Political news

• Martin Rowson on semi-automated truck convoys in the UK – cartoon

  25-08-2017 20:53 via theguardian.com
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• Universities under pressure over growing pension scheme deficit

  25-08-2017 20:28
  MPs seek answers as to why finances of USS have deteriorated sharply
  
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• Give Laura Pidcock credit for her anti-Tory stance | Letters

  25-08-2017 20:05 via theguardian.com
  Jane Middleton likens Pidcock’s refusal to ‘hang out with Tory women’ to the young Harriet Harman’s distaste for Margaret ThatcherAnne Perkins seems disappointed that Laura Pidcock won’t “hang out with Tory women” or consider them as godparent material for her children (Denouncing Tories feels good, but Pidcock has to work with them, theguardian.com, 24 August). She also worries that viewing Tories as “the enemy” will hamper Pidcock&rsqu
  
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• UK accused of 'magical thinking' over Brexit plan for Irish border

  25-08-2017 20:03 via theguardian.com
  Britain’s call for ‘flexible solutions’ as it pursues goal of avoiding border posts with Ireland leaves EU officials rolling their eyesThe European Union has accused the UK of “magical thinking” over plans to create an invisible border in Ireland after Brexit, amid fading hopes of an early divorce deal this autumn.The response came as both sides prepared for the next round of negotiations in Brussels next week, with the EU issuing a stern rebuke against using the pe
  
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• EU warns UK against using Irish peace as Brexit ‘bargaining chip’

  25-08-2017 19:10
  Brussels charge of ‘magical thinking’ sets ominous tone ahead of next round of talks
  
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• Irene Clennell, Singapore-Born Grandmother Deported From Britain After 30 Years, Allowed To Return

  25-08-2017 18:37
  
  A mother-of-two who was deported despite living in Britain for 30 years has been granted a reprieve by the Home Office after reversing their decision.
  Irene Clennell, 53, who was the main carer for her British husband John, was placed in an immigration detention centre before being deported to Singapore earlier this year.
  Clennell, who lived in County Durham and has two sons and a granddaughter, had just £12 in her pocket and no change of clothes when she was removed from the country,
  
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• David Gauke signals he will press on with universal credit

  25-08-2017 18:30 via theguardian.com
  Work and pensions secretary says benefit changes are ‘transforming lives’ after MPs called for a pause in their introductionThe work and pensions secretary has signalled that the government will press ahead with controversial welfare changes, insisting the system of universal credit is “making work pay and transforming lives”.Responding to a letter signed by 30 Labour MPs and the Green co-leader Caroline Lucas, expressing concerns about UC and calling for its implementati
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn calls for halt to job centre closures at rally in Scotland

  25-08-2017 18:11 via theguardian.com
  Labour leader, visiting Coatbridge as part of tour of marginal constituencies, says DWP cost-cutting will hurt town’s economyJeremy Corbyn has called on ministers to halt the closure of job centres and social security offices as he continued a five-day tour of key constituencies in Scotland.The Labour leader addressed a rally in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, where the Department of Work and Pensions is closing an administration office and relocating 250 jobs as part of a UK-wide cost-cutt
  
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• BBC must close gender pay gap faster, says Nicola Sturgeon

  25-08-2017 17:38 via theguardian.com
  Scotland’s first minister says pledge to close gap by 2020 is insufficient, as BBC continues to be put on defensive over pay
  The gender pay gap at the BBC is unacceptable and the broadcaster should act faster in making salaries more equal, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The existing pledge by the director general, Tony Hall, to close the gap by 2020 was insufficient, Scotland’s first minister said in a speech at the Edinburgh international television festival, where the BBC has repeatedly
  
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• BA lashes out at Home Office over Heathrow queues

  25-08-2017 17:35
  Airline bemoans ‘serious inefficiencies’ at UK immigration control
  
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• Home Office privately says it will pay back deportation legal fees

  25-08-2017 17:16 via theguardian.com
  Finnish academic Eva Johanna Holmberg says official has told her she will be reimbursed after letter was sent in errorThe Home Office has privately told an EU national who received a deportation letter in error that it will be reimbursing the legal fees she incurred in fighting the order to leave the UK.After Eva Johanna Holmberg spent about £3,800 fighting the government decision to order her to leave the country or face deportation or detention, she discovered that the letter had been se
  
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• Met police cuts will mean fewer face-to-face visits, says senior officer

