Labour has rejected its own legacy of NHS reform – with sad implications for patients September 14, 2015 "New Labour officially dead and buried", tweeted Daily Politics presenter Andrew Neil as the Labour leadership election results came in. Writing for the Guardian, general secretary of Unite the Union Len McCluskey also interpreted Jeremy Corbyn’s victory as “three parts optimism and one part repudiation of the ‘New Labour’ past”. It is hard [...]
Boris Johnson’s mum Charlotte Johnson Wahl has never voted Tory September 29, 2015 Boris Johnson might be working his way up to the top job, but there's at least one person who has never (and by the sounds of it, may never) vote for him: his mum. Painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl says she has “never voted Tory in my life” – and thinks it is “extraordinary” that [...]
Poll: British people want closer economic ties with China October 19, 2015 As Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping hail a "golden era" of Sino-British relations, there are some voices asserting the UK must do more to tackle China's human rights record. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, for one, is planning to use a state dinner at Buckingham Palace to raise the issue with Jinping. But [...]
Corbyn’s face on bankers’ golf ball gift August 19, 2015 USUALLY if you don’t like someone, the cliched approach is to stick their photo on a dartboard and aim for the face. Not content with such a working-class show of vehemence, golfing experts Your Golf Travel made some gifts for their 20 biggest clients. Execs from Coutts, Lloyds and M&S all received golf balls with [...]
George Osborne announces £500m funding for Faslane submarine base in new push for Trident programme August 31, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has pledged £500m for the Royal Navy’s submarine base at Faslane, funding he says will create “thousands” of jobs. The base in Faslane, one of the UK’s three naval hubs, is home to Britain’s Trident programme, with four submarines armed with Trident missiles based there. Read more: What you need to know [...]
Labour needs to get excited about business – The City View September 28, 2015 Labour’s uneasy relationship with business has left scars on the party’s back, and this weekend old wounds were reopened as Jeremy Corbyn echoed his predecessor and launched an attack on Boots. Ed Miliband famously exchanged (verbal) blows with the global chief executive of the pharmacy giant, Stefano Pessina, back in February when the Boots boss [...]
As David Cameron vows to raise issue of Chinese steel with Xi Jinping, what are his options? October 19, 2015 Britain’s industrial towns are facing an uncertain future as job losses in the steel industry continue to mount. Calls from those affected to “do something” are understandable. But the truth is that, under current government policies, this once iconic industry (like coal before it) is becoming increasingly unviable. So in the case of SSI, whose [...]
EU referendum: More Britons are now in favour of leaving the EU than remaining in it, and the “no” camp is set to grow even further if the migrant crisis worsens September 6, 2015 The EU “no” camp is gaining strength among British voters, a new Survation poll reveals. If a referendum on membership took place today, 43 per cent of Britons would opt to leave the bloc, while 40 per cent would choose to stay and 17 per cent are undecided about how they would vote. The results are [...]
Now Brown joins chorus of critics over leadership favourite Corbyn August 16, 2015 FORMER Prime Minister Gordon Brown has become the latest Labour grandee to intervene in the party’s leadership contest, saying that it needs to present itself as “credible” and “electable”. In a 50-minute speech in London yesterday, Brown did not refer to any of the Labour leadership candidates by name, but appeared to roundly reject the [...]
Donald Trump UK ban debate: Donald Trump’s views are repugnant, but we can’t ban people for stupidity January 18, 2016 MPs from all parties were vehement in their condemnation of Donald Trump during a debate on whether to ban the outspoken business mogul and Republican presidential hopeful from the country, after a petition calling for him to be denied entry to the UK received over 560,000 signatures. The petition was launched amid widespread criticism after Trump called for a ban [...]