Political news

• Tory MPs' hard Brexit letter to May described as 'ransom note'

  20-02-2018 23:08 via theguardian.com
  Group of 62 backbenchers’ list of demands for exit of EU triggers furious reaction from colleaguesMore than 60 backbench Conservative MPs have sent Theresa May a list of hard Brexit demands ahead of a crunch meeting, triggering a furious reaction from colleagues who branded the letter a “ransom note”.As dozens of members of the party’s European Research Group added their names to the correspondence setting out their expectations for Brexit with “full regulatory auto
  
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• Ex-Save the Children boss Justin Forsyth apologises over texts

  20-02-2018 22:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Former Save the Children boss Justin Forsyth was accused of commenting on what female staff wore.
  
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• Your No-Bullsh*t Guide To Whether Or Not Jeremy Corbyn Is A 'Communist Collaborator'

  20-02-2018 22:00
  Jeremy Corbyn is a secret Communist who would sell out Britain for a few quid to pursue his dream of turning the UK into East Germany.At least that’s the impression you might get from a number of newspapers, Tory MPs and political commentators over the last week, following an intital report in the Sun.Thursday's SUN: "Corbyn And The Commie Spy" #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday (via @AllieHBNews)pic.twitter.com/r39NqGLDkb
  The most solid accusation levelled at Corbyn came from former MI
  
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• MPs set out Brexit 'suggestions' to Theresa May

  20-02-2018 21:51 via bbc.co.uk
  More than 60 Conservative MPs say the UK should be able to sign trade deals straight after Brexit.
  
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• Corbyn: Spy stories show press is worried by Labour government

  20-02-2018 21:10 via bbc.co.uk
  Labour leader warns right wing press barons "change is coming" and accuses them of printing "lies".
  
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• UK must have customs union with EU after Brexit, says Corbyn

  20-02-2018 20:53 via ft.com
  Letter from 62 Eurosceptic Tory MPs urges May to hold firm to leaving
  
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• Former Save The Children Boss Justin Forsyth Admits 'Inappropriate' Behaviour

  20-02-2018 20:13
  Former Save The Children boss Justin Forsyth has admitted he had “unsuitable and thoughtless conversations” with female staff during his time at the charity.The former Downing Street comms chief has been under scrutiny following sexual assault allegations made against Brendan Cox, widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, who he worked with at the time.Forsyth himself, now a deputy executive director at Unicef, faced three complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards female staff h
  
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• No evidence Corbyn was a communist spy, say intelligence experts

  20-02-2018 20:09 via theguardian.com
  Researchers say archives suggest claims made against Labour leader are unfoundedCommunist-era files from the intelligence agency of Czechoslovakia provide no evidence that Jeremy Corbyn was ever a spy or agent of influence, experts and academic researchers who have reviewed the papers said on Tuesday.Radek Schovánek, an analyst with the defence ministry of the Czech Republic – which emerged, along with Slovakia, from the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993 – has spent 2
  
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• Steve Bell on David Davis's speech on EU regulation – cartoon

  20-02-2018 19:47 via theguardian.com
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• Jeremy Corbyn rejects spy 'smears' and takes on press critics

  20-02-2018 19:47 via theguardian.com
  Labour leader denies being communist informant and issues warning to newspaper ownersJeremy Corbyn has dismissed as “ridiculous smears” the idea he gave information to a communist spy during the cold war, saying the only reason some newspapers are publishing the claims are because they are worried about a Labour government.In his first substantive response to days of headlines about supposed meetings during the 1980s with Ján Sarkocy, a Czechoslovakian diplomat in London who w
  
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• The Guardian view on the shrinking vision for Brexit: unlovable to all | Editorial

  20-02-2018 19:45 via theguardian.com
  David Davis’s speech in Vienna can neither satisfy leavers nor reassure the EU and remainers“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small,” Norma Desmond insists in Sunset Boulevard. The self-confidence of Brexiters, so flush with victory less than two years ago, looks similarly out of date and delusional. Brexit seems increasingly unimpressive even to its own supporters. David Davis’s message of reassurance to European business leaders gathered in Vienna – that
  
