Political news

• Project unclear: campaign for second Scottish poll

  10-03-2017 23:50
  Can unionists put together a case that emulates the successful 2014 No campaign?
  
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• Article 50 'could be triggered on Tuesday' if Brexit bill passes

  10-03-2017 21:43
  
  Government sources say prime minister may quickly trigger process for leaving EU if legislation is voted for unamended Theresa May could trigger article 50, the formal process for leaving the European Union, as early as Tuesday if the Brexit bill passes late on Monday, government sources say.The legislation, which passed through the House of Commons unamended, is due to be debated by MPs on Monday. They will have to decide whether to accept a pair of amendments added by peers – on the righ
  
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• Sean Spicer Quotes Donald Trump On Jobs Report, Makes A Joke That Isn't Funny

  10-03-2017 21:17
  
  After a week of awful press briefings, Sean Spicer cracked a joke on Friday that received a rousing chortle from the White House Press Corps.
  Only it really shouldn’t have.
  The Press Secretary was responding to questions about a jobs report released this morning indicating continued growth in the US economy.
  President Trump hailed the news by retweeting The Drudge Report.GREAT AGAIN:+235,000 https://t.co/GkockGNdtC— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) March 10, 2017
  [LIKE: TrumpWatch
  
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• Hammond under fire as Budget blame game begins

  10-03-2017 21:08
  Row over national insurance rise causes split between Treasury and Number 10
  
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• London mayor forces through high-rise housing plans

  10-03-2017 20:49
  Sadiq Khan backs schemes in Tottenham and Wealdstone that were rejected by councils
  
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• Surrey council received boost in budget after 'sweetheart deal' claims

  10-03-2017 20:38
  
  Labour analysis of new £2bn for social care suggests rapidly rising share for council said to have struck ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with ministersPhilip Hammond’s budget has handed the largest boost in social care funding to Surrey council, according to calculations made after government ministers were accused of reaching a “sweetheart deal” with the Tory-led authority. Analysis by Labour shows that out of the £2bn of new money for social care in Eng
  
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• With Farage, Assange and Trump, who needs political satire? | Marina Hyde

  10-03-2017 20:19
  
  What synchronicity: a WikiLeaks dump, helpful to Trump, in the same week as a meeting at Ecuador’s embassy in LondonAsked what he’d been doing in London’s Ecuadorian embassy on Thursday, Nigel Farage gave a chilling answer: he couldn’t remember. God, poor Nigel. I’m sure that he’s not the first person to find themselves in a room with Julian Assange with no memory of how they got there. Clearly, the imperative at that point is to get your stuff together and fi
  
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• Bank of England deputy governor's future hangs in balance

  10-03-2017 20:18
  
  MPs will decide on Monday whether to rebuke Charlotte Hogg over her failure to disclose a potential conflict of interest The future of the deputy governor of the Bank of England is in the balance this weekend as MPs weigh up whether to issue a stinging rebuke to Charlotte Hogg, the second most powerful official at the Bank.Pressure has been mounting on Hogg, who only took over as deputy on 1 March, since her admission last week that she failed to disclose a potential conflict of interestover her
  
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• Martin Rowson on Justine Greening and new grammar schools – cartoon

  10-03-2017 20:12
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on the South Korean impeachment: right thing to do | Editorial

  10-03-2017 20:05
  
  Park Geun-hye is the first leader in the nation’s democratic history to be forced from office. Her departure should also herald a shake-up of the closed world of the country’s powerful conglomeratesThe removal of South Korean president Park Geun-hye, by a court upholding her impeachment, may well affect relations with North Korea, the US and China at an anxious time in the region – especially if Moon Jae-in, the opposition MP currently leading what is likely to be a crowded fie
  
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• Brexit is about to get real. Yet we are nowhere near ready for it | Jonathan Freedland

  10-03-2017 19:50
  
  The triggering of Article 50 will kickstart negotiations of mindbending complexity. Brexiteers should drop the hubris and get to workIn the coming days, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, Brexit will turn from abstract to concrete. A near-theological argument that raged in one form or another for nearly three decades will become hard and material, with a fixed deadline. Theresa May is about to trigger article 50, starting the clock on a two-year journey towards the exit from the European Union. And y
  
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• EU prepares for Britain to trigger start of Brexit

  10-03-2017 19:35
  Theresa May is likely to have the authority to invoke Article 50 by Tuesday
  
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• Drive to replace UK-EU trade links with closer ties to Commonwealth

