Boris Johnson to announce £5bn bus service improvement plan February 10, 2020 Boris Johnson is tomorrow expected to announce £5bn of funding to improve local bus services across the country. The Prime Minister will outline a plan to transform the bus network and cycle links with simpler fares, new vehicles, improved routes and higher frequencies. The five-year funding package will increase the number of services – particularly [...]
Champion of free trade? Prime Minister Boris Johnson must match rhetoric with action February 5, 2020 For believers in free trade, Boris Johnson’s speech in the Painted Hall on Monday was, in many ways, highly encouraging. The Prime Minister emphasised the role that free trade has played in lifting some of the poorest people on the planet out of poverty, name-checked Adam Smith and his invisible hand of the market, and [...]
The PM’s posturing and fighting stance could upset trade talks before they’ve even begun February 4, 2020 The tears of joy and sadness seen on Brexit Day had barely dried before the UK and EU were at each other’s throats again ahead of trade talks set to last until the end of the year. Yesterday, both the UK and EU set out their negotiating positions, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson blithely stating [...]
Boris Johnson’s disastrous Huawei decision is an act of national self-harm February 3, 2020 Powerful US Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas put it best. Letting the state-sponsored Chinese technology firm Huawei build even a portion of Britain’s 5G network — as the Prime Minister nonsensically decided to do last week — is quite a bit like letting the KGB construct the British phone systems in the 1980s. At [...]
Friday marks the end of the beginning of the Brexit battle January 29, 2020 One of Winston Churchill’s many gifts was his ability to summon the force of his rhetoric as a means of divining the feeling of the British nation. His passionate invocations in the dark days of the summer of 1940, when the UK stood alone against the Nazi menace, were masterpieces of fighting spirit, helping to [...]
Time to cull the ministers who sit around the cabinet table January 15, 2020 Walter Bagehot, one of the fathers of our modern constitutional structure, believed that the cabinet was the “efficient secret” of the British state. But what if the institution is now too large to run the country efficiently? I agree with the assessment from chief Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings that the cabinet as it stands [...]
National living wage set to rise over six per cent in 2020 December 31, 2019 Almost three million workers are set to receive a 6.2 per cent pay rise from April, after the government announced plans to raise the national living wage. The raise, which the government says will be “the biggest cash increase ever”, comes as prime minister Boris Johnson seeks yo shore up support from the working class [...]
Donald Trump invites Boris Johnson to White House December 22, 2019 US president Donald Trump has reportedly invited prime minister Boris Johnson to visit him in the White House in the new year. The Sunday Times reported that Trump’s invitation to Johnson was made after the British prime minister’s recent election win. Read more: European stocks rally as Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is approved Formal discussions [...]
Brexit bill: MPs back Boris Johnson’s EU withdrawal agreement December 20, 2019 MPs have voted in favour of Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill during today’s second reading in the House of Commons. It paves the way for the UK to leave the European Union by 31 January. Read more: Downing Street defends Zac Goldsmith peerage and cabinet role It was voted for by 358 MPs, while 234 voted [...]
Brexit bill: MPs to vote on Boris Johnson’s deal in second reading December 20, 2019 MPs will today vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill just more than a month before 31 January deadline. The withdrawal bill was first introduced to the House of Commons in October and will have its second reading today. Read more: CBI welcomes Prime Minister’s Brexit trade deal deadline MPs will have a chance to debate [...]