  25-08-2017 17:12 via theguardian.com
  Deputy commissioner says Scotland Yard will have to focus on more vulnerable people as number of officers fallsPolice will increasingly have to prioritise whom they respond to in person as budget cuts bite deeper and deeper over the next few years, a senior officer in the country’s largest force has said.The Met police’s deputy commissioner, Craig Mackey, said Scotland Yard would probably have to concentrate on the more vulnerable as the number of officers at its disposal fell. Conti
  
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• Theresa May Told To Apologise To Parliament Over 'Bogus' Claims About Overseas Students

  25-08-2017 17:02
  
  Theresa May faces being hauled before Parliament to publicly apologise for “bogus” statistics that wrongly claimed 100,000 students were overstaying their visas in the UK.
  The demands for an apology came as Labour’s Diane Abbott warned that the Government could be defeated in a Commons vote to scrap the inclusion of international students in immigration figures.
  Shock new figures released on Thursday showed that just 4,600 non-EU students - 2.6% of the total - were overstaying
  
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• Taxpayers spend £500,000 on radios for badger cull marksmen

  25-08-2017 16:56 via theguardian.com
  Police call for cull shooters to be given same hi-tech system they use – but activists buy counter-devices to disrupt shootingHundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen with radios that link them directly to police, the Guardian has learned. Police have advised the government to invest in the same communications system they use to make it easier for officers to get to conflicts with cull saboteurs in remote areas where the mobile phon
  
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• Police confirm inquiry into Tory election call centre use

  25-08-2017 15:48 via theguardian.com
  Secret footage suggested Conservatives may have broken law by using centre to canvass voters in marginal seats for support
  Detectives are carrying out an investigation of “scale and significance” into allegations the Conservative party’s use of a call centre in Wales may have broken the law.Secret footage had suggested the Tories may have breached election law by allegedly using a call centre to directly contact voters in marginal seats. The party has insisted it did nothing wr
  
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• Brexiteers Mocked As 'Bureaucracy Bombshell' Set To Hit British Businesses

  25-08-2017 15:48
  
  Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom are among the Brexiteers mocked for heralding the end of EU red tape in a new video. 
  The pro-single market campaign group Open Britain says it it targeting the top Tories’ claims as “reams of paperwork and dozens of new bureaucratic hoops” are headed the UK’s way from Brussels because of Brexit. 
  Leave campaigners have pledged a bonfire of red tape that would more the country more attractive to businesses.
  Boris J
  
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• George Osborne urges Tory MPs to rebel over foreign students

  25-08-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Former chancellor attacks May over inclusion of students in immigration target after Boris Johnson refused to back herThe former chancellor George Osborne has urged Conservative MPs to rebel against Theresa May and vote to remove students from the government’s immigration targets, after the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, refused to back the prime minister on the issue.In a coruscating editorial in the Evening Standard, the newspaper he now edits, Osborne says new migration data publishe
  
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• An outbreak of realism in Britain over Brexit

  25-08-2017 14:40
  There has been a shift in what the UK believes it can achieve in EU talks
  
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• Kellyanne Conway Says Media Should Be 'Forced' To Report Favourably On Donald Trump

  25-08-2017 14:27
  
  Kellyanne Conway has a simple solution to resolve all the bad press Donald Trump receives, which is as good an opportunity as any other for a quick quiz.
  Is her solution:
  A) Stop Trump tweeting about how great his Presidency is and get him to actually pass some major legislation?Nick Adams, "Retaking America""Best things of this presidency aren't reported about. Convinced this will be perhaps best presidency ever."— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
  B) Stop Trump trying to
  
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• Celtic and Rangers fans unite to give football law the red card

  25-08-2017 14:26
  Rivals join push to repeal legislation they say unfairly targets soccer crowds
  
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• 'Labour Brexit position is deeply worrying’: Scottish voters on Corbyn

  25-08-2017 14:18 via theguardian.com
  As Jeremy Corbyn tours marginal Scottish constituencies, we hear from our readers on the challenges Labour faces north of the borderAre Labour on track for a revival in Scotland? To coincide with Jeremy Corbyn’s tour of 18 marginal Scottish seats, we asked our readers what the party need to do if they’re to improve their June 2017 tally of 7 of the 59 seats north of the border. Related: 'Labour is coming back in Scotland': party predicts revival as Corbyn heads northContinue reading.
  
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• Police probe claims Tories' used call centre to canvass vote

  25-08-2017 14:00 via bbc.co.uk
  The party denies it used a call centre to canvass votes during the general election, breaching electoral law.
  
