Political news

• The Guardian view of Labour and soft Brexit: so far, so good | Editorial

  27-08-2017 22:12 via theguardian.com
  During the election, Labour went awol on Britain and the EU. By coming out with an agreed soft Brexit position, the party changes the national debateEurope will be first on the agenda in every sense when parliament returns next week. Over the summer it has become shockingly clear that a Conservative government with a weakened leader and a delusional policy on Brexit is inadequate to the seriousness of the task. As a result it is hastening Britain towards an exit from Europe that could devastate
  
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• Labour MPs warn of backlash if Jeremy Corbyn shifts Brexit stance

  27-08-2017 21:08 via theguardian.com
  Plans to position Labour as the party of “soft Brexit” lead to concerns among MPs fearing alienation voters who support greater controls on immigrationJeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, are facing a backlash from senior MPs in Labour’s heartlands after announcing a dramatic shift on party policy to back continued membership of the EU single market beyond March 2019. In a move that positions it decisively as the party of “soft Brexit”, Labou
  
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• Jeremy Hunt continues war of words with Stephen Hawking over NHS

  27-08-2017 20:18 via theguardian.com
  Health secretary says scientist is ‘once again wrong in his characterisation of policy’ after Hawking’s latest criticismThe battle of words between the scientist Stephen Hawking and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, over the health of the NHS has continued with Hunt writing that Hawking “is once again wrong in his characterisation of government policy towards the NHS”.
  On Saturday, after a week of angry exchanges, Hawking wrote in the Guardian: “Hunt’s
  
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• Labour exposes the false promises of Britain’s exit

  27-08-2017 20:03
  It is now possible to construct a mutually beneficial partnership with between Britain and the EU
  
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• Ben Jennings on Labour's shift on Brexit – cartoon

  27-08-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
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• Broad appeal of Labour’s new stance on Brexit | Letter from David Owen

  27-08-2017 19:43 via theguardian.com
  Labour supporter and former foreign secretary David Owen on the agreement reached between Keir Starmer and Jeremy CorbynAs a Labour supporter not yet ready to renew my membership, it is good to see Keir Starmer’s position agreed with Jeremy Corbyn.On leaving the EU in March 2019 we would stay a contracting party to the EEA agreement for the implementation period, which the prime minister announced would be necessary early this year, for two to three years. Continue reading...
  
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• At last, Labour has wrested control of the Brexit debate from the Tories | Zoe Williams

  27-08-2017 19:27 via theguardian.com
  The Conservatives’ internal divisions were wreaking havoc on the UK. Keir Starmer’s intervention has brought this period to an endSo an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman all walk into a pub. Then the Englishman wants to leave for no reason, and they all have to. My kid told me that joke. Between laconic Brexiteries and a whole new constellation of insults around the name and concept of Donald Trump, I have reluctantly concluded that I preferred life when children at primary scho
  
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• ​AstraZeneca to make multimillion-pound investment in UK site

  27-08-2017 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker to improve Macclesfield facilities but is still not committing to manufacturing expansion AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, is to announce further investment in its Macclesfield site in northern England, in a boost for Britain’s £60bn life sciences industry. The move, worth tens of millions of pounds, is expected to be announced this week when the government launches its industrial strategy for the sector in Birmingham on
  
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• Labour pushes Brexit politics towards realism

  27-08-2017 19:18
  To avoid a cliff, Britain will have to accept EU rules during the transition
  
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• Donald Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Says President Speaks Only For Himself On American Values

  27-08-2017 18:47
  
  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Chris Wallace on the President's values: "The President speaks for himself" @FoxNewsSunday pic.twitter.com/6wnD3i0kdE— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) August 27, 2017
  Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has suggested that the president of the United States doesn’t necessarily speak for the nation in expressing American values in the aftermath of the controversy over white supremacy.On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace noted that the&n
  
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• Theresa May under pressure as Labour makes U-turn on single market

  27-08-2017 18:40
  Change of tack by opposition challenges UK government’s Brexit strategy
  
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• Theresa May attacks 'unacceptable face of capitalism'

  27-08-2017 18:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Firms that face shareholder revolts over executive pay will be publicly named, the PM says.
  
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• Almost £1.5bn UK tax relief claimed on individuals’ charity gifts

  27-08-2017 18:02
  Critics say scheme more beneficial to causes championed by the rich
  
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• Theresa May on back foot after Jeremy Corbyn’s single market U-turn

  27-08-2017 17:41
  Repositioning as the party of ‘soft Brexit’ puts Labour closer to views at Treasury
  
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• ​AstraZeneca shrugs off Brexit fears with factory expansion

  27-08-2017 15:31 via theguardian.com
  Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker to announce plan for Macclesfield site weeks after saying it would not commit further investmentAstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, has decided to expand its biggest UK factory after reversing a decision to put investment plans on hold because of Brexit uncertainty.The move, worth tens of millions of pounds, will be a boost for Britain’s £60bn life sciences industry. It is expected to be announced this week to coincide with
  
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• Labour’s soft Brexit ‘solution’ would turn the Brexiters’ lies into reality | Toby Moses

  27-08-2017 13:18 via theguardian.com
  Under Keir Starmer’s new proposals, the UK would have many of its current obligations but no influence within the EU. Whatever the leave vote meant, it wasn’t thisThe official campaign period for the Brexit referendum may have lasted only two months – but in truth a Eurosceptic campaign had been raging in the UK for many years before that. Boris Johnson made his name stoking those flames as a youthful journalist – straight bananas, the end of pounds and ounces, a once gre
  
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• Brexit: Keep single market for transition period - Labour

  27-08-2017 13:15 via bbc.co.uk
  Labour says the UK should stay in the single market and customs union for a period after leaving the EU.
  
