Political news

• Tory review calls for new youth wing to counter Corbyn's appeal

  15-09-2017 23:00
  Eric Pickles review recommendations to include engaging more with young people after Labour surge cost Tories in electionThe Conservative party needs to re-establish its youth wing, which was shut down after a bullying scandal, as part of its attempts to engage with younger voters, according to an official review of the election result.The review, conducted by the former Tory chairman Sir Eric Pickles, will suggest reviving a group for young Conservatives as it makes more than 60 recommendations
  
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• Donald Trump's Hypocrisy Over 'Untruths' Causes Awkwardness For Sarah Sanders

  15-09-2017 22:02
  
  The White House Press Secretary was forced to awkwardly squirm her way out of a question raised by a reporter highlighting the hypocrisy of one of Donald Trump’s latest Twitter outbursts.
  Sarah Sanders was asked if the President’s demand for ESPN to apologise for one of its anchors calling him a “white supremacist” meant he would also make amends for the many “untruths” he has himself said over the years.ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and
  
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• UK Terror Threat Level Raised To Critical Following Parsons Green Explosion

  15-09-2017 21:35
  
  The UK terror threat level has been raised from severe to critical following the Parsons Green Tube explosion, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday evening.
  The measure means intelligence and security agencies have concluded another attack may be imminent.
  May said: “For this period, military personnel will replace police officers on guard duties at certain protected sites that are not accessible to the public.”
  Just before the announcement Islamic State claimed responsibility f
  
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• Nicola Jennings on NHS pay demands and the public purse – cartoon

  15-09-2017 21:10
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• Business groups press May for 3-year Brexit transition

  15-09-2017 20:40
  Eurosceptic ministers want ‘end state’ by early 2021
  
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• Business goups press May for 3-year Brexit transition

  15-09-2017 20:40
  Eurosceptic ministers want ‘end state’ by early 2021
  
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• The Guardian view on the London tube bomb: keep calm and carry on | Editorial

  15-09-2017 19:59
  A sense of proportion is something we can all bring to the struggle against terrorismWe cannot rely forever on the incompetence of our enemies but we should enjoy it while it lasts. The bucket bomb on a London tube this morning was undoubtedly intended to kill and maim as many people as possible. That it failed does not diminish the malevolence of its makers. It was no more discriminating than the lorries and cars driven into crowds around Europe this past year have been; in a horrible way it wa
  
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• The Guardian view on deportation: contempt of court and of decency | Editorial

  15-09-2017 19:58
  The deportation of Samim Bigzad, in defiance of a high court order, shows that the government cannot be trusted to uphold the rights of individualsThree judges have now told the Home Office it was wrong to deport an asylum seeker back to Afghanistan – where he says armed men are looking for him already – and that it should return him to the UK at once. By not doing so, the Home Office has shown its contempt not only for decency, but for British law. Samim Bigzad believes he is a targ
  
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• The Guardian view on universal basic income: tax data giants to pay for it | Editorial

  15-09-2017 19:57
  Hillary Clinton should have ‘thrown caution to the wind’ and backed yearly payments to US citizens. These could’ve been dividends from a fund financed by levying duties on tech giants that profit from a collective loss of privacyIn politics it is claimed that the important things are not what candidates say, but what voters hear. Hillary Clinton’s memoir, What Happened, finesses this by suggesting that it might be as vital to understand what politicians considered before
  
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• Parsons Green: Trump terror tweets 'not helpful', says May

  15-09-2017 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May says it is not "helpful for anybody to speculate" on investigations.
  
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• Parsons Green: Theresa May scolds Trump for terror tweets

  15-09-2017 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May says it is not "helpful for anybody to speculate" on investigations.
  