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• Oxfam loses 7,000 donors since sexual exploitation scandal

  20-02-2018 19:40 via theguardian.com
  MPs tell boss Mark Goldring that charity treated vulnerable women in Haiti ‘like trinkets’Oxfam has lost 7,000 regular donors since it was revealed that staff sexually exploited victims of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, its chief executive has told a committee of MPs, which accused the charity of treating vulnerable women “like trinkets”.During questioning by the international development committee, Mark Goldring apologised to MPs for the actions of staff who were dismisse
  
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• Disputed Stormont 'deal' pages leaked

  20-02-2018 19:37 via bbc.co.uk
  The parties disagree on whether a power-sharing agreement was on the table before the talks collapsed.
  
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• Important words about Brexit | Letters

  20-02-2018 19:30 via theguardian.com
  Christopher Rainger thinks Keir Starmer should say ‘No Brexit’ is the best ‘Jobs Brexit’. But John Doherty recalls David Cameron’s pledge that the referendum would be final. And Peter McKenna says that if anyone led the Brexit charge it was Tony BennWhat a game-changer it will be when Keir Starmer gets up in the Commons and announces that Labour has decided that the best “Jobs Brexit” is “No Brexit”. Recent polling (Labour will win the next e
  
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• UK government threatens to strip Oxfam of public contracts

  20-02-2018 19:14 via ft.com
  Charity chief apologises for failings as donations slow
  
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• Northern Ireland: UK Government Drawing Up Emergency Stormont Budget

  20-02-2018 19:13
  The Government remains “steadfastly” committed to the Good Friday Agreement, Karen Bradley has said, despite Brexiteer claims power-sharing in Northern Ireland is “unsustainable”. The Northern Ireland Secretary told MPs the Government will “provide budget clarity” for civil servants in Belfast but declined to impose direct rule. Stormont has now been without a devolved Government for 13 months after talks between Sinn Fein and the Arlene Foster&rsquo
  
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• Westminster deputy leader refers himself to monitoring officer

  20-02-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Robert Davis’s decision comes after Guardian reveals he was entertained more than 500 times in three yearsRobert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster city council, has referred himself to the authority’s monitoring officer following the Guardian’s revelations that he was entertained more than 500 times in three years, including 150 times by property industry figures.The Conservative councillor was chair of Westminster’s powerful planning committee for 16 years and the exte
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Video Hits Back At Newspaper Owners Over Communist Spy Claims, Warns ‘Billionaire Tax Exiles’ Change Is Coming

  20-02-2018 19:00
  Jeremy Corbyn has lambasted newspapers over claims he helped Communist spies in the 1980s, attacking their owners as “billionaire tax exiles” and warning them “change is coming”.In a personal video message, the Labour leader hit out at The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The Express for printing allegations that he had worked with a Czechoslovakian agent to hand over British secrets.His angry riposte follows claims by former Czech agent Jan Sarkocy that he was on the
  
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• Oxfam Haiti scandal: Thousands cancel donations to charity

  20-02-2018 18:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Around 7000 people stop donating to the charity after revelations that some staff used prostitutes in Haiti.
  
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• No-one Should Suffer In Silence, Scared Of The Shame Of Debt And The Stigma Of Mental Illness

  20-02-2018 18:45
  There is a clear link between problem debt and mental ill-health.Half of adults in problem debt also have a mental health problem. That’s three million people. People with problem debt are twice as likely to develop major depression as those not in financial difficulty. 86% of respondents to a Money and Mental Health survey of nearly 5,500 people with experience of mental health problems in spring 2016 said that their financial situation had made their mental health problems worse.That&rsq
  
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• Mordaunt accuses Oxfam of 'complete betrayal of trust' over Haiti scandal – Politics live

  20-02-2018 18:44 via theguardian.com
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including David Davis’s Brexit speech and Oxfam giving evidence to MPs about the Haiti sex scandalOxfam’s evidence about Haiti sex scandal - SummaryLunchtime summaryAfternoon summary 5.31pm GMT They did not provide a full report to the Charity Commission, they did not provide a full report to their donors, they did not provide any report to prosecuting authorities. In my view they misled, quite possibly delibe
  
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• Michael Gove says UK farms need workers from around the world

  20-02-2018 18:41 via ft.com
  Environment secretary tells NFU they have ‘compelling’ case for migrant scheme
  
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• Stormont deadlock: NI secretary commits on budget clarity

  20-02-2018 18:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Karen Bradley declines to immediately reimpose direct rule from Westminster, as she updates MPs.
  
