Europe News Feeds

A selection of current European related news feeds
 
29/03/2024
Nearly half of 2019 Tory voters want closer ties with EU, according to poll | The New European

“And 17% of those who backed Johnson now say we should re-join the bloc.” https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/nearly-half-of-2019-tory-voters-want-closer-ties-with-the-eu-according-to-new-poll/

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29/03/2024
Official data confirms UK economy slipped into recession last year | Financial Times

​  Liz McKeown of the ONS said: “Our updated set of GDP figures shows quarterly growth unrevised across 2023, with a…

The post Official data confirms UK economy slipped into recession last year | Financial Times appeared first on Brexit Carnage.


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29/03/2024
City of London rejects its latest Brexit ‘benefit’ | Politico

The U.K. has the chance to align with the U.S. rather than wait around for the EU — but the…

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29/03/2024
How democratic is the United Kingdom?
Big Ben at night

The UK’s electoral system is archaic and is being made ever more unfair by the disenfranchisement of society’s weakest

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: How democratic is the United Kingdom?


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29/03/2024
Millions of people at risk of 10-year passport rule, warns Simon Calder | The Independent

  Millions of people are at risk of falling victim to a “passport 10-year rule”, The Independent’s travel expert Simon…

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29/03/2024
Top US magazine slams Britain after 14 years of Tory ‘psychodrama’ | The Independent

  The New Yorker’s excoriating report on the state of the UK lays bare how Britain’s withdrawal from the European…

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29/03/2024
SNP blames Brexit as Scotland sees 24% drop in new home starts | The Herald

​  Scottish Government Housing Minister Paul McLennan has blamed Brexit after the number of new homes built in Scotland fell by…

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29/03/2024
Why UK recession may be deeper than two quarters of falling GDP suggest | The Guardian

​  Greater fall per head and latest trade data illustrate longer term decline of economy. Read More 

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29/03/2024
U.K. Backsliding on Civil and Political Rights, U.N. Body Says | The New York Times

​  A human rights committee that examined a range of concerns called on Britain to abandon its controversial plan to send…

The post U.K. Backsliding on Civil and Political Rights, U.N. Body Says | The New York Times appeared first on Brexit Carnage.


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28/03/2024
‘Brexit costing Scotland up to £100m a year in lost salmon exports’ | The Herald

​  Scottish salmon is the UK’s largest food export and while in 2019, more than 53,000 tonnes of the product were…

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28/03/2024
Major spending report ‘lays bare reality of broken Brexit Britain’ | The National

​  MAJOR investment is required across departments to deal with problems caused by a “lack of forward thinking” from Government, the…

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28/03/2024
Funding Public Services – Part 3
Nurses_strikes_-_19_Dec_2022_-_Outside_of_St_Thomas'_Hospital,_London - Wikimedia Commons

Bob Copeland concludes his series by advocating ‘primary’ elections to select the best candidates to oppose the two major parties.

The post Funding Public Services – Part 3 appeared first on West England Bylines.


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28/03/2024
Our democracy is under attack – from a government scared of a fair election
Polling station sign door

The current British government is making attempts to distort the electoral process and jeopardising UK democracy

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Our democracy is under attack – from a government scared of a fair election


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28/03/2024
In Memoriam – Edward Thomas
Unpicked Daffodills at Dymock - Chaffinch on Flickr - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Martin Griffiths recalls this 1915 poem which is still pertinent today.

The post In Memoriam – Edward Thomas appeared first on West England Bylines.


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28/03/2024
Government Has Scaled Back The Renters' Reform Bill
Ministers have delayed their own plans to ban no-fault evictions, as the landmark Renters' Reform Bill has been watered down.


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28/03/2024
Ukraine’s other battle: the one against corruption

We recently welcomed Michael Richter to eu!radio! He is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer at the University of Surrey, in Britain. He spoke about how Ukraine is not only defending itself against the Russian aggression, but also fighting a second battle, against corruption.

The post Ukraine’s other battle: the one against corruption appeared first on Ideas on Europe.


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28/03/2024
European elections: voting matters!

We recently welcomed Simon Usherwood to eu!radio! He is a professor at the Open University in Britain, and Chair of UACES. He shared his thoughts on the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

The post European elections: voting matters! appeared first on Ideas on Europe.


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28/03/2024
Clashes of sovereignty

We recently welcomed Emilija Tudzarovska to eu!radio! She is a Lecturer in Contemporary European Politics at Charles University, in Prague and her research focuses on the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. She spoke about her scientific approach to the crisis of representative democracy that we all perceive.

The post Clashes of sovereignty appeared first on Ideas on Europe.


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28/03/2024
Ministers Met Landlords Twice As Often As Tenants’ Groups Over Renters’ Reform Bill
Ministers met with lobbyists for landlords and estate agents twice as often as they did groups representing renters as they worked to refine new protections for tenants in the landmark Renters Reform Bill, according to analysis by PoliticsHome.


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28/03/2024
‘An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical’ lands at the Alhambra, Bradford
The cast of An Officer and A Gentleman

Solid performances and a nostalgic 1980s soundtrack prop up loosely-plotted musical ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: ‘An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical’ lands at the Alhambra, Bradford


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28/03/2024
Why Is Angela Rayner Facing Questions Over Her Tax Arrangements?
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner is facing questions over her tax arrangements relating to the sale of her former council house.


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28/03/2024
Labour Attacks Tory Record On Levelling Up In Local Election Campaign Launch
Labour leader Keir Starmer has attacked the government's flagship levelling up proposals at a launch of the party's local election campaign in Dudley, with a plea to the electorate to vote for "a changed Labour party ready to serve the interests of w...


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28/03/2024
Yorkshire rivers and waterways polluted for over 500,000 hours in 2023
River Ilkley

Yorkshire Water is the second worst in the country for sewage spills in 2023

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Yorkshire rivers and waterways polluted for over 500,000 hours in 2023


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28/03/2024
"Short-Term" Spending Leaves Next Government Facing "Critical" Challenges
A new report from the influential Public Accounts Committee of cross-party MPs has criticised the government for "short-termism" in policy making – highlighting a number areas in public spending the next government will have to grapple with.


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27/03/2024
Dover health authority says inland border facility will be ‘open door for disease’

Sevington site was never designed to handle volume of imports envisaged by post-Brexit changes due in April, port’s health chief warns

An inland facility set up to carry out checks on nearly all EU meat and dairy imports coming through Dover will be unable to cope when post-Brexit rules come in next month, the port’s health authority has warned.

The Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) said the Sevington facility in Ashford, which is 22 miles inland, had not been designed to handle the scale of imports expected, and claimed its geographical position would “create an open door for disease and food fraud”.

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27/03/2024
Ravenser Odd: Yorkshire’s medieval Atlantis
Artist's impression of what Ravenser Odd 'Yorkshire's Atlantis' may have looked like.

A new exhibition at the Hull History centre explores the colourful story of the lost Yorkshire island of Ravenser Odd

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Ravenser Odd: Yorkshire’s medieval Atlantis


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27/03/2024
‘You’ve got to be joking’: Mandelson dismisses prospect of UK rejoining EU

Labour peer says there is little desire among voters for a referendum and in Brussels for renegotiations

Peter Mandelson has dismissed the prospect of an incoming Labour government taking Britain back into the EU, saying “you’ve got to be joking” that Brussels would want to renegotiate the UK’s membership.

The Labour peer, a former EU trade commissioner and close adviser to Keir Starmer, said rejoining the 27-country bloc would require a referendum that UK voters had little desire for, after the Conservatives’ botched handling of Brexit.

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27/03/2024
Londoners Are More Concerned About Cost Of Living And Housing Than Crime
Crime is of "secondary" concern to Londoners behind housing and the cost of living, according to Antonia Jennings, chief executive of the Centre for London think tank.


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27/03/2024
Julian Assange’s extradition ‘on hold’
On Saturday 20 May 2023, activists gathered for their weekly protest (staged at Piccadilly Circus every Saturday from 4 pm to 6 pm) against the continued detention of Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison.

Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, must receive assurances from US before any extradition

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Julian Assange’s extradition ‘on hold’


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26/03/2024
Labour 2024 in search of a manifesto
Labour Party Conference, Liverpool, UK

Embarking on a trip through the past to determine how successful Labour manifestos are created

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Labour 2024 in search of a manifesto


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26/03/2024
20 Days in Mariupol
a grey landscape with a barren tree, discarded car tyres and a man walking wearing a bullet proof vests that says 'press', and a helmet. He has a camera in his hands

The Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol, shows the reality and brutality of the war in Ukraine – a must-see, lest we forget

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26/03/2024
All The MPs Standing Down At The Next General Election
With the next general election expected this year, many MPs have already chosen to not stand again for their seats – the majority of whom are Conservatives.


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26/03/2024
Veteran Political Strategist Says Tory Party's Biggest Enemy Is "Themselves"
Frank Luntz, an Influential political strategist, has said the Conservative Party’s worst threat is “themselves”, as the Tories continue to struggle in the polls and face significant losses at the next general election.


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26/03/2024
Rishi Sunak Tells MPs "Work Needs To Be Done" On Defence Production
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs that the past year had shown that the UK and its allies needed to do more work on defence industrial production.


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26/03/2024
Mending inequality in the UK: part one – changes since WW2
Image of people walking past homeless person on a crowded street

Britain is afflicted by rampant income inequality: a simplified tax system is the answer

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Mending inequality in the UK: part one – changes since WW2


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26/03/2024
Nearly Half Of 2019 Tory Voters Say The Party Doesn't Deserve To Win The Next Election
Almost two thirds of people believe the Conservative party deserves to lose the next general election, including nearly half of those who voted Tory in 2019, according to new polling.


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25/03/2024
The WASPI fight for justice continues
Waspi women campaign

Despite clear government maladministration, the WASPI campaign still has some way to go to finally secure justice

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The WASPI fight for justice continues


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25/03/2024
Police Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire: who will it be?
fire engine on the left, police car on the right

The new Police Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire will face challenges from budget cuts and worsening crime rates

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25/03/2024
Government Confirms Two Cyber Attacks Linked to Chinese State Affiliated Actors
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has criticised "malign" cyber attacks made by China-state affiliated actors, which he said had targeted UK institutions in two separate attacks.


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25/03/2024
Rishi Sunak Faces Blackpool By-Election After Scott Benton Resigns As MP
Former Conservative MP Scott Benton has resigned his Blackpool South seat, triggering what could be another damaging by-election for Rishi Sunak.


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25/03/2024
Voters Are Split On Backing Candidate Over Party At Mayoral Elections
New data has shown that voters are split as to whether to prioritise candidate or party in May's mayoral elections meaning the results may not prove to be the best bellwether for anticipating the outcome of this year's general election.


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25/03/2024
Conservative Voters Support Contentious Leasehold Reforms
Conservative voters are keen to see ground rents abolished on leasehold properties, despite significant pushback from within the parliamentary party to water down the major reform put forward by housing secretary Michael Gove.


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25/03/2024
Government Maternity Disparities Taskforce Only Met Twice Last Year
The government taskforce responsible for tackling disparities in maternity care only met twice in 2023, despite its terms of reference saying it would meet every two months.


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25/03/2024
The BBC’s Across the UK strategy is bringing broadcasting to the heart of Yorkshire
Taken at Leeds College of Music, the BBC Leeds building is next door.

The BBC’s programming strategy aims to reflect all the UK’s people, including Yorkshire audiences. Katrina Bunker speaks to Yorkshire Bylines

Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The BBC’s Across the UK strategy is bringing broadcasting to the heart of Yorkshire


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24/03/2024
British Palestinian MP Senses Public Pressure On Gaza Is "Working"
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has said that she believes public pressure is “working”, as “new faces” in Parliament have begun to challenge the UK government’s approach to the conflict in Gaza.


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24/03/2024
For the birds? Far from it. At last Rachel Reeves has given Britain a plan for economic liftoff | Will Hutton

Despite being called continuity Hunt, the shadow chancellor has set out a proposal for meaningful change

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt likes to tell business leaders not to worry about political instability and more policy upset. He claims to be carefully building policy that will survive – win or lose the next election. If the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, succeeds him, accepting nearly all his proposals, be reassured, he says, there will be continuity rather than change. In the run-up to her important Mais lecture last week, the pre-briefings seemed to warrant his judgment.

She would reaffirm her iron attachment to fiscal rules and budgetary discipline, we were told. After all, she had beaten a wholesale retreat from Labour’s cornerstone £28bn green spending commitment. In successive fiscal “events”, she has accepted all the proposed tax cuts, not even reinstating the cap on bank bonuses. There was chatter describing her as “continuity Hunt”. Even Margaret Thatcher, we read, would be invoked as a change agent she admired. Unite sharpened its claws, writing off the lecture even as Reeves spoke as “for the birds”. Only a “sustained rise in public investment in infrastructure”, declared general secretary Sharon Graham, “can turn the tide on decline”. Two days later, columnist Owen Jones resigned from the Labour party, citing the refusal to challenge catastrophic Tory policies in “a race to the bottom”.

