Political news

• UK government plans new legislation to tame internet's 'wild west'

  19-05-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  New laws will make Britain ‘safest place in the world’ to be online, culture secretary saysNew laws will be introduced to tackle the internet’s “wild west” that will make Britain the “safest place in the world” to be online, the culture secretary has said.Social media companies have already taken some positive steps to protect users, but the performance of the industry overall has been mixed, according to Matt Hancock. Continue reading...
  
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• It’s time to lift the veil on incompetence

  16-04-2024 06:00 via ft.com
  Both governments and companies are guilty of feigning inability when it works to their advantage
  
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• UK ‘pothole crisis’ threatens Tories ahead of local elections

  16-04-2024 05:00 via ft.com
  Motorists and cyclists are increasingly outraged by the state of the country’s roads
  
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• Liz Truss considered sacking Andrew Bailey as BoE governor after ‘mini’ Budget

  16-04-2024 01:00 via ft.com
  Former UK prime minister hits at central bank and Treasury for being ‘fatalistic about Britain’s decline’
  
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• 40,000 migrants living in limbo in the UK, Home Office says

  16-04-2024 00:35 via ft.com
  Disclosure comes as MPs vote to try to finalise legislation aimed at sending asylum seekers to Rwanda
  
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• Only 1% of UK primary teachers think pupils have ‘adequate’ financial literacy

  15-04-2024 23:23 via ft.com
  Campaigners warn that confidence in basic numeracy is at a low level among youngsters
  
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• 1% of UK primary school teachers report pupils have ‘adequate’ level of financial literacy

  15-04-2024 23:23 via ft.com
  Campaigners have warned that confidence in basic numeracy is at a low level among young people
  
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• 40,000 migrants living in limbo in the UK, Home Office confirms

  15-04-2024 20:50 via ft.com
  Officials fail to put figure on how many of this cohort could be sent to Rwanda under Rishi Sunak’s plans
  
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• Water companies pay £2.5bn in dividends in two years as debt climbs by £8.2bn

  15-04-2024 12:00 via ft.com
  In 32 years since privatisation £78bn has been paid out of utilities
  
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• Angela Rayner row more tricky for Labour than ‘beergate’

  15-04-2024 10:30 via ft.com
  A destabilising election to replace party’s deputy leader looks unlikely but it all depends on the police verdict
  
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• UK rethinks AI legislation as alarm grows over potential risks

  15-04-2024 05:00 via ft.com
  Government draws up regulatory blueprint while competition watchdog expresses ‘real concerns’ about industry
  
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• Gordon Brown: ‘I really didn’t think we could go as far backwards as we’ve gone’

  15-04-2024 05:00 via ft.com
  The former prime minister says Britain could have avoided austerity — but that politics has changed since the 1990s
  
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• Thousands of disabled people ‘will get £2,800 a year less under universal credit’

  15-04-2024 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Single people with long-term disability that stops them working will be much poorer after rollout, Resolution Foundation saysThe rollout of universal credit is on course to make thousands of working-age disabled people significantly poorer, according to a report showing that more than 7 million people will be covered by the six-into-one benefit change before the end of the next parliament.A single person with a long-term disability that prevents them from working is £2,800 a year worse off
  
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• Labour in a bind over much-needed childcare reform

  15-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Party is awaiting steer on what would be an expensive overhaul and is also keen to show commitment to fiscal restraintChildcare in England failing and falling behind much of world, charity saysIn a report, the Fawcett Society has drawn a conclusion that young parents are already familiar with: childcare in England is not working.Compared with systems in Ireland, Estonia, France, Canada and Australia – all countries that have recently carried out or initiated major reforms – the Engli
  
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• Childcare in England failing and falling behind much of world, charity says

  15-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Fawcett Society warns sector is lacking in ambition and delivery and calls for free ‘universal’ hoursLabour in a bind over much-needed childcare reformEngland’s childcare system is failing and falling behind those of much of the rest of the world, a UK charity for gender equality and women’s rights has said.The Fawcett Society said childcare in England was failing on several fronts: affordability, quality and levels of public spending. Continue reading...
  
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• France slams UK over fishing access to protected habitat in British waters

  14-04-2024 19:53 via ft.com
  Paris presses European Commission to take action after trawler fleet banned from 13 areas
  
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• Nicola Jennings on the choices facing Netanyahu – cartoon

  14-04-2024 19:17 via theguardian.com
  
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• The Guardian view on local councils: they must meet the needs of communities, not just Whitehall | Editorial

  14-04-2024 18:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Democracy’s link to the places that matter to people are being eroded, a concern given next month’s electionsThe phrase “all politics is local” is most often associated with Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the US House of Representatives. But such sentiments come to die in England, where decision-making is concentrated in Whitehall ministries. With English council and mayoral elections in May, local government is increasingly that in name alone. Westminster’s c
  
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• Sadiq Khan pledges to eliminate rough sleeping in London ‘once and for all’

  14-04-2024 17:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Khan says he will spend extra £10m on crisis if elected to third term as mayor as numbers reach highest level in a decade Sadiq Khan has pledged to eliminate rough sleeping in London, where the numbers on the streets have reached the highest level in a decade.If elected to a historic third term as mayor of London, Khan plans to spend an extra £10m on what has been described as a growing humanitarian crisis in the city. Continue reading...
  
