Political news

• 25 Of The Best Signs From The 'Time’s Up' Women's March In London

  21-01-2018 23:22
  Thousands have taken to the streets in London to say “Time’s Up” and protest for women’s equality to mark a year since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President.The Women’s March, which began on Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street at 11am on Sunday, was the latest in a series of rallies that have seen people in at least 34 countries protest this weekend.Here are just 25 of the best signs on display in the capital.
  
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• 'McMafia' Episode 5 Review: 11 Questions We Have After This Week's Instalment

  21-01-2018 23:01
  After a lacklustre episode last week, ‘McMafia’ was back on track on Sunday (21 January) night, but the same couldn’t be said for Alex and Semiyon’s plan. The pair’s scheme to take Vadim down had been pretty smooth sailing, but they hit a massive stumbling block when Semiyon was arrested on suspicion of the battery and rape of his young boyfriend.With Vadim seemingly behind the allegations, he proved he isn’t about to go down without a fight and one chill
  
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• Jacob Rees-Mogg Suggests Sending French 'HMS Victory' Flag To Show 'By And Large We Win The Battles'

  21-01-2018 21:48
  Tory grassroots favourite Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested Britain sends a fragment of the union flag hoisted above Admiral Nelson’s HMS Victory to show “by and large we win the battles”.The MP and Brexit cheerleader made the perhaps tongue-in-cheek offering after French president Emmanuel Macron agreed to lend the Bayeux Tapestry to the UK.The 70 metre (230ft) long tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror, and culminates in
  
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• Henry Bolton loses confidence vote at Ukip ruling body

  21-01-2018 19:49 via ft.com
  Party leader under increasing pressure over personal life
  
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• Dolores O’Riordan: Thousands Gather To Pay Tribute To Cranberries Singer

  21-01-2018 19:27
  Thousands of people have gathered at a church in Limerick to remember the life of Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan.Fans young and old, many clutching white roses and daffodils, streamed to St Joseph’s Church where a public reposal was held on Sunday.A floral tribute from her bandmates beside her open coffin read: “The song has ended, but the memories linger on.”Photographs of the Irish singer performing and one of her with the Pope, were placed along the church wa
  
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• Emmanuel Macron's Andrew Marr Interview Has People Swooning

  21-01-2018 18:36
  Emmanuel Macron appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday to discuss Brexit and his relationship with US president Donald Trump.And while the French president provided story-thirsty British political journalists with an array of headlines, perhaps most striking was the praise his all-round performance drew from usually cynical hacks.In the head-to-head, the En Marche! leader admitted France would have probably voted to leave the European Union if it had staged a referendum on member
  
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• Ukip Leader Henry Bolton Refuses To Quit Despite Party Issuing Vote Of No Confidence

  21-01-2018 18:19
  Ukip’s ruling body has issued a vote of no confidence in party leader Henry Bolton – but he is refusing to stand down.The anti-EU party’s National Executive Committee met today to discuss the future of Bolton, who has generated more than a week of negative headlines about his private life and the conduct of his now ex-girlfriend Jo Marney.At a meeting in Central London today which went on for more than two and half hours, Bolton was grilled over his conduct before a vote was he
  
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• UK set to cut maximum stake on lucrative gaming machines to £2

  21-01-2018 18:12 via ft.com
  Fixed odds betting terminals currently allow bets of up to £50 and are seen as highly addictive
  
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• Maximum stake on lucrative gaming machines to be cut to £2

  21-01-2018 18:12 via ft.com
  Crackdown on ‘addictive’ fixed odds betting terminals set to hit bookmakers
  
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• Bookmakers blow as maximum stake on betting machines cut to £2

  21-01-2018 18:12 via ft.com
  Crackdown on fixed-odds terminals could put 21,000 out of work, says industry
  
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• Wigan Murder Investigation: Man Dies Following Pub Fight