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23/03/2024
Hickory’s Smokehouse: a taste of the deep south in Nottingham
outside view of a building

Hickory’s Smokehouse restaurant review praises the American southern-ranch style of the building, the atmosphere and the food

The post Hickory’s Smokehouse: a taste of the deep south in Nottingham appeared first on Central Bylines.


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23/03/2024
Ireland opens its arms to tech titans, yet shuts its eyes to failing public services | John Naughton

Tax revenues from Silicon Valley giants have made the republic wealthy on paper, but housing and healthcare crises persist

In 1956, a chap named TK “Ken” Whitaker, an Irish civil servant who had trained as an economist, was appointed permanent secretary of the finance department in Dublin at the relatively young age of 39. From his vantage point at the top of his country’s treasury, the view was bleak. The Irish republic was, economically and socially, in deep trouble. It had no natural resources, very little industry and was mired in a deep depression. Inflation and unemployment were high. Ireland’s main export was its young people, who were fleeing in thousands every year, seeking work and better lives elsewhere. The proud dream of Irish independence had produced a poor, priest-ridden statelet on the brink of failure.

Whitaker immediately put together a team of younger officials who did a critical analysis of the country’s economic failings and came up with a set of policies for rescuing it. The resulting report, entitled First Programme for Economic Expansion, was published in November 1958, and after Seán Lemass was elected taoiseach (prime minister) in 1959, it became Ireland’s strategy for survival.

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23/03/2024
Rishi Sunak Hopes A Benefits Squeeze Will Boost His Fortunes
A focus on slicing benefits will be at the heart of Rishi Sunak's message this Spring as the bruised Prime Minister tries to shift attention away from persistent Tory party infighting and towards his economic agenda. 


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22/03/2024
Government Accused Of Undermining Mental Health Progress With Employment Drive
Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has been criticised for his claims there is a "danger" that openness around mental health has gone "too far".


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22/03/2024
Manchester Tories Are Bitterly Divided Over Reform UK Defector's Replacement
Greater Manchester Conservatives were plunged into disarray on Thursday, and many local members remain deeply unhappy with how the party lost its candidate to the Reform UK party.


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22/03/2024
Rishi Sunak Lists Tory Wins In Letter To MPs Aimed At Lifting Spirits
Rishi Sunak has written to Conservative MPs listing what he believes the party has achieved, in a bid to lift spirits as he warns of tough times and a “difficult fight” in the local elections.


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22/03/2024
Foreign Secretary Urged To Directly Intervene To Help Injured Children Out Of Gaza
Layla Moran, Parliament's only Palestinian MP, has written to Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron asking him to directly intervene to facilitate the urgent evacuation of two severely injured children from northern Gaza.


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22/03/2024
Rishi Sunak Kicks Off Conservative Local Elections Campaign
Rishi Sunak has launched the Conservatives’ local election campaign in Derbyshire, ahead of what is expected to be a difficult test for the party before the General Election.


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21/03/2024
Israel and Palestine: what path to peace?
drawing of two hands shaking, the left has the Israeli flag on the wrist, the right the Palestinian flag

Israel and Palestine maintained an uneasy status quo which has been destroyed by the 7 October attacks and subsequent conflict

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21/03/2024
MPs Eye Giving Football Regulator More Power To Distribute Premier League Funds
MPs and football sector figures are looking to amend the Football Governance Bill to give the newly established regulator more power to force elite clubs to distribute money to smaller teams.


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21/03/2024
Government's Apprenticeship Plans "Lacking Ambition" Says Industry Body
The British Retail Consortium, which represents major businesses across the UK, has criticised the government's latest plans for apprenticeships, which they say have failed to reform existing schemes in line with industry requests.


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21/03/2024
Who is betraying Ukraine? – Part 2
Taurus KEPD_350 - Long range Cruise Missile - Wikimendia Commons - CC0 1 0

Dr Helmut Hubel asks if Germany’s Social Democratic Party, led by Chancellor Scholz, is not betraying Ukraine like Chamberlain did to Poland in 1938

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21/03/2024
Environmental Leaders Are Confident About Labour's Green Agenda
Labour remains confident about their record on environmental policy, despite recent drama over the decision to drop the £28bn price tag from its flagship Green Prosperity Plan.


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21/03/2024
Government Confirms MPs Won't Tackle Rwanda Bill Until Mid-April
The Rwanda Bill will not be passed until mid-April at the earliest, with confirmation this morning that MPs will get the chance to vote on Lords’ amendments on their first day back in Parliament after Easter recess.


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21/03/2024
Tory Manchester Mayoral Candidate Defects To Reform Party
The Conservative Party candidate for the Greater Manchester mayoral election has defected to the Reform Party.


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21/03/2024
Electoral System Could Be "Stretched To Breaking Point" Ahead Of Vote
Electoral registration systems could be “stretched to breaking point” ahead of the general election , according to the head of a cross-party committee of MPs.


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20/03/2024
The beautiful game: Notts County generations
Young boy seen from the back. He wears a shirt that says Ellis 3, and watches out over an empty football ground

Notts County, the oldest professional football club in the world has an important legacy, supported through generations of fans

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20/03/2024
Risk Of Tory Mayor Defeats Raises The Heat On Rishi Sunak
The prospect of Conservative party mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen losing their seats at the May local elections is the latest addition to a long list of Tory worries, with concern it could create a major flashpoint for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak'...


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20/03/2024
Rwanda Bill Stuck In Parliament Until After Easter
Rishi Sunak's flagship Rwanda Bill will remain caught in parliamentary "ping-pong" until after Easter recess as peers in the House of Lords increasingly believe a new set of amendments to the legislation could scrape through.


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20/03/2024
The Hester scandal: a gaslight too far

This article on the Hester scandal was written in support of Diane Abbott, the first Black UK MP, and for Black women everywhere

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19/03/2024
UK politics: Jeremy Hunt hints at October election – as it happened

Chancellor says date would allow a spending review to be carried out in time for next April

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP and former business secretary, has described as “barmy” a ruling from Ofcom saying that GB News broke impartiality rules because it allowed him to present news during his show on the channel.