  10-03-2017 19:21
  
  In move dubbed Empire 2.0 by critics, trade ministers draw up integration plans as departure from single market looms Britain would harmonise regulations with its former colonies rather than the European Union under new proposals for trade integration that critics have dubbed Empire 2.0.
  At a meeting in London given fresh impetus by Brexit, Commonwealth trade ministers agreed to deepen economic ties on Friday by seeking some of the same standardisation that once frustrated eurosceptics in Brusse
  
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• Striver? Tory architect of austerity George Osborne banks £1m fortune

  10-03-2017 18:41
  
  Sacked chancellor’s £650k-a-year BlackRock salary makes him the highest-paid sitting MP ever and follows £800k for 15 speeches and a £100k book advance George Osborne has been accused of dragging the reputation of politicians “deeper into the gutter” by trading his insider knowledge of government to Donald Trump’s favourite investment firm – and pulling in the highest-ever earnings of a sitting MP. Continue reading...
  
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• Juncker: I hope post-Brexit UK will rejoin EU

  10-03-2017 18:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Brussels' most senior official hopes that a post-Brexit UK will come back to the EU in the future.
  
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• Stand your ground on the tax rise, Chancellor

  10-03-2017 17:38
  Tax breaks that push people into self-employment are undesirable
  
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• Brexit success depends on May calling election

  10-03-2017 17:28
  The UK prime minister should reset the electoral clock before Labour wakes up
  
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• We’ve been offered an olive branch on EU citizenship. Don’t let them swat it aside | Roland Rudd

  10-03-2017 16:48
  
  Guy Verhofstadt’s idea that Britons continue to enjoy some rights in Europe was music to millions of ears. The government must respond to this goodwill in kindDespite Brexit, and the often tone-deaf nature of the current government’s diplomacy, it is heartening that senior European politicians remain committed to British people having a close relationship with Europe in the future. That is why Guy Verhofstadt’s comments, supporting the rights of British citizens to retain some
  
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• EU Chief Jean-Claude Juncker Wants UK To Rejoin EU After Brexit

  10-03-2017 15:25
  
  One of the EU’s most senior politicians has said he hopes Britain will one day rejoin the Union after Brexit.
  President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday he wanted to be “in the same boat” as Britain, and declared his optimsim that the country would one day “re-enter the boat”.
  Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, he said: “I don’t like Brexit because I would like to be in the same boat as the British.“The d
  
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• George Galloway may enter race to become Gorton MP

  10-03-2017 15:21
  
  Former Labour and Respect MP expected to join several candidates bidding to win seat following Gerald Kaufman’s deathGeorge Galloway could be preparing for a political comeback in the highly contested Gorton byelection.
  The former MP will only say that he is “considering standing” – but sources say he has been on the campaign trail for three weeks.Continue reading...
  
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• Britons should keep EU rights post-Brexit - Guy Verhofstadt

  10-03-2017 15:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Brexit was a "tragedy" for people in the UK and EU, says key negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.
  
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• Trump Organisation Server Link To Russian Bank Still Investigated By FBI

  10-03-2017 15:04
  
  The FBI is still investigating an “odd” computer link between a Russian bank and the Trump Organisation, according to reports.
  A server owned by Moscow-based Alfa Bank accounted for 80% of the total searches for the contact information of a server owned by the President’s company last summer.
  It is not known if Trump’s server did anything in return but it has been suggested the data could signify intent to communicate by email.[LIKE: TrumpWatch - our Facebook page dedicat
  
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• Budget 2017: 'Disarray' over National Insurance rises

  10-03-2017 14:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Labour accuse ministers of rowing back on plans to raise National Insurance for the self-employed.
  
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• From Brexit to my seat at White Hart Lane, I'm on a losing streak

  10-03-2017 14:33
  
  My diesel car is worthless, my TV won’t work and Theresa May is still the prime minister - but at least George Smiley is backMondayThe older I get, the more often I seem to find I am on the losing side of every argument. I was on the wrong end of Brexit and I now discover that I am Streatham’s equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill as the not very proud owner of a seven-year-old BMW and a 14-year-old Vauxhall Corsa. Both diesel. When I first got them there were tax breaks on offer
  
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• Why the damage to Hammond matters

  10-03-2017 14:23
  
  The Budget controversy will have implications for how the UK fares in EU talks
  
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• ‘Stealth’ death tax angers British MPs

  10-03-2017 14:08
  Charge to rise from maximum of £215 to £20,000 for estates worth more than £2m
  
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• British government accused of neglecting Cornish culture