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• Bereaved families angered by Tory MP’s second job at troubled NHS trust

  14-04-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics say by working for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS trust, Dr Dan Poulter cannot hold it to account effectivelyFamilies bereaved after failures by a troubled NHS mental health trust have expressed concern that a local MP has taken a second job there as a paid clinician.Norfolk and Suffolk foundation trust (NSFT) has been rated as “inadequate” four times since austerity cuts were made in 2013, at a time when Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, was a junior hea
  
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• Treasury urged to reverse end of stamp-duty relief for multiple dwellings

  14-04-2024 15:53 via ft.com
  Industry group says move will discourage construction of homes being built in England
  
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• RAF shot down Iranian drones heading for Israel, Sunak confirms

  14-04-2024 14:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Prime minister says UK was involved to save lives in Israel and neighbouring countriesMiddle East crisis – live updatesRishi Sunak has confirmed that RAF Typhoons shot down a number of Iranian drones overnight and said the UK’s involvement helped save lives in Israel and neighbouring Arab countries.The prime minister did not provide the number of drones hit, although the UK’s contribution is likely to have been significantly less than the 70 claimed by the US and dozens reporte
  
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• Peers know the Rwanda bill is flawed and dangerous. We must use every power to oppose it | Simon McDonald

  14-04-2024 14:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Standing firm on our amendments would mean the Commons backs down or loses its legislation. It’s the only option leftSo far this year, the House of Lords has debated the safety of Rwanda bill for more than 40 hours. Immediately before Easter, the Lords passed a second set of seven amendments and returned the bill to the Commons (which had earlier rejected the first set of 10 amendments). The Commons will consider those amendments when parliament returns from its Easter recess tomorrow.The
  
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• UK swapped to fatal US blood products to save money, minutes suggest

  14-04-2024 14:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: contaminated blood campaigners say internal 1976 Immuno AG document proves British government negligenceAnalysis: families hope report will finally apportion blameThe British government was willing to risk infecting NHS patients to get “lower-priced” blood products, according to a document that campaigners claim proves state and corporate guilt in one of the country’s worst ever scandals.A public inquiry into the deaths of an estimated 2,900 people infected with cond
  
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• Angela Rayner handling house sale controversy ‘in right way’, says Yvette Cooper

  14-04-2024 14:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Labour deputy leader being investigated over whether she gave false information a decade agoAngela Rayner has handled the controversy over her living arrangements “in the right way”, Yvette Cooper has insisted after a former aide contradicted Rayner’s account.The shadow home secretary said Rayner was “very keen to be able to provide the facts to the relevant authorities”. Continue reading...
  
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• UK must nurture alliances in new era of global power politics, says policy adviser

  14-04-2024 12:52 via theguardian.com
  
  In sweeping lecture on Britain’s ‘grand strategic moment’, John Bew warns ‘we cannot just manage risk, we are in a competition’The UK faces a choice between using statecraft to plan and deepen its international alliances or simply managing relations with its rivals and risk sliding into war, Rishi Sunak’s foreign policy adviser has said.In a sweeping lecture on Britain’s “grand strategic moment”, John Bew drew on how the national character ha
  
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• Political ads could be heading to UK TV screens due to legal loophole

  14-04-2024 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: ITV is considering taking paid ads from parties on its streaming platform where ban does not applySome viewers are already irritated by the adverts interrupting shows on the ITV catchup service. But they could soon yearn for the halcyon days of shampoo or insurance commercials after being presented with the faces of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.ITV is considering taking paid ads from political parties for the first time during the upcoming general election thanks to a loophole in broa
  
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• ‘Grownup’ leaders are pushing us towards catastrophe, says former US climate chief

  14-04-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Paris agreement negotiator Todd Stern attacks premiers who say that decarbonisation programmes are unrealistic and should be slowed downPolitical leaders who present themselves as “grownups” while slowing the pace of climate action are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe, a former US climate chief has warned.“We are slowed down by those who think of themselves as grownups and believe decarbonisation at the speed the climate community calls for is unrealistic,” sa
  
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• Don’t despair. History shows Labour even cash-strapped governments can be radical | Andrew Rawnsley

  14-04-2024 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sir Keir’s team will inherit a poisoned chalice from the Tories, but progress needn’t depend on the state opening its walletTalking about the prospect of a Labour government, some people sound like they are preparing the obituary before they have witnessed the birth. Sir Keir Starmer has yet to set foot in Downing Street and the air is thick with doomsters on the right and gloomsters from the left who have already decided that a Labour government will be an awful let down. The b
  
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• Leak reveals Tory plan to cut cold weather cash for disabled people

  14-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Hundreds of thousands could lose out in England and Wales under disability benefit reforms after general electionHundreds of thousands fewer disabled people could receive cold weather payments under the Conservatives’ planned post-election disability benefit reforms, according to an internal government report seen by the Observer.The briefing, by civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), says that under the plans, new applicants for disability benefits in England a
  
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