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• Universal credit is in 'total disarray', says Labour

  15-09-2017 19:07
  Party joins charities in calling for roll-out to be paused as claimants run up rent arrears and incur debts while waiting for paymentsUniversal credit is in “total disarray”, Labour has said, after a government study found that lengthy benefit payment waiting times were causing claimants to run up hundreds of pounds in debt and rent arrears.Labour joined welfare charities in calling for the planned roll-out of the benefit to be paused in the light of mounting evidence that design and
  
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• Stalled Brexit talks have to get moving | Letters

  15-09-2017 18:34
  Peter Ricketts says there is an urgent need to agree how a transitional period will work, while Harry Harmer takes issue with a ‘hard remainer’s idiocy’The Brexit negotiations are stalled. Both sides are going to have to move if the stall is not to develop into a crash.Political choices need to be made in two key areas, both identified in the excellent speech by Lord Bridges in the House of Lords, as you reported (Former Brexit minister suggests government not being ‘hone
  
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• Better-off areas asked to build up to 40% more homes

  15-09-2017 18:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Communities secretary says "more honest" formula needed to determine housing need in England.
  
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• Irish PM Varadkar 'not optimistic' on Brexit talks

  15-09-2017 18:29 via bbc.co.uk
  Insufficient progress means EU-UK talks may not progress as planned, suggests Leo Varadkar.
  
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• Green groups claim 'important victory' in challenge to legal costs rules

  15-09-2017 18:19
  Environmental campaigners say rules now favour those who want to hold government to account – not the other way roundConservation and environmental groups have claimed an “important victory” in their high court challenge to new legal costs rules which they say make it much harder to bring cases to protect the environment. In February, the government scrapped fixed-cost caps that limited how much people and charities had to pay if they lost a case against a public body.Continue
  
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• Parsons Green Terror Attack: Theresa May Slams Donald Trump's Reaction To Tube Explosion

  15-09-2017 18:16
  
  Theresa May has taken aim at Donald Trump after the President claimed that the suspects who carried out the Parsons Green attack this morning were known to police. 
  The Prime Minister slammed Trump’s comments about the ongoing investigation as not “helpful”, adding police and security services were still working to discover the “full circumstances” of the “cowardly attack”.  
  The rush hour blast, which took place on the Underground’
  
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• Charities condemn rejection of changes to Lobbying Act

  15-09-2017 17:53
  Campaign groups fear most vulnerable will be left without a voice and say act has chilling effect on freedom of speechCharities have condemned ministers for rejecting changes to the Lobbying Act which were made by a government-commissioned review body. Campaign groups say they will be left unable to speak out for vulnerable and marginalised people in society because the law has a chilling effect on freedom of speech.The Lobbying Act restricts what non-governmental organisations can say in the ye
  
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• Alastair Campbell on madness and power: ‘I don’t mind that I’m psychologically flawed’

  15-09-2017 17:37
  In the latest of his political diaries, Labour’s former spin doctor reveals how the drama of the Blair-Brown years almost cost him his sanity – and his marriageAlastair Campbell’s latest volume of diaries brings to mind the sign that used to be a ubiquitous feature of the 1980s workplace: “You don’t have to be mad to work here ... But it helps!” To my knowledge, no Westminster wag has ever hung one in No 10. From Campbell’s account of government during t
  
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• Lucky us – it’s an offer we can’t refuse from the Murdochs | Marina Hyde

  15-09-2017 17:34
  First the media empire gave us Brexit. Now it says it had better take over Sky, to save us all from BrexitI always enjoy Rupert Murdoch’s how-very-dare-you moments, those occasions on which he draws himself up to his full ethical height. Last December he wrote a letter to this newspaper debunking as “fake news” a quote frequently attributed to him. You might have seen it (indeed, the former Times city editor who claims it was said to him stands by it): “When I go int
  
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• Universal Credit wait a key factor in rent arrears, says DWP report

  15-09-2017 17:33 via bbc.co.uk
  Call for a pause in the roll-out of Universal Credit following the government's own report.
  
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• UK pension freedoms alarm state-backed workplace scheme

  15-09-2017 17:24
  Nest calls on regulator to act after £10bn is withdrawn from schemes
  
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• Charity anger at ministers' refusal to relax lobbying rules

  15-09-2017 17:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Ministers reject calls to scrap restrictions on election campaigning activities.
  
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• Pound hits highest since Brexit vote on rate rise speech

  15-09-2017 16:46 via bbc.co.uk
  Sterling at a 15-month dollar high as a Bank official says the "moment is approaching" for a rate rise.
  