  21-01-2018 17:20
  Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died following a fight in a pub.Greater Manchester Police launched a murder investigation after officers were called to the Georgia Brown’s pub in Hindley, Wigan, shortly after 11.30pm on Saturday to reports a 51-year-old man had been assaulted.The man was given first aid at the scene but later died in hospital.Two men, aged 27 and 29, have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody for questioning.Chief Superint
  
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• Liz Truss: No 'Full Estimate' Of Cost To Taxpayers From Carillion Collapse

  21-01-2018 14:51
  Ministers do not have a “full estimate” of how much the collapse of construction services company Carillion will cost the taxpayer, Liz Truss has said.The Chief Secretary to the Treasury said it would be “completely wrong” to speculate on the cost, but said it would be a “significant amount of money”.Do we know how much the collapse of #Carillion will cost taxpayers? @Peston asks Chief Secretary to the Treasury @trussliz#Pestonpic.twitter.com/GtdYoSkio7—
  
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• Brexit ‘Revocateurs’ are wrong to put faith in another referendum

  21-01-2018 14:42 via ft.com
  No question could keep the UK in the EU and Leavers may boycott a second poll
  
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• Sunday Show Round Up: Macron Admits France Would 'Probably' Vote To Leave EU

  21-01-2018 14:22
  All you need to know from a busy Sunday in the world of politics.Macron and BrexitThe Andrew Marr Show landed an interview with French President Emmanuel Macron. The pre-recorded chat won praise on Twitter from many hacks who contrasted Macron’s engaging, insightful and passionate replies to questions with the robotic, soundbite-led approach of Theresa May and the meandering, evasive style of Jeremy Corbyn. And all that in his second language.Excellent body language from Macron on #marr.Pl
  
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• Theresa May vows to target UK company pension abuse

  21-01-2018 14:00 via ft.com
  Executives who try to ‘line their own pockets’ at the expense of workers will be hit
  
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• Watch Time's Up Women's March In London

  21-01-2018 13:40
  Thousands of women have taken to the streets in London to say “Time’s Up” on issues including sexual harassment and the gender pay gap, a day after huge crowds gathered for marches across the US.The march, which began on Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street at 11am, is the latest in a series of rallies that have seen women in at least 34 countries protest this weekend.The march marks the anniversary of the Women’s March movement which was sparked by the US Presi
  
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• Ukip 'Probably Over' If I'm Sacked, Warns Leader Henry Bolton

  21-01-2018 12:50
  Henry Bolton believes Ukip “is probably over” if he is ousted as leader at a crunch meeting this afternoon.The former soldier issued the warning as Ukip’s National Executive Committee gather to decide whether to issue a vote of no confidence in the leader.Bolton’s position has become increasingly precarious since it emerged he had left his wife for Ukip activist Jo Marney – a move which some in the party felt undermined his ‘family man’ image.Leaked text
  
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• Viola Davis Gives Powerful Speech On Sexual Harassment And #MeToo At Los Angeles Women’s March

  21-01-2018 11:55
  One year on from President Donald Trump’s inauguration, people took to the streets in the States for a second women’s march on Saturday (20 January), where a number of famous faces made their thoughts on the past 12 months known.In Los Angeles, the hundreds of thousands of marchers were addressed by activists, politicians and famous faces, with one of the most powerful speeches of the day coming from Oscar-winner Viola Davis.The ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ actress spoke
  
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• Tax Credit Claimants Hit By Bungled Outsourcing Paid Just £14 Compensation Each

  21-01-2018 11:49
  Tax credit claimants who suffered as the result of a botched outsourcing plan have been paid just £14 each in compensation.Concentrix adjusted or terminated around 108,000 cases of claimants’ tax credits – nearly a third of which were overturned at appeal.HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ended its deal with the contractor after a series of problems came to light.Now we learn that the average amount people can expect in compensation is less than £15. That’s a pitiful am
  
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• John McDonnell Refuses To Apologise For Repeating Call For Esther McVey To Be Lynched