Ofcom said GB News had broken these rules on five occasions – two relating to programmes presented by Rees-Mogg, and three relating to programmes presented by Esther McVey, the Cabinet Office minister, and her husband, the Tory MP Philip Davies.

This strikes me as completely barmy that reporting, in a programme that lasts for an hour, an event that has happened, where somebody has been stabbed, where does due impartiality come into somebody’s being stabbed?

I just think this is a really eccentric judgment on that particular issue. It’s just a strange thing to say that there’s a question of impartiality on a stabbing. Stabbing people is wrong.

We recognise the factual nature of the content delivered by Jacob ReesMogg, which did not include any partial comment on, or discussion of, the wider issues involved.

However, as set out above, there are additional protections afforded to news because of its fundamental importance in a democratic society.

Yes I saw that and I didn’t think that that was appropriate.

Well, I think in describing objects, in museums and galleries, I think the creator has an important role to look at history to make sure that their objects are understood. But these are matters for those individual institutions.

Punch and Judy is seen as traditionally British, but it evolved from the 16th-century Italian street performance commedia dell’arte.

Although aimed at a family audience, the original narrative in its Victoria heyday featured domestic violence, hangings and racist caricatures – a jarring and inacceptable combination for modern audiences.

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19/03/2024
River Coln Trail launches
River Coln - (c) Robert Talbot Winchcombe

West England Bylines is pleased to announce the opening of a 33 mile trail down the River Coln Valley. We hope our readers will be able to enjoy some or all of this beautiful route through the Cotswolds

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19/03/2024
Inter Faith Network closed as Michael Gove withdraws funding
A room full of people, standing around and talking to each other

The Inter Faith Network that promotes understanding between different faiths in the UK is forced to close as government withdraws funding

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18/03/2024
Hypothyroidism: my relentless fight to stay well
Woman bringing a tablet to her mouth

A hypothyroidism diagnosis for one patient has meant 15 years fighting for the only effective medication for her case

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18/03/2024
Britain is becoming a toxic chemical dumping ground – yet another benefit of Brexit | George Monbiot

Perhaps our government imagines bulldog spirit will protect us from the dangerous substances that Europe rules unsafe

It’s a benefit of Brexit – but only if you’re a manufacturer or distributor of toxic chemicals. For the rest of us, it’s another load we have to carry on behalf of the shysters and corner-cutters who lobbied for the UK to leave the EU.

The government insisted on a separate regulatory system for chemicals. At first sight, it’s senseless: chemical regulation is extremely complicated and expensive. Why replicate an EU system that costs many millions of euros and employs a small army of scientists and administrators? Why not simply adopt as UK standards the decisions it makes? After all, common regulatory standards make trading with the rest of Europe easier. Well, now we know. A separate system allows the UK to become a dumping ground for the chemicals that Europe rules unsafe.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Join George Monbiot for a Guardian Live online event on Wednesday 8 May 2024 at 8pm BST. He will be talking about his new book, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism. Book tickets here

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17/03/2024
Iceland: an unexpected call from a faraway island
A city with a sea in the foreground and snowy mountains behind it.

Iceland was an unusual place to visit but its history in World War II revealed the reasons for East German expert Professor Childs’ visit

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17/03/2024
‘Complex’ post-Brexit tax rules means price rises for UK wine drinkers

Wine Society describes planned alcohol duty changes as ‘ludicrous, expensive and probably unworkable’

British consumers have been told that the price of some of their favourite red wines could increase by more than 40p next year after the government ignored pleas from the wine industry to abandon complex post-Brexit tax changes.

The chief executive of Majestic Wine, John Colley, said the new alcohol duty system, which comes into effect in February 2025, would increase the number of tax bands for wine from one to 30, and cost businesses huge sums of money to administer.

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17/03/2024
House of Lords: to reform or not to reform?
House of Lords debate EU Withdrawal Bill - Flickr - Roger Harris - HoL

Geneviève Talon compares the British House of Lords to other second chambers and concludes that reform is needed but should be gradual so as not to throw away the Lords’ valuable scrutiny function

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17/03/2024
Britain doesn’t need ‘reform’. It just needs to rejoin the EU | William Keegan

Well-intentioned moves are afoot to ‘overhaul the machinery of government’. But it’s the policies that are the problem

It was Dr Johnson, not Boris Johnson, who declared “patriotism is a last refuge of the scoundrel”. Some years have passed since Johnson, Shirley Williams and I were guests of an institute outside Moscow. We were there to explain what we hoped were the wonders of western democracy – the freedom, the politics and the economic policies – to Russian politicians and academics who were glorying in having shaken off the constraints of the Soviet Union.

Alas, the glory days were not to last. Along came the so-called oligarchs, and then Putin. The ancient Greek word oligarkhía meant “rule by the few”. But in the post-Soviet world it came to denote a group of people who stripped the nation of its prime economic assets and became very rich – more plutocrats than oligarchs. We all know the consequences: the collapse of the Soviet Union evolved into rule by dictatorship, with the plutocrats fleeing abroad from Putin.

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16/03/2024
Surgeon training: how I became an exam question
Three poeple inscrubs and theatre clothes. a table of surgical instruments between them. One holds a long instrument, one bends over the patient, and the third is observing

The Royal College of Surgeons held an examination day for trainee surgeons, and I was an exam question.

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15/03/2024
Inspector Imanishi Investigates: reissue of a crime classic
Bookcover on a striped background

Imanishi Eitaro, the mild-mannered Tokyo detective, has returned to print in a well-deserved reissue of Seichō Matsumoto’s classic novel

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14/03/2024
UK embarks on post-Brexit trade talks with Turkey

Talks offer ‘huge opportunities’ but come at a delicate time after Ankara held up Sweden’s accession to Nato

The UK and Turkey have started talks about a post-Brexit free trade agreement targeting the service sector of the economy.

The UK government said there were “huge opportunities” for British businesses in exporting to Turkey, as one of the fastest-growing economies in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development group of nations, with trade between the two countries worth £26bn in 2022.

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14/03/2024
Labour’s EU policy: Early markers

A bit of tricky one, this. It partly explains the hiatus in posting of late, although that might also be down to the rubbish weather. As we move towards a General Election, interest has naturally turned towards what a Labour government might look like and do. And EU policy is a recurring question.