  10-03-2017 14:00
  
  Council of Europe attacks ministers for cutting funding for Cornish language, three years after recognition of minority status Three years ago, there was jubilation, outbreaks of song and poetry readings – in the local tongue, of course – when the Cornish people were officially recognised as a national minority.But since those joyous days, the British government has not been doing enough to address the cultural needs of communities in the far south-west of Britain, according to the C
  
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• Week in Review: Budget hysteria reveals fantasy land of British journalism

  10-03-2017 13:57
  
  As the media fixates on the National Insurance rise, far bigger scandals are unfolding all around us
  
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• National insurance delay appeases Conservative rebels

  10-03-2017 13:41
  
  Theresa May’s decision to postpone contributions rise for self-employed welcomed by sceptical MPs
  Theresa May’s decision to delay a controversial national insurance rise for self-employed people appears to have partially quelled a rebellion by Conservative MPs, although Labour said ministers were “in disarray” over the issue.
  Downing Street insisted on Friday that there would be no watering down of the proposal, while indicating it would be introduced alongside improved b
  
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• Education secretary heckled by angry head teachers

  10-03-2017 13:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Justine Greening's grammar school plans meet with an angry response from head teachers.
  
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• David Cameron: Lip read his words on manifesto

  10-03-2017 13:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Was David Cameron caught on camera criticising his successor's Budget?
  
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• Closing Parliament for repair work 'most efficient' option

  10-03-2017 13:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A spending watchdog says vacating Parliament so urgent work can be carried out is the best option.
  
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• Kellyanne Conway Slammed By US Ethics Agency For 'Misuse Of Position'

  10-03-2017 13:06
  
  Donald Trump’s White House has been admonished by the US Office of Government Ethics for failing to punish one of the his closest aides for an alleged “misuse of position”. 
  The President’s team received a scolding for not disciplining Kellyanne Conway after she used a TV interview to promote Ivanka Trump’s beauty products last month. 
  The agency’s director, Walter Shaub, told the White House in a letter on Thursday their refusal to condemn Con
  
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• Douglas Carswell's Ukip Future To Be Decided On March 27

  10-03-2017 12:47
  
  Douglas Carswell’s Ukip future will be decided at a crunch meeting of the party’s ruling committee at the end of the month, Huff Post UK can reveal.
  Members of Ukip’s NEC who want to see Carswell kicked out of the party are currently putting together a dossier of evidence against the Clacton MP, and will present it at a meeting on Monday March 27.
  The central claim is that Carswell defected to Ukip in 2014 as part of a plot concocted with Tory MEP Daniel Hannan to “neutra
  
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• United Ireland is achievable, says Sinn Féin's Adams

  10-03-2017 12:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Stormont election has shown Irish unity is achievable, says Sinn Féin president.
  
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• British Citizens Could Get To Keep Benefits Of EU After Brexit, Says Guy Verhofstadt

  10-03-2017 12:17
  
  British citizens should be able to choose to keep various benefits of EU membership including the freedom of movement after Brexit, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator has said.
  Guy Verhofstadt said Britons could keep certain rights if they apply for them on an individual basis.
  He said: “All British citizens today have also EU citizenship. That means a number of things: the possibility to participate in the European elections, the freedom of travel without problem inside the
  
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• BBC Question Time Audience Member Who Works For NHS Lambasts Government For Cuts In Funding

  10-03-2017 11:34
  
  Theresa May’s government “doesn’t get” the NHS, a BBC Question Time audience member told Tory MP Karen Bradley on Thursday, as he passionately addressed cuts in funding.
  The man, who said he has worked in the service for 20 years, received rapturous applause from the audience when he tackled the cuts in services for elderly people.
  Addressing the Culture Secretary, he said: “I work in the NHS, I look after old people. I have done it for 20 years.
  “Every d
  
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• European parliament Brexit chief: 'Let Britons keep freedom of movement'

  10-03-2017 11:24
  
  Guy Verhofstadt says ‘all British citizens have EU citizenship’ and should maintain these individual rights if they wish toBritish citizens should be able to choose to keep various benefits of EU membership, including freedom of movement, the European parliament’s chief Brexit representative has said. Guy Verhofstadt said he hoped to convince European leaders to allow Britons to maintain certain rights if they apply for them on an individual basis. Continue reading...
  