  21-01-2018 11:48
  Labour’s Shadow Chancellor again refused to apologise today for repeating calls for a Tory Cabinet Minister to by lynched.John McDonnell made the comments in 2014, when he said some activists in Liverpool questioned why Labour weren’t supporting “lynching” then-Employment Minister Esther McVey.McDonnell claims he was not endorsing the suggestion, but less than a year later went on to claim McVey was a “stain on humanity”.His comments have been criticised acros
  
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• Blue badge scheme could be extended to cover autism and dementia

  21-01-2018 11:20 via bbc.co.uk
  People with autism and dementia could qualify for the new badges across England.
  
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• UK Weather: More Snow Expected After Coldest Night For Nearly Two Years

  21-01-2018 11:10
  People across the country are braced for more snow after the UK froze on the coldest night in nearly two years.Wintry conditions are to continue to grip large parts of the UK on Sunday, with snow forecast for areas from northern Scotland to the Home Counties.Temperatures plummeted overnight, with a low of -13.5C (7.7F) recorded in the Highland village of Dalwhinnie, while freezing temperatures were recorded as far south as London Luton Airport.A yellow severe weather warning for #snow and #ice h
  
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• French President says Donald Trump is not a 'classical politician'

  21-01-2018 10:59 via bbc.co.uk
  France's president criticises Donald Trump's crude comment about African countries, in a BBC interview.
  
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• ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ Viewers Slam John Barnes For 'Homophobic' Comments About Gay Men

  21-01-2018 10:56
  ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ viewers were left unimpressed by John Barnes during Saturday (20 January) night’s show, following a series of comments he made about gay men.The former footballer was speaking to Shane J - who entered the house in full drag, as his alter ego Courtney Act - when he admitted to sometimes feeling uncomfortable around gay men.John told Shane: “They [men] assume he’s definitely going to want to have sex with me. And that’s why men aren&rsquo
  
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• West Midlands Stabbing Sees Man Arrested After Girl, Eight, Dies

  21-01-2018 10:45
  A man has been arrested after an eight-year-old child was stabbed to death in the West Midlands last night. West Midlands Police said they were called to a property in Valley View, Brownhills, around 9.15pm and found the girl had suffered serious injuries. She was taken to hospital, “but sadly nothing could be done to save her and she died a short time later”A 54-year-old man was treated in hospital for a stab wound to his stomach, but is now in a stable condition and will
  
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• Brownhills Stabbing: Eight-Year-Old Victim Named As Mylee Billingham

  21-01-2018 10:45
  An eight-year-old girl stabbed to death in the West Midlands has been named by police as Mylee Billingham.West Midlands Police said they were called to a property in Brownhills, near Walsall, around 9.15pm and found the girl had suffered serious injuries.She was taken to hospital and died a short time later. Mylee’s mother is reported to have said “my partner stabbed my little girl”, a neighbour has told the Press Association.Graham Greatrex, 74, told how he helped co
  
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• Henry Bolton’s Leadership Of Ukip To Be Discussed By Senior Party Figures

  21-01-2018 09:57
  Senior Ukip officials are expected to meet today to discuss leader Henry Bolton’s future amid reports Nigel Farage is plotting a return to frontline British politics.Ukip’s national executive committee (NEC) is said to be planning to hold a vote of confidence in their leader during a special meeting on Sunday, one week after the party was rocked by revelations his girlfriend had sent racist messages.The party leader has faced a volley of calls to resign since his now former partner w
  
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• UKIP leader Henry Bolton faces crunch meeting

  21-01-2018 09:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Henry Bolton is expected to face a confidence vote when he meets UKIP's ruling committee later.
  