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12/03/2024
‘It’s Time’, Mr Sunak: stop the election foot-dragging

Our PM, in his political death throes, is like a crazed hostage-taker clinging on to his captive in the hope that the encircling rescuers might be hit by a thunderbolt.

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12/03/2024
The UK’s Star of European Unity and Peace
Our Star unveiled at European Parliament 18 May 2022 - Source - Our Star

Richard Jones describes the journey of the ‘UK Star’ through the UK and how this talisman for our place in Europe is stimulating debate on a range of issues

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11/03/2024
Responsible Research and Innovation training

How to align research and innovation with values, needs and expectations of society? During the past ten years, researchers, policy-makers and funders in Europe have developed and supported the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach to address societal aspects of research and innovation early on.

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10/03/2024
Book review: ‘Politics On the Edge – A Memoir From Within’, by Rory Stewart: part 3

Rory Stewart's life in politics casts a remarkable and unflattering light on our system and those who work in it. The story concludes ...

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10/03/2024
Jeremy Hunt’s budget mixtape is no match for Brexit’s greatest hits | Stewart Lee

Somehow the chancellor omitted to mention the main cause of Britain’s woes

On Wednesday, I watched Jeremy Hunt unveil the budget live on TV, though a carefully coordinated campaign of leaks to client media outlets meant it held little of the excitement it did in the 1970s. Where’s the fun in that? If Hunt’s 2024 budget was a 19th-century Parisienne burlesque artist, she would have walked on stage already naked and then gradually put her clothes back on, to the increasing uninterestedness of the disappointed perverts in attendance.

What an event budget day was when I was a boy! The annual release of the budget was as thrilling to me as waiting for each week’s new No 1 in the Radio 1 chart rundown. To this day still, I have a battered C60 audio cassette on which I used to tape both direct from the radio. Side one is my favourite No 1 singles from the period 1974 to 1977 – the Rubettes’ Sugar Baby Love, Windsor Davies and Don Estelle’s Whispering Grass, the Wurzels’ The Combine Harvester and the Sex Pistols’ gamechanging God Save the Queen. Side two is highlights of the then chancellor Denis Healey’s budgetary announcements from the same years. Who can forget 1974’s 10% on crisps, 1975’s ½p on a loaf of bread, 1976’s beer up one penny and 1977’s unprecedented withdrawal of the 2% national insurance surcharge on charities, a decision so radical it was essentially Healey’s own punk rock moment.

Stewart Lee’s Basic Lee is on tour in March at Darlington Hippodrome (16) and Kings Theatre Portsmouth (21)

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08/03/2024
Labour, the Tories, and the natural world 

Neither of the leading political parties in Britain has proper respect for the natural world. Indeed both are a million miles from what’s needed

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08/03/2024
Theresa May: loyal constituency MP who lost Tory support over Brexit

No 10 years were plagued by in-fighting as she tried to deliver a Brexit that would placate hard-right and centrist factions

After grand dinners at Chequers, the UK prime ministers’ countryside retreat, Theresa May often used to ask her driver to take her 45 minutes across the Buckinghamshire countryside to her home in Maidenhead, rather than staying overnight.

Even as prime minister, May maintained a devotion to her constituency that sometimes baffled aides but encapsulated the contradictions at the heart of one of Britain’s most successful but hard-to-define politicians.

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08/03/2024
The political life of Theresa May – in pictures

Theresa May has announced she will not stand as an MP in the next general election. We look back over May’s political career, from being elected as MP for Maidenhead in 1997, to her time as home secretary for David Cameron, stewarding Brexit after Cameron’s resignation, the snap election that backfired, dancing at Tory party conferences, and her life as an MP since resigning as leader of the party

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07/03/2024
EU’s Conundrum of Strategies: Is There an Orderly Jigsaw on the Horizon?

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 27 January 2016 The grandness of the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy lies in its potential to render the existing conundrum of various EU strategies into a more orderly set of strands with a clear vision regarding their mutually complementary role. […]

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07/03/2024
Motivational Quotes For Work

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 11 April 2016 Do you have at work one of these lovely collaborative brainstorming boards? I do. Here is my inspirational (inspirational / management) quote. In short, I have taken the liberty to add a new twist to the widely used Altshuler’s quote. The […]

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07/03/2024
The EU’s Diplomacy for Science in the Southern Neighbourhood: Setting a Research Agenda

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 15 October 2019 Foreword The outlined science diplomacy research project is presented with a full appreciation of Adler-Nissen’s concise observation that ‘over the last 50 years, European states have come to view their nations as anchored so deeply within the institutions of the EU that their […]

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07/03/2024
EUSBSR Should Be Profoundly Transformative

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 21 October 2019 “In each one of us, in differing degrees, is contained the person we were yesterday, and indeed, in the nature of things it is even true that our past personae predominate in us, since the present is necessarily insignificant when compared […]

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07/03/2024
EU Science Diplomacy in the Southern Neighbourhood with a Bourdieusian Twist

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 8 November 2019 This blog entry is a follow-up to the research agenda published last month. It presents further details of the research project. It captures the evolving complexity of the research project since the most recent reflections on Bourdieusian influences in the EU studies have encouraged […]

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07/03/2024
VAT threshold for UK businesses limited by EU rules, Hunt admits privately

Exclusive: Chancellor disappointed some Conservatives with only limited rise in threshold, but said he was restricted by Northern Ireland protocol

Jeremy Hunt has privately admitted to colleagues that he cannot further raise the VAT threshold for UK businesses because of EU rules.

The chancellor announced in his budget on Wednesday that businesses would no longer have to pay VAT if they had a turnover of less than £90,000, an increase from the previous threshold of £85,000.

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03/03/2024
Brexit: Millions were denied a vote

The Conservatives 2015 manifesto promised ‘votes for life’ for all Britons living abroad – in line with other major democracies, such as the USA, France, Italy, and Canada. Britons who’d been living abroad for more than 15 years weren’t allowed to vote in UK elections. But the Tories pledged to change that. Those Britons abroad […]

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03/03/2024
Brexit: What David Cameron could have done

On the day after the EU referendum, 24 June 2016, the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, stood outside 10 Downing Street. He could have said: “The people of the United Kingdom have all had their say.” But he didn’t. He didn’t mention “United Kingdom” at all. What he actually said was: “Over 33 million people, from […]

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03/03/2024
Jeremy Hunt knows Brexit Britain can’t afford to cut taxes

The chancellor is prepared to inflict yet more austerity to pay for a budget bribe. But the UK needs more spending, not less

“When I was young, it grew on me by the minute
That we were outside Europe and should be in it
Now I am old and we are back outside it
I simply can’t abide it.”