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• Welcome home Simon Rattle, your return more than lived up to the hype | John Crace

  15-09-2017 16:44
  This week author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir shared some Scandi stories, and a performance of Elgar brought tears to the eyesI spent the weekend in Iceland as a guest of the Reykjavik international literary festival. As so often, I had as much – if not more – fun meeting readers and authors from other countries as I did talking at my own events. Highlights also included whale watching, being taken on a day’s excursion around the local sights and avoiding eating the local del
  
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• Jo Swinson: ‘I find it harder now to offer simple solutions’

  15-09-2017 16:27
  On the eve of the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth, the deputy leader says the party must find a way to connect with centrist voters and defends her decision not to stand for the leadershipThe Liberal Democrats are struggling to attract voters from the centre ground who are politically homeless after Labour and the Conservatives have shifted to the edges, according to the party’s new deputy leader, Jo Swinson.The former women and equalities minister, who won back her East Dunbartonshire s
  
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• PM: Trump speculation 'not helpful'

  15-09-2017 16:26 via bbc.co.uk
  The prime minister says it is "not helpful" to speculate on an ongoing investigation.
  
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• Falling unemployment is great for the economy? Try telling cleaners like Irene | Stefan Baskerville

  15-09-2017 16:26
  The latest employment figures may look healthy. But they mask stories of hardship, fear and exploitation in an insecure, unregulated jobs market
  Irene is a cleaner who works on minimum wage. Her working day starts well before dawn. She leaves her children at home sleeping, and takes two buses to work to avoid a tube journey she cannot afford. She juggles multiple jobs to try to earn enough so she can feed her family.Often, those jobs change schedule arbitrarily. Her ability to pay her bills depe
  
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• Cookery courses for obese people are pointless, and ministers know it | Hugh Muir

  15-09-2017 16:12
  Ministers know the solution to the obesity crisis, it’s the same as how they weaned Britain off smoking. They have to dare to be a ‘nanny state’Let’s not be unreasonable: governments can’t control everything. Systems fail. Events creep up. But it’s a matter of legitimate concern when risks are known, quantified and still inadequately addressed.As a society we have a complex relationship with risk, straddling the law, politics and commerce. Many will say the ri
  
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• Smaller European Parliament but some nations want extra seats

  15-09-2017 16:04 via bbc.co.uk
  France and Sweden may get a bigger voice in European politics, but Germany and Hungary will not.
  
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• Universal credit reaction: Citizens Advice and claimant

  15-09-2017 15:55 via bbc.co.uk
  There have been delays to payments, and ministers must now decide whether to extend the trial into a national scheme.
  
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• Tory MP Heidi Allen urges delay to universal credit

  15-09-2017 15:54 via bbc.co.uk
  Some 14% of new claimants still do not get any money on time, while another 23% only get a partial payment on-time.
  
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• Greening could face legal action over failure to protect raped pupils

  15-09-2017 15:36
  Lawyers write to education secretary about lack of guidance for schools when children have been abused by fellow pupils
  The education secretary, Justine Greening, could face legal action if she does not take steps to prevent schoolchildren being forced to share classes with pupils who have raped or sexually assaulted them.Lawyers who have been contacted by victims have written to Greening complaining that there is still no clear guidance telling schools what they should do when rapes and sexual
  
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• Leadsom offers Brexit law olive branch

  15-09-2017 15:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Commons leader makes fresh appeal to opposition to ease passage of Brexit legislation.
  
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• Predictions are a mug’s game, but in politics we all make them

  15-09-2017 15:16
  Betting on future leaders is tricky, as there are few obvious rising stars in parliament
  
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• Whitehall must publish its Brexit impact assessments

  15-09-2017 15:10
  MPs and public remain in dark about government’s internal analysis
  
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• Week in Review: A zombie government with no ideas and no principles

  15-09-2017 13:40
  
  Senior members of this government are unlikely to ever escape the reputation it earns them
  
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• Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks food banks are ‘uplifting’. For me, they’re a necessity | Maya Bly