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• The Beginning Of The End Is Nigh For PFI

  20-02-2018 18:34
  So it turns out the much publicised manpower shortage in the British Army is down to outsourcing company Capita’s failure to do its job. It’s not often I applaud The Sun on it’s journalism, but their revelation this week that the army is being crippled a man power shortage, despite a record number of of would-be recruits attempting to join, is a favour to all of us who believe in public services need to be brought back in-house.Our 82,000 army is 4,000 short of the recruits it
  
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• Why I’m Not Losing Weight For My Wedding

  20-02-2018 18:23
  Content note: This blog contains descriptions of extreme eating habitsBy the time I was 24 I had been on a diet for ten years. There was the Atkins Diet; the Dukan Diet; Weight Watchers; the three months I only ate cereal; the time I ate Ambrosia rice pudding pots for every meal (coined ‘the white food phase’ by my mum); the time I discovered half a cabbage and three slices of ham was only 150 calories and ate it with a teaspoon of mustard every day for a term at uni; the going out f
  
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• Former Ukip leader Henry Bolton still in relationship with Jo Marney

  20-02-2018 18:23 via theguardian.com
  Ousted leader says woman who made offensive comments about Meghan Markle is his girlfriendThe former Ukip leader Henry Bolton, deposed by the party at the weekend following his relationship with a younger model who had sent racist online messages, remains in a relationship with her, he has said.On Saturday, Bolton was removed as Ukip’s third permanent leader since Nigel Farage left the role in 2016, by an emergency meeting of the party’s members. Continue reading...
  
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• Electric Cars In The UK Could Get A 'Superfast' Charging Network

  20-02-2018 18:13
  The National Grid has proposed a new ‘superfast’ charging network that would see 90% of all electric car owners within just 50-miles of a charging station.According to the Financial Times, the proposal would see the creation of around 100 high-powered chargers located along existing networks found under the motorways.What makes the news so exciting for electric car owners however is not the amount of chargers but the power that they’ll be able to deliver.All 100 of them would b
  
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• This Is Not A Witch-Hunt. It’s An Exorcism

  20-02-2018 18:08
  As the tidal wave of protests about sexual assault, bullying, and ‘inappropriate conduct’ becomes a worldwide tsunami, there is an inevitable backlash.Trivial matters are being elevated into career wrecking accusations, goes the complaint. Women are being treated like helpless, delicate Victorian maidens, they say. All of this will backfire on the women, who will find employers reluctant to appoint them and suitors too fearful to court them. There is widespread hysteria and a conspic
  
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• London Fashion Week: The Queen Was Sat Next To Anna Wintour

  20-02-2018 18:00
  The Queen made a surprise appearance at London Fashion Week today. And show organisers decided to sit her next to none other than the queen of fashion, Dame Anna Wintour.The Vogue editor-in-chief and Her Majesty watched the Richard Quinn catwalk show together, before the monarch presented him with an award.The pair have met before, in May 2017, when Wintour was awarded a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to the fashion industry.And on Twitter roya
  
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• Brexit Can’t Be Used As An Excuse To Cut People’s Rights At Work

  20-02-2018 17:57
  This morning in Vienna, David Davis brushed off working people’s fears that their rights at work will be undermined after Brexit. He insists that Britain will be leading a “race to the top” on standards. But he’s done nothing to set my mind at ease.For one thing, Davis’s promise that he’s not building a “Mad Max-style dystopia” says a lot for how low the Brexit bar has been set. And even then, the government might not clear it if the extreme fringe
  
