highest level of restrictions from 0.01am on Saturday. It [...]