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• Week in Review: The Home Office isn't fit for purpose

  25-08-2017 13:36
  
  From student numbers to the treatment of EU citizens, everywhere you look the department is failing
  
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• Boris Johnson says UK was 'over-optimistic' about Libya

  25-08-2017 11:54 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK foreign secretary says Gaddafi's removal has been "a tragedy so far" for the Libyan people.
  
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• Hurricane Harvey Could Be Trump’s First Crisis That Isn’t His Own Invention

  25-08-2017 11:53
  
  WASHINGTON ― Having lurched from one crisis to the next, starting the day he was inaugurated, President Donald Trump could be facing the first real one of his presidency not of his own making: Hurricane Harvey.
  Trump has inflamed relations with his own intelligence community, picked fights with fellow Republicans in Congress, brandished the nation’s nuclear weapons on Twitter, encouraged neo-Nazis and created chaos at the nation’s airports with a poorly crafted travel
  
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• Brexit Briefing: Money Talks

  25-08-2017 11:51
  
  You can sign up for this briefing by clicking here, and you’ll receive it straight to your inbox every Thursday afternoon.
  If you like what you read, make sure you subscribe to our Commons People podcast here for even more analysis about what goes on in Westminster. 1) When Rhetoric Is Put To One Side, The Government Can Come Up With Some Common Sense Brexit PoliciesAnother week, another spread of Brexit papers from the Government. Last week focused on customs and borde
  
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• Tony Blair to meet Jean-Claude Juncker as Brexit talks continue

  25-08-2017 11:39
  Former PM accused of interference ahead of latest Davis-Barnier face-to-face
  
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• Boris Johnson softens stance on Brexit divorce bill

  25-08-2017 11:39
  UK foreign secretary previously said EU could ‘go whistle’ if it wanted €100bn
  
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• Boris Johnson Ridicules Theresa May's Snap Election Decision, Claiming She Wasn't 'Ready'

  25-08-2017 10:38
  
  Boris Johnson has warned Libya that Theresa May’s disastrous decision to call a snap general election shows the danger of going to the polls too early.
  In what is sure to be seized on as a jibe at the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary twice made the point on his visit to the north African country in a bid to unite its rebel factions.
  During his trip, Johnson told Libya’s acting Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj of the perils of going to the voters prematurely.
  “We have had an
  
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• UK 'can halve oil imports by banning new petrol and diesel cars in 2030'

  25-08-2017 10:34 via theguardian.com
  Target of 2040 to ban sale of conventional cars should be made more ambitious, says reportAn ambitious target to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 could halve UK oil imports, a study by environmental and aid organisations suggests.The government has announced plans to ban the sale of conventional combustion engine cars and vans by 2040 as part of its efforts to tackle air pollution and climate change, a move the groups welcomed as a step in the right direction. Continue readi
  
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• Self-driving lorries to be tested in UK next year

  25-08-2017 10:23
  Driver in front vehicle will control braking and acceleration of convoy
  
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• Boris Johnson concedes UK will have to pay for Brexit

  25-08-2017 10:22 via theguardian.com
  Foreign secretary says UK will meet legal obligations to pay divorce bill to EU, having previously said it could ‘go whistle’
  The UK will pay money to the EU as part of the Brexit process, Boris Johnson has conceded, having previously said the EU could “go whistle” over a reported bill of between €60bn and €100bn.The issue of the “divorce bill” has split the pro-Brexit camp, with some leave supporters demanding that the UK decline to pay a penny, and
  
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• Boris Johnson: Trump Got It Wrong On Charlottesville

  25-08-2017 10:05
  
  Donald Trump “got it totally wrong” in his response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Boris Johnson has said.
  The foreign secretary told the BBC it was a “great shame” the president “failed to make a clear and fast distinction between fascists and anti-fascists”.
  But he said Trump’s planned state visit to the UK would still go ahead and was “more likely to be in 2018 than this year”, although he refused to reveal any further
  
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• CNN Host Anderson Cooper Mocks ‘World’s Biggest Victim’ Donald Trump In Epic Takedown

  25-08-2017 09:38
  
  "Last night, what we saw was all about him." @andersoncooper is #KeepingThemHonest https://t.co/qrJwn4DIKF https://t.co/mxW27jiBEb— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 24, 2017Anderson Cooper trashed President Donald Trump for remarks he made on Tuesday night during a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. 
  The CNN host mocked the president during his Wednesday night program for using the event as an attempt to “rewrite history” about his respon
  
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• Declassified papers

  25-08-2017 09:02 via bbc.co.uk
  The former taoiseach's views are outlined in newly released confidential state papers.
  