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• Should the rich be taxed more? A new paper shows unequivocally yes | Larry Elliott

  27-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Measuring tax paid against share of income earned and wealth owned reveals the US tax system has become less progressive – and in Britain it is a similar pictureDenis Healey never actually said he intended to squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked. The man who would soon be Labour chancellor was referring solely to property speculators when he made the remark during the February 1974 election campaign.But the rich knew full well that Healey was coming for them, too. At the previous year&
  
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• Theresa May attacks excessive boardroom pay

  27-08-2017 10:27
  Plans to give shareholders and workers more power scaled back
  
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• May attacks excessive pay as ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’

  27-08-2017 10:27
  PM prepares to launch watered-down measures on boardroom remuneration
  
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• Labour makes dramatic shift on Brexit commitment

  27-08-2017 10:17
  Theresa May’s strategy under pressure as UK opposition looks to stay in single market
  
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• Labour backs staying in single market for Brexit transition

  27-08-2017 10:17
  Change of tack by opposition party puts UK government’s strategy under severe pressure
  
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• The EU is not the enemy of the state. Time to think again on Brexit

  27-08-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Labour has a golden opportunity to capitalise on the strong pro-European feelings of the youngWhen I referred in my last column to Chancellor Philip Hammond as the only grown-up minister in this chaotic cabinet, I was unaware that he had just put his name to a joint article in the pro-Brexit Sunday Telegraph with his arch-foe Liam Fox, making the following statement: “We respect the will of the British people – in March 2019 the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. We will l
  
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• I share Stephen Hawking’s passion for the NHS. But he is wrong on our policy | Jeremy Hunt

  27-08-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Hawking’s criticism of the direction of the health service is misguided. I think we are improving quality of care, and I want the NHS to remain state fundedI am afraid Professor Stephen Hawking, writing in the Guardian, is once again wrong in his characterisation of government policy towards the NHS. Related: Jeremy Hunt can attack me all he wants – but he is wrong to say the NHS is working | Stephen HawkingContinue reading...
  
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• Prince, belts and Brexit: autumn’s arts, politics, sports and style highlights

  27-08-2017 01:22 via theguardian.com
  From Joe Root’s bid to retain the Ashes to the last days of Cassini’s mission to Saturn, our specialist writers pick the season’s best in arts, sports, politics, science and trends Continue reading...
  
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• My family’s love story helped out May on migration | Jess Phillips

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  One foreign student not only went home on time but took my British brother with herI’m writing this in France, where I’m staying with my brother and his family. He met his French wife Julie while they were studying in Glasgow.Figures last week have shown that it turns out foreign students are not sticking around in the UK as much as our prime minister had said. Just like them, Julie didn’t overstay in our green and pleasant land; on the contrary, when she returned to France, sh
  
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• In Liverpool, a rare housing story to celebrate

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Restored homes in the rundown area where Ringo Starr was born offer a lesson for national housing policyLast weekend, 24 newly renovated houses in Liverpool were opened to the public so that prospective tenants could apply to live there. Within a day all were taken.That these houses exist at all is something of a miracle, as they are part of the Welsh Streets, an area of handsome Victorian terraces that national and city government, at a cost of millions in public money, spent more than a decade
  
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• I’m friends with all sorts… my dear gran was a Tory

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  It is possible to be friends with a Tory, says the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, though she does surround herself with people who share her moral codeAugust is a cruel mistress to politicians. Silly season means that if you say anything you will find yourself splashed all over the papers.This week Labour MP Laura Pidcock said that she would not be friends with a Tory. The reaction to this story would have most people thinking that she had expressed a desire to steal the first-born children o
  
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• David Davis's new clothes - cartoon

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Chris Riddell on the Brexit secretary’s negotiations with the EU Continue reading...
  
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• Can Labour’s change of course over Brexit change Britain’s fate? | Andrew Rawnsley

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  The party has realised that most of its supporters don’t want to crash out of Europe. Now to persuade some ToriesThere are two kind of battles in politics: the noisy ones and the stealthy ones. The high-decibel clashes grab all the attention because they generate visible mayhem and buckets of gore. So eyes have been on the Conservatives over the summer weeks as the Brexit battlefield has resounded to the clang of Tories swinging war hammers at other Tories.All the while, another struggle,
  
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• Brexit the Musical: in Edinburgh, I understood how farce can be more persuasive than argument

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  If this satire were to tour the whole country, who knows what effect it might have?The Edinburgh festival fringe at its peak mounts more than 1,800 shows a day, but this year from my sample it was Brexit the Musical that really caught my imagination. From the first scene, where a Boris Johnson in Union Jack underpants realises with horror that Leave has won – “ We will bugger the economy,” he sings – to the last, where he and his sidekick “Govey” finally disco
  
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• A million skilled EU workers see their future outside Britain

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Most professionals with PhDs are planning to leave because of BrexitAlmost a million EU citizens working in Britain – many of them young, highly qualified and much sought-after by businesses – are either planning to leave the country or have already made up their minds to go as a result of Brexit, a study has found.A survey of 2,000 EU workers in Britain by KPMG, the professional services firm, found that 55% of those with PhDs and 49% of those with postgraduate degrees were either p
  
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