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• Kabul Intercontinental Hotel Siege Ends With At Least Five Dead, Government Confirms

  21-01-2018 09:33
  Afghan Special Forces ended an overnight siege at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday, killing the last gunman from a group of three attackers who stormed the hotel, taking hostages and battling security forces for hours.Two gunmen were killed on Saturday night. It was initially reported that four gunmen had attacked the hotel.Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least five other people had been killed and six wounded, a lower casualty total than earlier feared, while 153
  
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• Kabul Intercontinental Hotel Siege Ends With More Than A Dozen Deaths, Government Confirms

  21-01-2018 09:30
  Fourteen foreigners and four Afghans were killed after gunmen burst into Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel restaurant on Saturday and opened fire. Afghan Special Forces ended the siege overnight killing all three attackers who took hostage sand battled security forces for hours.The BBC reported that the dead included nine Ukrainians, one German, one Greek and one Kazakh citizen had been confirmed dead. Two of the deceased have yet to be identified.Afghan airline Kam Air said a number of
  
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• Join The Women's March And Put Women's Activism Front And Centre

  21-01-2018 09:24
  There must be no doubt that we are in an age where the prominence of women is driving the narrative on the global stage - and rightly so.  The lack of visibility of more women in leadership roles; evident treatment of women as second class citizens; and plethora of human rights issues such as violence and harassment against women have stirred up a unifying global protest for change. It is remarkable to see because it is driven by ordinary people and not those in seats of power. Activism is
  
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• How This Coffee Shop Gives Women Who've Been Trafficked A 'Second Chance At Life'

  21-01-2018 09:01
  At first glance, Kahaila looks like a regular London café: customers tap away on their Macs or chat with friends, sip on hot drinks and eye up cakes. But this Brick Lane hangout isn’t just another hipster coffee shop.The “coffee shop with a conscience” is actually a non-profit charity that runs local community projects helping vulnerable women. One such project is Luminary Bakery, which uses baking classes as a tool to break cycles of abuse, prostitution, crimi
  
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• 'The Florida Project' Star Bria Vinaite: 'I Never Want To Be One Of Those Weird, Robotic People'

  21-01-2018 08:31
  At the beginning of the year, we named Bria Vinaite one of 12 stars to look out for in 2018. Here, Bria talks about staying true to herself, her unusual beginnings in the film industry and what she envisages for her future...“If I’m not mistaken, I was dancing around in some yard. And I had on, like, a feather boa and, like, feathers on my head. I had no music on, I was just jumping around and dancing for no reason.”This was film director Sean Baker’s first impression of
  
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• Call The Midwife’s Leonie Elliott: Get To Know Nonnatus House’s Latest Arrival

  21-01-2018 08:31
  ‘Call The Midwife’ is officially back on our screens for its seventh(!) series, and after the positive reception given to last year’s new recruit, Valerie Dyer, bosses are introducing another new midwife.Nurse Lucille Anderson is the first West Indian midwife to feature as a regular character in the series, and she’ll give viewers a fresh insight into what life was like for the Caribbean nurses who supported the NHS in the 1960s.Leonie Elliott is taking on the role and wh
  
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• Brexit: 'Irresponsible' to threaten Welsh refusal of consent to EU bill

  21-01-2018 08:10 via bbc.co.uk
  A former Brexit minister urges Carwyn Jones to work positively with the UK government.
  
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• We must hope for real answers about Carillion. We don’t usually get them

  21-01-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Underbidding for contracts to bring in cash – if that is what has happened – is a dangerous practice. We need to knowThe collapse of Carillion, the building and outsourcing company, throws up so many questions about the state of UK business and government services it is difficult to know where to begin.Lifting the lid on Carillion’s strategic plans, it is clear that the company’s board mistook tactical nous for strategy. Not that there was much common sense in taking a bu
  
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• Prepare for a tirade from the pub trade’s Brexiter-in-chief

  21-01-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The outspoken boss of JD Wetherspoon will deliver his usual idiosyncratic takeon trading this weekOne opinionated, multimillionaire businessman with populist views and atrocious hair is going to Davos this week. The other is not.Donald Trump will surely hijack all the soundbites from the world’s most famous boondoggle this week. Yet away from the magic mountain, in an alternative universe they sometimes call the real world, we will probably learn much more about everyday lives. Continue re
  