  15-09-2017 13:16
  I don’t use food banks through choice, I go there because otherwise I’d have nothing to eat. The Tory MP’s views hark back to an era best left behindIt is indeed “rather uplifting” when “people voluntarily … support their fellow citizens”. And in my own experience, Britain is often the “good, compassionate country” that Jacob Rees-Mogg talked about in an interview with LBC Radio on Thursday morning. So part of me agreed wholeheartedly
  
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• Keep the rest of the world in view while negotiating Brexit

  15-09-2017 12:37
  Theresa May should remember the UK does not owe its global standing to Europe alone
  
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• Overfishing of North Sea may reduce after MEPs vote on fishing quotas

  15-09-2017 12:26
  Defra welcomes European vote which aims to secure long-term sustainability of North Sea fish stocksThe European parliament has voted on a series of measures likely to reduce overfishing in the North Sea which will affect the UK’s fishing fleet until Brexit takes effect and potentially beyond.The vote ensures that there will be limits to fishing quotas so that they cannot exceed levels regarded as sustainable by scientists. The outcome had been in doubt as MEPs voted on Thursday, but severa
  
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• Sir Vince Cable: 'Scotland's Brexit concerns must be respected'

  15-09-2017 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Sir Vince Cable says Scotland's concerns over Brexit must be respected.
  
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• The EEA option: Saving Britain from hard Brexit (Part3)

  15-09-2017 10:39
  
  The third and final part to your quick and dirty guide to a soft Brexit
  
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• Brexit transition offer ‘key’ to settling EU divorce bill

  15-09-2017 10:07
  May to ease Brussels budget fears by setting out plans for ‘status quo’ deal
  
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• JD Wetherspoon boss: EU leaders should take a 'wise-up pill' on Brexit

  15-09-2017 09:00
  Tim Martin hits out at ‘unelected oligarchs’ and says pub chain could be forced to switch to suppliers outside the EU The chairman of JD Wetherspoon has warned that the pub chain could be forced to switch to suppliers from outside the EU as a result of Brexit and that the strong start to its new financial year could not be sustained.Urging EU leaders to take a “wise-up pill”, Tim Martin said any move to switch suppliers would not have adverse effects on the UK but be &ldq
  
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• End Of The Earth: Can We Tackle Climate Change Or Is It Too Late?

  15-09-2017 08:53
  
  “The biggest threat to the environment is that we believe somebody else is doing to do something about it,” we were told during our trip to Antartica.
  In part five of HuffPost’s documentary End Of The Earth, we ask if it’s too late for individuals to make a difference to the changing climate.
  We hear from businesses, politicians and ordinary people from all over the world about potential solutions available to us.
  Stephen Hawking offers some radical options and repor
  
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• Every moment spent in the presence of this ridiculous charming rescue dog is a tiny gift | First Dog on the Moon

  15-09-2017 08:36
  I have found a state of perfect grace, it is carrying a tired old dog who rests in your arms and closes her eyesSign 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 printsContinue reading...
  
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• Politics Live – readers' edition: Friday 15 September

  15-09-2017 08:34
  A forum where readers can discuss today’s politics and share links to breaking news and to the most interesting politics stories, blogs and tweets on the web7.34am BSTI’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 ot
  
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• UK Will 'Reverse Brexit' But Lib Dems Will 'Die' If Party Does Not Change, Says Lord Ashdown

  15-09-2017 08:10
  
  Britain will “probably reverse Brexit” and Theresa May will not last long as prime minister, former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown has said.
  In an interview with HuffPost UK ahead of this weekend’s Lib Dem conference, the peer also warned his party if it did not adapt to the modern age it was “going to die”.
  “We should say we understand the referendum came to a conclusion we don’t agree with obviously, we respect that conclusion, but do not doubt we will c
  
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• Government 'must fulfil £1bn NI promise'

  15-09-2017 07:22 via bbc.co.uk
  The pledge of an extra £1bn for public spending in Northern Ireland must be delivered on, says Maria Caulfield.
  
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• Hurricane Irma: OECD 'not keen' on aid rule changes

  15-09-2017 06:47 via bbc.co.uk
  The body deciding what counts as foreign aid says changes need unanimous support of all member countries.
  
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