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• Ex-Tory Minister Warns She Will Quit Party Over Hard Brexit

  25-08-2017 08:03
  
  A former Tory minister is threatening to quit the party in protest at the Government’s Brexit plans, as she attacked Theresa May’s EU negotiation “wish list”.
  Baroness Altmann, who served as a Pensions Minister under David Cameron, warned she would walk away from the Tories if a “hard Brexit” policy was adopted.
  The peer echoed the claims of another former minister, Anna Soubry, that a new political party could be formed to stop the UK crashing out of the EU
  
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• Six things we learned about the Tories' strategy for Brexit

  25-08-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Policy papers suggest ‘no deal’ is off the menu as Theresa May takes a gradualist approach to leaving the EUFor over a year, the government has sought to duck the question of what Brexit means. Theresa May’s famous response in July 2016 was that it means just that, “Brexit”. This was taken to be a short, sharp departure that “took back control” as soon as possible.Over the last few days of this summer the government has slipped out a series of policy pap
  
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• NHS accused of keeping secret its plans to cut services

  25-08-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners say freedom of information requests to NHS trusts and government have been turned downThe NHS has been accused of keeping the public in the dark about controversial plans to plug a £250m funding gap by rationing services. The crowdfunded campaign group 38 Degrees submitted freedom of information (FOI) requests to the government, NHS leaders as well as trusts and clinical commissioning groups in the 13 areas affected but all except two refused to release details of planned chang
  
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• How I survived living with a cat stuffed with uranium | First Dog on the Moon

  25-08-2017 04:18 via theguardian.com
  Chu Chu had to undergo radiation treatment for her thyroid which was either overactive or underactive. The only problem was her snot would be radioactive – and she sneezed a lotSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and printsChu Chu had an overactive thyroid. Or maybe it was underactive. It was either hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism the vet knew the difference between th
  
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• Brexit campaign 'harmed integration,' MPs claim

  25-08-2017 03:57 via bbc.co.uk
  Anti-immigrant rhetoric is making it harder for new arrivals to integrate, a group of MPs warns.
  
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• 'Toxic' Immigration Debate Is Hindering Integration, Says Labour MP

  25-08-2017 01:06
  
  “Toxic” debate around immigration in the UK is preventing newcomers from properly fitting in, according to a Labour MP.
  Chuka Umunna, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on social integration, said the government needs to take urgent action to build a “more cohesive society”, with a regionally-led immigration system and compulsory English classes for immigrants who can’t speak the language.
  A report commissioned by the group with input from experts and evi
  
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• UK employers blame government policies for stagnant wages

  25-08-2017 01:01
  Companies surveyed by BCC say costs have gone up because of new levies
  
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• Semi-automated truck convoys get green light for UK trials

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Government allocates £8.1m to trials of ‘platooning’ which proponents say could cut congestion and hauliers’ fuel costsThe government has given the go-ahead for the first trials of convoys of semi-automated trucks on UK motorways.Up to three wirelessly connected HGVs will travel in convoy, with acceleration, braking and steering controlled by the lead vehicle, a concept named platooning. Each lorry will have a driver in the cab ready to retake control at any time.Continue
  
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• Gina Miller to write 'rallying cry' memoir, Rise

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Brexit legal challenger to write book about struggles in her work and personal life, as well as ‘offering guidance and confidence to women in particular’Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “tone of defiance in the face of increasing hostility, hate and defamation” in the classic poem Still I Rise, anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has written a memoir which her publisher hopes will be a “rallying cry” for other women to make their voices heard.Rise, which will b
  
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• Benefit cap blamed for 85% cut in new homes for vulnerable people

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Ministers urged to ditch proposals as housing associations postpone and cancel schemes for elderly and disabledHousing associations have cut plans to build homes for vulnerable, elderly or disabled residents by 85% because of concerns over proposed welfare changes, according to an investigation.A survey of 69 housing associations representing a third of sheltered housing in England found dozens of schemes for new housing either postponed, cancelled or facing closure, a drop from 8,800 to just 1,
  
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• Newsnight's Emma Barnett Clashes With Tory MP Peter Bone Over 'Bogus' Foreign Student Figures

  25-08-2017 00:54
  
  A prominent Tory MP and Leave campaigner has clashed with a BBC presenter over “bogus” student visa figures.
  On BBC’s Newsnight, Conservative MP and Brexiteer Peter Bone under-played the criticism of Theresa May for overseeing inaccurate figures on the number of international students over-staying their visas in the UK, and indicated he thought the BBC was pursuing an agenda.Latest migration figures show just 4,600 students failed to leave the country when they should hav
  
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