This clerihew was sent to me out of the blue by Martin Bell, the celebrated former BBC foreign correspondent who became known as the Man in the White Suit during his 1997-2001 spell in parliament as the independent MP for Tatton.

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01/03/2024
‘There is no money’ could be Hunt’s own note to next chancellor | Larry Elliott

As the chancellor prepares next week’s budget, Labour says it is staring at a dire inheritance. The voters look likely to agree

The past 14 years have been a white-knuckle ride for the British economy. Record low interest rates, money creation from the Bank of England on an industrial scale, Brexit, millions of workers furloughed during the pandemic, the biggest fall in output in at least a century – all that, and a record number of people inactive through long-term ill health. Boring it hasn’t been.

At the end of it all, there is a sense of deja vu as Jeremy Hunt puts the finishing touches to next week’s budget. When Liam Byrne departed the Treasury in 2010 he left a note – meant as a joke – for his successor as chief secretary, which said: “I’m afraid there is no money.” After almost a decade and a half of economic underperformance, Byrne’s words have come back to haunt the Tories.

Economists say George Osborne blundered when he imposed severe austerity measures on a still-fragile economy

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01/03/2024
Fixing broken Britain starts with changing a lightbulb

UK democracy needs radical reform, but there’s little evidence our leaders are ready to take up the challenge, writes Alun Drake. I’m a great fan of jokes involving defective light bulbs. Here’s an example: how many climate change deniers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: none, because they claim it’s too early […]

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29/02/2024
Food trade bodies consider legal action over post-Brexit ‘not for EU’ labelling

Producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation

Food industry trade bodies are discussing whether to take legal action against the government over post-Brexit plans that will require all meat and dairy products sold in the UK to be labelled as “not for EU”.

Food producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation, and they are discussing a legal challenge as a viable option if a solution with the government is not found.

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29/02/2024
It was never just about trade

Eurosceptics often claim that they love Europe but hate the European Union. They assert that Britain can still be part of Europe without having to be part of the European Union. That, of course, is true to an extent, but it rather misses the point and purpose of the EU. The European Economic Community – […]

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27/02/2024
Carrying chickens by their legs should remain unlawful, say UK campaigners

Defra proposal to relax farming rules accused of breaking Tory pledge to raise standards post-Brexit as the practice can cause pain

Proposals to legalise the carrying of chickens by their legs in the UK would represent an unacceptable dilution of animal welfare standards and the first such weakening of regulations in the area since Brexit, campaigners have said.

The government’s Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) has made the recommendation despite acknowledging it to be a “welfare compromise” that can cause “pain, discomfort and breathing difficulty” leading to distress and injuries such as fractures and dislocations.

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26/02/2024
A united Ireland is growing ever more likely – thanks to the failures of Brexit Britain | John Walsh

The irony may be that Nigel Farage has done more for unification than generations of Republicans

A week before the Brexit vote on 23 June 2016, a reporter from an Irish radio station caught up with Nigel Farage on the campaign trail. He asked the Ukip leader if Britain’s departure from the EU would have any implications for the island of Ireland.

“Don’t worry, we’ll still buy your Guinness,” replied Farage, which chimed with the leave side’s broader dismissal of the consequences for the Good Friday agreement arising from the vote.

John Walsh is a Dublin-based journalist, and writer and co-producer of the feature-length documentary The Irish Question, which premiered at Dublin international film festival

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24/02/2024
‘When’s Nigel coming back?’ Farage absence looms large over Reform UK conference

In Doncaster, at the insurgent rightwing party’s ‘biggest ever’ gathering, one absence is on everybody’ lips

On a sunny day at Doncaster racecourse, those gathered for Reform UK’s “biggest ever party conference” were presented with a dizzying array of pledges to cut tax and ­freeze “non-essential” immigration as its leading lights published a ­programme to “save Britain”. Yet even as the sun beamed down, the shadow of one absent figure seemed to hang over proceedings.

There was a jubilant mood at the South Yorkshire gathering as they cheered leader Richard Tice’s demands for an inquiry into vaccine harms, to break with the World Health Organization and to fire headteachers who refused to drop “critical race theory”.

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19/02/2024
Only a united Europe can bring us peace

The EU is the most successful peace project in human history. Sure, it’s not perfect. But as a model for neighbouring countries to democratically work together, in cooperation and in peace, for the common goals of prosperity and security with respect for human rights, there is no better example on planet earth. If the world’s […]

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18/02/2024
The Russian Connection – update

There is no doubt across the world, even in Russia, that Vladimir Putin was directly involved in the murder on Friday of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. Just as there is now little doubt that Russia directly interfered in the UK’s democratic processes – the Scottish referendum in 2014, the EU referendum in 2016, and […]

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18/02/2024
The Tories’ tax plans are absurd. When will Labour be brave enough to say so? | William Keegan

Pre-election giveaways funded by yet more austerity will push the welfare state the opposition created towards ruin

As a longstanding observer of the British economy, I sympathise with the general reader trying to make sense of recent reports on what is happening to it.

One week he or she is told that inflation is falling; another week that it isn’t. One week we are reliably informed that interest rates are going to be reduced; the next that they are not. One week there is no danger of falling into recession. The next week we are informed that we are already in one.

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15/02/2024
The day Britain ditched old money

Compared to Brexit, the day Britain ditched its old money and adopted a new decimal currency was smooth sailing. Work on the new system began in earnest in March 1966 and decimalisation day came five years later, on 15 February 1971, when the government launched the new currency across the country. The familiar pounds, shillings […]

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14/02/2024
Why are kids doing the ‘Brexit tackle’? They’re having fun at adults’ expense – and mocking our toxic politics | Lola Okolosie

My son says it means taking out the player without getting the ball, all while shouting ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Sound familiar?

For the umpteenth time, my son, with an Ikea stuffed ball he has had since infancy, is playing football in the living room. He is joined by one of his best friends, an equally football-obsessed 10-year-old who, before slide-tackling in what can only be described as a deliberate attempt to knock my son’s legs off, shouts: “Brexit means Brexit!” Confused, I pass it off as an example of tweenage precocity: which 10-year-old is happy to quote Theresa May while playing football?

