Political news

• Cross-party alliance takes on Theresa May over grammar schools

  18-03-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics say selection won’t help social mobility crisis, as former Tory education secretary Nicky Morgan adds voiceTheresa May’s personal crusade to expand the number of grammar schools is in serious jeopardy today as senior Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs unite in an unprecedented cross-party campaign to kill off the prime minister’s flagship education reform.In a highly unusual move, the Tory former education secretary Nicky Morgan joins forces with her previous Labour
  
  Read more

• Migrants have raised school standards in London, says Gove

  18-03-2017 20:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Immigration is a key reason behind London's high achievement in schools, says former education secretary.
  
  Read more

• Sturgeon stands firm on second referendum

  18-03-2017 19:11
  SNP leader says Scotland is open to immigrants including disaffected Remain voters
  
  Read more

• A second Scottish independence vote is a certainty

  18-03-2017 19:01
  Timing is key if Nicola Sturgeon is to maximise chances of winning the referendum
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Sturgeon: Holyrood's will 'must and will prevail'

  18-03-2017 18:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Nicola Sturgeon tells the SNP conference that "Scotland's future will be in Scotland's hands".
  
  Read more

• Gordon Brown Shares His Masterplan To Save The UK Amid Scottish Independence Referendum Calls

  18-03-2017 14:45
  
  Gordon Brown has unveiled a fresh masterplan to help persuade Scotland to remain in the UK - in an effort to replicate the success of his intervention during the 2014 independence referendum.
  The former Labour Prime Minister said the “absolutism” of the SNP meant Scottish voters weren’t being given a full range of viable alternatives.
  Speaking at the Fife Festival Of Ideas, Brown set out his vision for a “patriotic Scottish way” to break with the past and secure mo
  
  Read more

• Gordon Brown: 'Holyrood should gain Brexit powers'

  18-03-2017 13:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ex-prime minister Gordon Brown calls for Holyrood to be handed a raft of new powers after Brexit.
  
  Read more

• TrumpWatch: 5 Things Donald Trump Tried To Bury Amidst GCHQ Wiretapping Claims

  18-03-2017 12:58
  
  Even by the standards of the Trump administration, this week took a turn for the surreal as the White House expanded its wiretapping allegations and dragged us Brits into the melee. 
  A claim originally made by Fox News that GCHQ spied on the President on behalf of Barack Obama we repeated by Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a media briefing on Thursday.
  The White House was forced to make a grovelling apology to Downing Street but just hours later Trump and Spicer were both unrepenta
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Hillary Clinton Reveals She Wants To Help Americans Find Common Ground After Election Defeat

  18-03-2017 12:48
  
  Hillary Clinton has revealed she’s “ready to come out of the woods” and help Americans find common ground following her stunning election defeat to Donald Trump.
  Clinton’s gradual return to the public spotlight following her presidential election loss continued on Friday with a St. Patrick’s Day speech in her late father’s Pennsylvania hometown of Scranton.“I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,” Clinton
  
  Read more

• UK troops in Estonia to deter 'Russian aggression'

  18-03-2017 12:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The biggest UK deployment to Europe since the Cold War ended is a bid to deter "Russian aggression".
  
  Read more

• Gordon Brown: 'Leaving UK means leaving UK single market'

  18-03-2017 12:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown said that if Scotland chose independence then it would mean the country would have no access to the UK single market.
  
  Read more

• Nicola Sturgeon Speech Today: UK Would 'Shatter' Without Scottish Referendum Mandate

  18-03-2017 12:24
  
  Nicola Sturgeon has laid out how she believes Theresa May’s refusal to hold a second Scottish independence referendum will “shatter beyond repair” the UK’s constitutional structure.
  The First Minister said she will press on with plans to hold a new vote and revealed in a speech to the SNP Spring Conference on Saturday that she expects to get approval from the devolved parliament next Wednesday.
  A vote would need to be signed off by London to be legally binding. Sturg
  
  Read more

• Gordon Brown calls for further Scottish devolution

  18-03-2017 11:19
  Former prime minister to say powers held by EU should be transferred to Holyrood
  
  Read more

• What would a second Scottish vote on independence mean?

  18-03-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Polls suggest a tighter race than in 2014, and it seems a win-win so far for the SNP: either Nicola Sturgeon secures a compromise from Theresa May on Brexit, or she gets a referendumIs there really going to be a second referendum on Scottish independence? A second referendum seems likely. The question is when. Scottish first minister and Scottish National party leader Nicola Sturgeon proposed on Monday to hold a second vote and suggested the question on the ballot paper could be the same as last
  
  Read more

• Unilever is safe, but we need better defences against short-term capitalism

  18-03-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A £115bn bid from US predator Kraft Heinz was successfully fended off. But the prime minister must see that things could have gone very differentlyThe best defence against a bid is a high share price. So congratulations to Unilever, whose shares have improved by 20% since the day before Kraft Heinz turned up offering to buy the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Magnum ice creams.In the event, Unilever blew Kraft Heinz’s £115bn proposal out of the water within 48 hours. F
  
  Read more

• Fighting ‘unfairness’ is no justification for this school funding disgrace | Deborah Orr

  18-03-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Conservatives’ ill-considered plans for changing the school funding formula gloss over the fact that all schools face a funding crisisWhen the full glory of “the London effect” became majestically obvious, back in 2013, people fell over themselves to explain how it had been achieved. London schools, which in the 80s and 90s had declined to a point where it seemed impossible for them to decline any more, had become the best in the country – even the world – on an
  
  Read more

• Government under fire for 'cash for cabs' school transport plan

  18-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Chancellor’s plan to provide transport to selective schools for children on free school meals could cost up to £5,000 per pupilNew grammar school pupils could be ferried up to 15 miles by taxi to their schools, at a cost of up to £5,000 per pupil every year, despite cuts to last year’s general school transport budget for disabled and disadvantaged pupils. The government has said it would invest £5m a year to fund transport for the poorest pupils to reach grammar sch
  
  Read more

• George Osborne is laughing at us as he takes his Evening Standard job | Aditya Chakrabortty

  18-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  David Cameron’s cabinet was full of bunglers, chancers and the shameless, banging on about ‘social mobility’ while ensuring the oppositeIn which tinpot country would a former finance minister and senior politician of the governing party be handed the editorship of the capital’s newspaper? In what cut-price Ruritania would that story be broken on the state broadcaster by the former right-hand man of the newspaper’s proprietor? Related: Osborne, an ‘editor of su
  
  Read more

• How the April tax changes will affect you

  18-03-2017 06:02
  An FT guide to the big cuts and rises at the start of the next tax year
  
  Read more

• Gordon Brown to push 'patriotic' third option for more powerful Scotland after Brexit

  18-03-2017 05:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Former PM will propose repatriating powers from Brussels to Holyrood, rather than Westminster, amid rancour over independence referendumGordon Brown will call for Holyrood to be handed a raft of new powers after Brexit as part of a “third option” for Scotland’s future.The former prime minister will say a new form of federal home rule is needed to unite the country and avoid years of “bitter division”. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @political_UKnws on Twitter!