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• Music Will Be One Of The UK's Strongest Calling Cards As It Sells Itself Post Brexit

  20-02-2018 17:43
  As Brexit battles continue to rage across the media and in the Cabinet, with new claims daily about the risks or opportunities for the UK outside the EU, for the UK outside the EU, one thing is obvious: our country will need to play to its strengths as it forges a new position in the world.The creative industries are one of the UK’s biggest trade success stories; accounting for £92 billion of value added and growing at twice the speed of the rest of the economy. Music is one area in
  
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• 'Upskirting' should be criminal offence, campaigners say

  20-02-2018 17:40 via bbc.co.uk
  Campaigners say a law change in England and Wales would make it easier for police to take action.
  
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• Calling Me An Inspiration Reinforces A Narrow Able-Bodied Version Of Success

  20-02-2018 17:39
  I did not know before I entered academia that my multiple invisible health conditions would become a source of fascination. When people find out the extent of my ill health, they tell me I’m brave and inspiring. I’m brave to get out of bed, to do my PhD, to have a passion for life. Of course, I am proud of my achievements – I am a doctoral student in Anthropology, in my first year I presented my findings at Oxford University and have just returned from being a Visiting Scholar
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn says Daily Mail and Sun stories 'nonsense'

  20-02-2018 17:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Taking questions after a speech, Jeremy Corbyn says stories about him and a Czech spy are "nonsense".
  
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• America's Unrequited Love of Guns

  20-02-2018 17:36
  14 February saw 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and murder 17 people with a gun. The event marked the 32nd mass shooting of 2018 in America. A year we have only just begun.Donald Trump responded to the crisis with a six-minute statement from the White House. He quoted the bible, sent prayers, and encouraged Americans to ‘strive for a much better tomorrow’. In terms of ideas on how to reach this ‘better tomorrow&
  
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• Theresa May urges opposition peers to retire to cut size of Lords

  20-02-2018 17:32 via bbc.co.uk
  The PM also vows to end "automatic" peerages for judges, police officers and other senior figures.
  
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• UK will 'have to have a customs union' post-Brexit, says Corbyn

  20-02-2018 17:27 via theguardian.com
  Labour leader says access to European markets and no hard border in Northern Ireland are key to Labour’s positionThe UK will “have to have a customs union” with the EU after leaving the bloc, Jeremy Corbyn has said in remarks suggesting a further shift by Labour towards a softer Brexit.Answering questions after a speech to manufacturers’ organisation the EEF, the Labour leader said some form of continued customs union would be imperative, in part to avoid a hard border on
  
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• Will Boris Johnson give up plastic pens for Lent?

  20-02-2018 17:26 via bbc.co.uk
  The foreign secretary is asked by Rebecca Pow whether he will join a campaign by Conservative MPs to reduce their plastic consumption during Lent.
  
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• Alfie Evans's Parents Lose High Court Battle As Judge Rules Doctors Can Stop Providing Life Support For Brain-Damaged Toddler

  20-02-2018 17:26
  Doctors can stop providing life-support treatment to 21-month-old Alfie Evans against his parents’ wishes, a High Court judge ruled on Tuesday.Tom Evans and Kate James, both 20 and from Liverpool, wanted to take their son Alfie abroad for treatment.But specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, in Liverpool, had asked a High Court judge to allow them to stop providing life-saving treatment.Mr Justice Hayden ruled in favour of hospital bosses after analysing the dispute at a hearin
  
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• Oxfam Confirms Seven New Sex Allegations In High Street Shops

  20-02-2018 17:21
  Oxfam has received 26 further allegations of sexual misconduct since revelations of alleged abuse by its staff in Haiti surfaced two weeks ago.The crisis-hit charity revealed that of the new complaints, 16 are from its international division while seven relate to incidents in its British high street shops.A spokesperson refused to tell HuffPost UK how many of those allegations were made against unpaid volunteers working in stores. It comes after HuffPost reported last week how Oxfam di
  
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• Norway Has Perfected Plastic Recycling, Here's What The UK Can Learn From Them