Over the next year, however, I will hear the term used again and again when my son plays football at the local park. He turns 11 and is off to secondary school. There, too, the phrase seems to have become a “thing”. One evening, as he recounts the details of how he got a painful-looking graze on his shin, he quotes the attacking player’s prelude to clattering into him: “Brexit means Brexit!” I ask, finally, why people are saying this. Nonchalantly, as he practises “skills” with the same softball, he explains that the Brexit tackle “is a tackle that doesn’t get the ball, only takes out the player”. Urban Dictionary concurs, stating it is, among other things, “when somebody hits a massive slide tackle and usually sends them flying and it hurts them servely [sic]”.

Lola Okolosie is an English teacher and writer

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12/02/2024
How can Labour win next time?

To win power, and to stay in power for more than one term, Labour needs to do something special. It’s a sobering thought that although there have been six Labour Prime Ministers since the party was formed in 1900, only three of them won general elections: Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, and Tony Blair. The Tory […]

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07/02/2024
‘Brexit is a colossal mistake’

Former Conservatives Prime Minister, Sir John Major, did not mince his words about Brexit at a Westminster committee meeting. Speaking in February 2023, he asserted that leaving the European Union has been “a colossal mistake.” We should be back in the #EU, he said, to keep Britain safe. He said: “There are three great power […]

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06/02/2024
Labour, it’s time to think BIG

The Guardian has reported that Labour is planning to ditch radical reforms and only offer ‘safe policies’ in a stripped-down, cautious manifesto that is “bombproof” to Tory attacks. Keir Starmer has now rowed back from numerous big policies, such as its £28bn a year commitment on green investment, replacing the House of Lords with a […]

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02/02/2024
What is the new Northern Ireland Brexit trade deal?
Ministers have set out new trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and the EU.


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31/01/2024
Northern Ireland: what does the new post-Brexit deal mean?

Trade rules aim to alleviate DUP opposition to the Irish Sea border and restore power sharing

The government has established new rules to smooth post-Brexit trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is to assuage Democratic Unionist party concerns that the Irish Sea border has undermined the region’s position in the UK. In return for these concessions the DUP has agreed to restore power sharing after a two-year boycott that has paralysed the Stormont assembly and executive.

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31/01/2024
Government set to publish NI power-sharing deal
The deal is expected to include legislation to be fast-tracked through parliament on Thursday.


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31/01/2024
Irish trade to GB now subject to post-Brexit rules
The new controls began on Wednesday as part of a long-delayed UK plan to apply more checks on EU imports.


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31/01/2024
Post-Brexit controls on food and farm imports start
Wednesday marks the first step in new rules around UK imports of food and animals from the EU.


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31/01/2024
How UK’s new border controls will affect plants and animal imports

Today is first stage in a series of changes likely to raise costs for businesses and consumers

Today will bring the first stage in new, wide-ranging Brexit border controls on the import of plants, animals and food to the UK from the European Union.

The changes, the most significant for importers since the UK left the single market three years ago, are poised to have huge ramifications for businesses that rely on imports from the continent.

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30/01/2024
Northern Ireland: what is the power-sharing deal – and could it be blocked?

DUP approves post-Brexit legislation, meaning devolved government could soon be functioning again

Power-sharing in Northern Ireland is on the verge of being restored after a night of drama in Belfast. It would end an almost two-year power vacuum in the region after the Democratic Unionist party collapsed the Stormont government to protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

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26/01/2024
Post-Brexit trade deals: what’s been agreed and what could still come?

After talks with Canada hit a halt alongside those with US and India, the UK has limited Pacific agreements to show for Brexit

Negotiations over a trade deal between the UK and Canada have been halted after disagreements on beef and cheese tariffs.

The ability for the UK to secure its own global free trade deals was sold as one major benefit from the UK’s decision to leave the EU but progress has been mixed. Here we look at what agreements have been struck so far and with whom, and which other important economies are still at the negotiating table and why.

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26/01/2024
UK-Canada trade talks halted in beef and cheese row
Talks aimed at extending an EU-era deal broke down over Britain's ban on hormone-treated meat.


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19/01/2024
The UK environmental protections dropped since Brexit

The scale of the law changes means environmental legislation in the UK is facing death by a thousand cuts

Although the UK’s regression from EU environmental standards, revealed by the Guardian, seems very technical, the scale of the law changes means environmental legislation in Britain is facing death by a thousand cuts.

In practice, changes by the EU that the UK is not following and planned divergences from EU law will mean toxic chemicals banned in the EU will be allowed to be used in the UK, the UK will reduce greenhouse gas emissions more slowly, its waters will be dirtier, and consumer products will be more likely to contribute to global deforestation.

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27/12/2023
Pint-sized wine bottles approved in Brexit review
The new 568ml size will offer more choice for customers, the Department for Business and Trade says.


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21/12/2023
UK signs financial deal with Switzerland
The agreement makes it easier for British and Swiss finance firms to deal with each other.


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21/12/2023
How the NI Protocol became the Windsor Framework
BBC economics and business editor John Campbell looks at the in and outs of the 2023 Brexit deal.


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21/12/2023
Businesses need 'better advice' on UK-EU divergence
Divergence is significant for Northern Ireland as it remains inside the EU's single market for goods.


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06/12/2023
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over Rwanda, Thatcher and Brexit at PMQs – video

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have clashed over the Rwanda asylum deal during PMQs. The Labour leader referred to the plan as a 'gimmick' while the prime minister declared Starmer was 'once again on the side of the people smugglers'. The pair also used Margaret Thatcher and Brexit to mock one another with Starmer questioning how the Conservative party went from 'up yours to laws to take our money Kagame'. Sunak said Starmer could role play Thatcher all he wanted but when it came to Europe his answer was the same, 'yes, yes, yes'

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04/12/2023
UK has lacked coherent economic strategy for years, thinktank finds

Trade has been hit by Brexit, while the number in poverty has risen sharply in a country ill-prepared for the future

For years the British government from the prime minister down has lacked a coherent economic strategy, according to a thinktank’s health check of UK prospects.

“We are not on course towards setting any such strategy – indeed, we are not serious about the task,” says the report, titled “Ending Stagnation – a new economic strategy for Britain”.

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30/11/2023
Younger Britons are more pro-EU but ‘fixing’ Brexit not their priority

Ursula von der Leyen hopes young people can drive a rapprochement but polls show they have other things on their minds

“We goofed it up, you have to fix it,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday in a message to the younger generation about Brexit.

Fixing it would be “the direction of travel” with regard to the UK rejoining the EU, she told an audience in Brussels. But as the fourth anniversary of Brexit approaches, is it likely that Britain’s millennials and generation Z will demand a rapprochement?

