As a former Labour parliamentary candidate for Bolton West, a Tory marginal situated among the ‘Red Wall’ seats, I cannot imagine a situation in which its constituents or any of those in the neighbouring seats would vote at the next election for a larger state and even higher taxes. They didn’t want a Corbyn and … Read more
Good morning. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, was making a rare appearance on the morning interview round today. He was mostly talking about the announcement about the £4bn support package for leaseholders hit by excessive cladding-removal costs, which will be the subject of a Commons statement later. But he was also asked about Covid, … Read more
[The agreement] entails Plaid Cymru transforming itself from a traditional opposition party in the Westminster sense to something new and refreshingly different, a co-opposition party, co-operating where possible, while continuing to oppose, and to scutinise and criticise where necessary. There is no precedent for what we are about to embark upon in the politics of … Read more
For more than three decades David Carden drove across England’s Midlands, transporting tens of thousands of liters of fuel from holding tanks to service stations. The flammable liquid made it a dangerous job requiring skill and caution, but when he started the pay and the benefits were good, enabling him to support his young family. … Read more
Whisky, cars, vaccines, basmati rice, wool, and tea pre-mix top a list of 240 odd products the Indian industry has identified for import duty cuts in the United Kingdom under a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. The industry has come up with the list of products for greater market access in … Read more
Over the course of 12 weeks in 2001, Burns and the other pupils at north Belfast’s Holy Cross Girls’ primary were subjected to a barrage of abuse from a group of loyalist Protestants blocking their path to the school gate. The unrest, reported on globally at the time, began during the last week of the … Read more
Latest updates: UK foreign secretary critical of French president over Brexit as final day of G7 sees attention turn to climate crisis 1.19pm BST Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has said that with Joe Biden US president instead of Donald Trump, the world can address its problems “with a new zest”, Bloomberg reports. “Look, the … Read more
Top European Union officials vowed Thursday to use all measures available to ensure that the United Kingdom respects the terms of its Brexit agreement with the bloc as tensions rise over trade involving Northern Ireland. “It is paramount to implement what we have decided. This is a question of rule of law,” European Council President … Read more
“People live by narrative,” Boris Johnson told the Atlantic’s Tom McTague, for a long and revealing profile this week that explains quite a lot about how Johnson views the secret of his political success. But the House of Commons is an arena where fact, argument and repartee tend to count more than narrative and that … Read more
Good morning. In a long profile published yesterday, Boris Johnson was quoted as suggesting that politics is all about stories. “People live by narrative,” he told The Atlantic. “Human beings are creatures of the imagination.” And so, with tension with the EU over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol escalating (or non-implementation – the … Read more