Another UK-EU battle seems almost certain February 26, 2020 Remember the summer of 2018? The sun shining almost constantly, England’s footballers marching to the latter stages of a major international tournament, and interminable battles between Westminster and Brussels over the future relationship between the UK and the European Union. Alas, the first two can’t be guaranteed — though we deserve some vitamin D after [...]
Exclusive: Javid to make first statement since exit February 26, 2020 Sajid Javid will today make a short statement in Parliament, his first public intervention since he resigned as chancellor just under a fortnight ago. Javid stepped down after being asked to fire his aides by the Prime Minister as part of a drastic reorganisation of Number 10 and 11 Downing Street. Refusing, Javid said “no [...]
Lessons for Britain over the tragedy of Syria February 25, 2020 The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, is coming to a bloody end — and, despite so many deaths that the United Nations essentially stopped counting, Bashar al-Assad is victorious. Idlib, the besieged home of the remaining Syrian rebels who fled as regime forces retook the rest of the country, will soon be added [...]
Spending spree could come at a heavy cost February 24, 2020 From the briefings that have been emerging from Downing Street and the Treasury in recent weeks, it is sometimes difficult to remember which party won the last election. Ahead of the Budget, there are reports we could be set for a spending boom to rival Gordon Brown’s pre-election giveaway in 2001 — the very height [...]
Exclusive: Barclays installs Big Brother-style spyware on employees’ computers February 19, 2020 Barclays has been criticised by HR experts and privacy campaigners after the bank installed “Big Brother” employee monitoring software in its London headquarters. Introduced as a pilot last week, the technology monitors Barclays workers’ activity on their computers, and in some instances admonishes staff in daily updates to them if they are not deemed to [...]
Exclusive: Bailey calls for London to host Olympics if coronavirus forces Tokyo move February 18, 2020 Former Sports minister says hosting would be “perfectly possible” as spokesman for Sadiq Khan says the capital would be ready if asked to deliver CONSERVATIVE mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has said the Summer Olympics and Paralympics could be hosted in London if the Games are forced to move due to the coronavirus outbreak – as [...]
Barclays and Downing St have some thinking to do February 17, 2020 Once is unfortunate, twice could be coincidence but three times starts to look like a pattern. We can now say Jes Staley’s unfortunate habit for gathering eyebrow-raising headlines certainly looks like the latter. The latest is the controversy surrounding his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and two watchdogs’ investigation into whether he was [...]
Democrats are risking a Corbynesque mistake February 6, 2020 Tuesday morning’s New York Post headline — “Duh Moines,” after the capital of Iowa, Des Moines — neatly summed up the reaction of most of the watching world to the much-hyped start of the US presidential election. A new voting app turned the first Democrat primary (where potential presidential candidates are ranked) into an utter [...]
Government flies into trouble with targets February 5, 2020 One can understand why a man whose job it is to promote and run an airport may be of the view that flying is, on balance, quite a good idea. For much of the time that Heathrow has been in business, its bosses have largely had their licence to operate pretty much nailed on — [...]
Johnson’s Huawei gamble is exactly that January 29, 2020 So, they’re in. After all the hullaballoo of recent weeks, the actual announcement that Huawei will be granted access to the UK’s 5G infrastructure was something of a damp squib, slipped out in a press release that didn’t even dare mention the name of the Chinese company. This is Boris Johnson’s first major decision, and [...]