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• Theresa May’s tax climbdown shows her weakness | Simon Jenkins

  10-03-2017 10:55
  
  About to negotiate the Brexit rapids, the prime minister has exposed herself as vulnerable to murmuring backbenchers and howling front pagesOne minute you are monarch of all you survey, the next minute it all goes wobbly. Theresa May’s climbdown yesterday on Philip Hammond’s tax plans was humiliating. Overnight, £2bn in tax revenue vanished from the finance bill and evaporated into “consultation” and “further review”. The reason was equally humiliating:
  
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• The Waugh Zone March 10, 2017

  10-03-2017 10:41
  
  The five things you need to know on Friday, March 10…1) PICK N NICS
  Although Theresa May and Philip Hammond have been around a long time in politics, it’s sometimes easy to forget they - and their advisers - are still relatively inexperienced in their current posts. And that inexperience has been all too obvious in the fierce Budget backlash over the self-employed National Insurance row.
  Their woeful inability to forecast the reaction of Tory newspapers, backbenchers and voters com
  
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• Scottish Lib Dem leader Rennie wants referendum on Brexit deal

  10-03-2017 10:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The British people should "sign off" the final Brexit deal by voting in another referendum, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie believes.
  
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• Politics Live - readers' edition: Friday 10 March

  10-03-2017 09:52
  
  Discuss today’s politics and share links to breaking news, and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web7.58am GMTI’m not writing my usual blog today but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort t
  
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• Met police accused of 'major failings' over Tower Hamlets mayor

  10-03-2017 09:32
  
  London assembly member criticises failure to bring charges against Lutfur Rahman, who was removed from office in April 2015Police have been accused of “major failings” in investigating claims of electoral fraud and malpractice in Tower Hamlets during a mayoral election in the London borough in 2014.The Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed from office in April 2015 after an election court found him guilty of corrupt and illegal practices, but he has faced no criminal prosecut
  
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• BBC Question Time 'I'm Not Bothered' Audience Member Is The Hero Of The Apathetic

  10-03-2017 09:23
  
  The world of British politics has been pretty intense over the last 12 months so you’d be forgiven if by now you just wanted to lock yourself away from the world and hide.
  Or you could go on the country’s foremost political debate show, wait patiently with your hand up and then, in front of the entire nation, declare your apathy to all.
  Like this young chap from Sunderland.During a Question Time section on the furore around the Budget increase to National Insurance contributions for
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Will Only Step Aside When He Loses Support Of Labour Members, Says Ally Kate Osamor

  10-03-2017 08:46
  
  The Labour Party feels like it is in the middle of a “civil war”, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies has said.
  In an interview with The Huffington Post, Kate Osamor said the party was guilty of having “neglected many areas” of the country.
  Following the party’s feat at the Copeland by-election, the shadow international development secretary said “no seat should be treated as safe”.
  The close ally of Corbyn rejected calls for him to quit as
  
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• The politics of Judge Dredd

  10-03-2017 08:31
  
  As the future lawman celebrates 40 years of publication, we look at the politics of a British comics legend and how he predicted the rise of Donald Trump
  
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• May agrees to delay legislation over tax rise for self-employed after Tory revolt

  10-03-2017 08:28
  
  Theresa May robustly defends controversial increase in national insurance but says legislation will not be introduced until autumn after MPs raise concernsTheresa May said on Thursday she will delay legislating to implement a controversial national insurance rise for self-employed workers until the autumn, after a public rebellion by senior Conservatives, including a government minister.The measure was a centrepiece of Philip Hammond’s first budget, which had appeared to be unravelling on
  
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• Verhofstadt: 'Special deal' for some Brits

  10-03-2017 08:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  European Parliament's negotiator on Brexit says special arrangement could be made for some
  
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• Kate Osamor Warns Labour Has Neglected Its Heartlands And There Are No Safe Seats Anymore

  10-03-2017 08:01
  
  “No seat is safe,” Kate Osamor warns. “No seat should be treated as safe. Because unfortunately that means it’s taken for granted.”
  The shadow international development secretary is fiercely loyal to Jeremy Corbyn and in an interview with The Huffington Post the 48-year-old first-term MP comes out swinging in defence of her leader.
  Unlike shadow cabinet colleagues Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry and John McDonnell, Osamor has been reticent to engage on TV in the &ld
  
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• Brexit diaries: 'We should take care of our own'

  10-03-2017 08:00
  
  Opinion on whether EU citizens have a right to stay is divided between sympathy for migrants who work but concern too many are on benefits“I really don’t mind the ones living here that are contributing to our economy [and] make the UK a better place but I really think we should be taking care of our own before allowing them to stay on benefits,” said Daniel, a Labour voter in Stoke-on-Trent, who backed the decision to leave the EU.His ambivalence on the question of whether Ther
  
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