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• Future-proofed against austerity: new Scottish social security system

  21-01-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Independent body will check that changes preserve human rights before Holyrood gets voteScotland’s new social security system will include an unprecedented degree of independent scrutiny – with the express intention of future-proofing the powers against the kinds of austerity measures that have devastated vulnerable groups in the rest of the UK.Scotland’s social security minister, Jeane Freeman, announced on Sunday that there will be a Scottish Commission on Social Security, an
  
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• Blue badge scheme could be extended to autism and dementia sufferers

  21-01-2018 06:07 via bbc.co.uk
  People with autism and dementia could qualify for the new badges across England.
  
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• PM to stop private sector 'pension abuse'

  21-01-2018 04:08 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May says the government will stamp out abuses of workers' pensions in failing companies.
  
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• The school cat - cartoon

  21-01-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Chris Riddell on asset stripping in academy trusts Continue reading...
  
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• Democracy is more fragile than many of us realised, but don’t believe that it is doomed | Andrew Rawnsley

  21-01-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  The dismantling of freedom begins with attacks on unfettered media and an independent judiciaryNothing ages so badly as visions of the future. When the fall of the Berlin Wall was followed by the implosion of the Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama celebrated by publishing his bestseller, The End of History and the Last Man. The book argued that, with the demise of its main ideological competitor, the world would belong to liberal democracy. He has been much mocked since for failing to foresee that d
  
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• CBI calls for UK to stay in an EU customs union for the long term

  21-01-2018 01:05 via ft.com
  Demand places fresh pressure on the prime minister for a soft Brexit
  
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• Britain risks losing green protections after Brexit

  21-01-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Friends of the Earth, National Trust and others voice ‘serious concerns’ that UK will not cooperate with EUA coalition of leading environmental groups says there is a “significant risk” that British environmental protections will be reduced after Brexit, despite the government’s positive rhetoric.Greener UK, which represents 13 campaign groups including WWF, National Trust, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance and the Wildlife Trusts, says there are “ser
  
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• Greens set out price for backing Scottish National party’s budget

  21-01-2018 01:04 via ft.com
  Demands made for more funding for local government and tackling climate change
  
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• Capitalism’s new crisis: after Carillion, can the private sector ever be trusted?

  21-01-2018 01:04 via theguardian.com
  For years, companies entrusted with the UK’s social needs have failed in their dutyIt is one of the most spectacular corporate failures of recent years. Carillion’s collapse, with £2bn of debts, threatens to deprive tens of thousands of workers, directly or indirectly, of their livelihood. The company had only £29m of cash left. This broaches new levels of fecklessness and the impact will be felt across Britain.For Carillion was not only a major construction company:
  
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• We’ve all visited the land of idiocy – but Ben Bradley still lives there | Rebecca Nicholson

  21-01-2018 01:03 via theguardian.com
  The Tory politician should be allowed his youthful mistakes, some argue. But some mistakes are worse than othersDigital footprints really can be a bind. One minute, you’re a YouTube sensation being paid thousands to appear on a reality TV show; the next, you’re in the tabloids for saying something racist, sexist or a bit of both when you were 14.In some ways, it’s fitting that Ben Bradley, the Conservatives’ vice-chair for youth, should have experienced what is a particul
  
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• No reds under beds, but the young are awake to the flaws in capitalism

  21-01-2018 01:03 via theguardian.com
  The crash of 2008, not Stalinists in our universities, caused the sense of alienation among studentsAre student Red Guards about to storm the quads of Oxbridge colleges? Do young people think that famines and purges and mass executions are good? Apparently so.A ComRes poll last week showed that young people worry more about capitalism than communism: 9% of 18- to 24-year-olds thought communists were “the most dangerous in the world today” while 24% thought it was “big business&
  
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