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18/05/2023
Carmaker worries with high EU export tariffs ‘not to do with Brexit’, says Badenoch – video

Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, has said that the problem raised by car manufacturers worried about exports to the EU facing tariffs from next year 'isn’t to do with Brexit'.

She made the comment during business questions in the Commons, where Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, criticised her record since she has been in post.

The 'rules of origin' requirements raised by car manufacturers were part of the TCA and related to Brexit, but all European car manufacturers were having problems because there was not enough battery supply in Europe, she said

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15/05/2023
'That feels wrong': Keir Starmer criticises lack of vote for EU citizens living in UK – video

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said it 'feels wrong' that EU citizens who have lived in the UK for years and pay taxes here do not have the right to vote. Speaking to LBC on Monday, Starmer said: 'The thinking behind it is: if someone’s been here say 10, 20, 30 years, contributing to this economy, contributing to the community, they ought to be able to vote'

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11/05/2023
Speaker berates Kemi Badenoch for not informing MPs about EU law U-turn – video

The speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsey Hoyle, lost his temper with Kemi Badenoch when the secretary of state failed to inform the house of the government's U-turn on repealing retained EU laws.

The government has decided to go ahead with plans to allow thousands of EU-inherited laws to expire by the end of the year, news that Badenoch released in a statement and to the Telegraph newpaper before making a statement in the House of Commons.

The business and trade secretary said she was sorry that the sequencing was not to the speaker's satisfaction, infuriating Hoyle further

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11/04/2023
Good Friday and Windsor agreements are top priority for Belfast trip, says Biden – video

The US president said making sure the Good Friday agreement and the Windsor framework stay in place were the top priority of his trip to Northern Ireland. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Joe Biden said 'making sure the Irish accords and the Windsor agreements stay in place, keep the peace, that's the main thing'.

Biden also addressed a question on the arrest of Evan Gershkovich by Russian authorities, calling his detention 'totally illegal'.

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02/04/2023
Suella Braverman denies Brexit to blame for Dover queues – video

Suella Braverman has denied Brexit is responsible for delays at the port of Dover after some passengers said they had been queueing for up to 14 hours to have their passports checked. Extra sailings were being put in place overnight with hopes of clearing the backlog by lunchtime on Sunday, after a critical incident was declared at the port on Friday. Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the home secretary said operations at the French border had been 'very good' since Brexit

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24/03/2023
UK and EU formally adopt Brexit deal for Northern Ireland – video

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly met with Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president, to agree to work 'intensively and faithfully' to implement the Windsor framework after formally adopting it. On behalf of the UK and EU, both counterparts agreed to accept the revised version of the Northern Ireland protocol. Prime minister Rishi Sunak's deal with the 27-nation bloc has rewritten the post-Brexit rules on Northern Ireland trade. Cleverly said that, after long negotiations, the two had finally found a way 'to move forward'

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22/03/2023
Sunak wins post-Brexit vote on revised Northern Ireland protocol – video

Rishi Sunak has won parliamentary backing for his revised post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland despite hardline Conservative Brexiters voting against it. Among those who did not support the prime minister’s proposals were his two immediate predecessors, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, members of the European Research Group as well as Democratic Unionist party MPs

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21/03/2023
Hardline Tory MPs reject Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit plan – video

Conservative MP Mark Francois, who chairs the European Research Group, makes a statement to the press detailing its study of Rishi Sunak's Northern Ireland Brexit plan. Summarising the ERG's stance, Francois said  it had concluded the Stormont 'brake' was not effective and that the check-free 'green lane' for the bulk of goods moved between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would not work as billed


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02/03/2023
Boris Johnson says Rishi Sunak’s NI Brexit deal 'does not take back control' – video

Speaking at the Global Soft Power summit in London, the ex-prime minister Boris Johnson said the Northern Ireland Brexit deal agreed by Sunak was 'not about the UK taking back control'. Johnson admitted he was at fault that the checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland had become too 'onerous' but reiterated his call for the UK to be allowed to diverge with EU regulations and laws. He said: 'This is nothing if it is not a Brexit government, and Brexit is nothing if we in this country don’t do things differently' 

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25/01/2023
Britain, Spain, Singapore? Gibraltar mulls its future
As talks resume on its future, the British overseas territory fears for its sovereignty and border.


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30/12/2020
A quick guide to what's in the Brexit deal
These are the most important aspects of the UK-EU deal, and what they mean for people's lives and businesses.


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31/01/2020
Full Brexit journey in under two minutes
It's been more than three years since the UK voted to leave the European Union but how did we get here?


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13/12/2019
Why we lost – and where we go from here

When the history of Brexit is written, the Lib Dems’ decision to let Johnson hold this election will be seen as a key strategic error.

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11/12/2019
7 reasons to vote Johnson out

We can kick Johnson out. So brave the elements and vote for the candidates with the best chance of beating the Tories.

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11/12/2019
Trump sabotages Brexiters’ last-ditch safety net

Relying on the WTO for our trade was always a terrible idea. Now that the US president has ripped a hole in it, it’s economic suicide.

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11/12/2019
With a final tactical voting push, we can beat Johnson

Good news from YouGov poll is Tory lead is shrinking. Bad news is they are still ahead because too many pro-European votes are being wasted.

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10/12/2019
Johnson won’t stop the chaos – that’s just propaganda

A Tory victory means more chaos. The only way to end the arguments over Brexit and fix our real problems is to vote them out.

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10/12/2019
Tories bully BBC because it’s easily cowed

Johnson yesterday hinted he would axe the licence fee. This had two purposes: cover up his NHS blunder and pummel the BBC into submission.

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10/12/2019
At Christmas you tell the truth, but not if you’re Johnson

PM rips off Love Actually in his video but misses out the punch line: “Just because it’s Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth.”

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10/12/2019
Don’t worry about voting tactically for Corbyn. He won’t win

Right-wing press has branded Corbyn unelectable. They are right - he is. Not for the reasons they suggest, but because of simple maths.

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09/12/2019
Tory “punch” propaganda backfires

To cover up Johnson’s NHS disaster, Tories fabricate story about Labour activist punching Hancock aide.

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09/12/2019
Johnson’s dishonesty and disorganisation on Irish Sea border

Not only is Johnson lying about surrendering to the EU demand for an internal UK border, he isn’t ready to deliver a deal by December 2020.

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