  20-02-2018 17:19
  One thing’s for sure: if the Scandis do anything really well, it’s sustainable living. And Norway’s plastic recycling scheme is no exception. The incentivised deposit system for recyclable plastic uses ‘reverse vending machines’ as collection points for used plastic containers, which are then taken to specialised recycling areas. These machines have been in place since 1972.The deposit system itself has been in place even longer and, according to
  
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• Incoming FCA chair invested in tax-avoidance film scheme

  20-02-2018 17:10 via ft.com
  Charles Randell tells MPs he should have seen warning signals
  
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• Finally, David Davis has told leavers the truth: Brexit means compromise | Nicky Morgan

  20-02-2018 17:09 via theguardian.com
  The Brexit secretary made it clear that there can be no bonfire of regulations if the government’s vision of ‘global Britain’ is to become a realityMinisterial speeches on Brexit seem to be a bit like buses. We wait months for one to shed a bit more light on the UK’s negotiating stance, and then they all turn up at once. On Tuesday it was David Davis’s turn to visit a European city and set out the next steps on the “road to Brexit”.I’m sure his Cab
  
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• Boris Johnson Claims Private Companies Will Pay For His New Bridge To France

  20-02-2018 17:07
  Boris Johnson has said his proposed new bridge over the English Channel to connect the United Kingdom and France could be paid for by private companies as he stepped up his campaign for the project.The foreign secretary said the Channel Tunnel will be “full” within seven years so another link was needed to cope with demand.“It is a curiosity that two of the most powerful economies in the world are separated by barely 21-miles of water are connected by only one railway line,&rdq
  
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• Another day another cabinet minister's confusing Brexit vision | John Crace

  20-02-2018 17:06 via theguardian.com
  Where Boris Johnson argued for a deregulated future, David Davis wants to leave lawless EU to create better and more regulationsIt seems there might be a plan after all. If you’re sufficiently confused yourself there’s no better way of communicating that confusion to your enemies than by sending out several members of the cabinet to relay your Brexit vision. And getting them to say something different every time. Just about the only living things close to No 10 not to be given the ch
  
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• Low Fat Vs Low Carb Diet: Which Works Best?

  20-02-2018 17:02
  For decades, two diets have ruled the roost when it comes to weight loss. If you’ve ever dieted, chances are you’ll have followed either a low-carb (Atkins) or low-fat plan. You might also know of someone who had weight loss success on one of these diets and another who didn’t lose a single pound.The variation in weight loss results has baffled researchers for a number of years. A team from Stanford University School of Medicine set out to discover which is
  
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• MPs Who Harass Must Be Publicly Embarrassed, Say Senior Female Politicians

  20-02-2018 16:50
  Two senior politicians say the believe sexist attitudes in Westminster are slowly changing - but those who harass and abuse should be “publicly embarassed”.HuffPost UK spoke to Harriet Harman, the longest-serving female MP in the Commons and Conservative peer Anne Jenkin, after we carried out a survey of women politicians asking them to share their experiences of bullying and harassment.  It follows a swathe of allegations of inappropriate conduct in Westminster, from
  
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• Stormont deadlock: NI Secretary to update MPs on way forward

  20-02-2018 16:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Karen Bradley is due to update MPs following the collapse of talks to restore the Stormont assembly.
  
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• Farmers tell Gove: lack of migrant workers now 'mission critical'

  20-02-2018 16:35 via theguardian.com
  Leading Brexiter admits supply of labour from EU27 falling so ‘we’ll need to look further afield’Farmers are running out of patience with what they see as government inaction over the future availability of seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers, the environment secretary has been told.Michael Gove was confronted over the issue at the National Farmers’ Union annual conference, but told delegates that while he understood their plight he did not have the power to accede to th
  
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• The UK Higher Education System Is Not Fit For Purpose. We Need More Apprenticeships

  20-02-2018 16:32
  For young people, being successful is all too often conflated with going to university. This conveyer belt approach to education is damaging for them, and for the nation’s economy.I recently appeared on the BBC’s The Big Questions to debate whether the UK university system is fit for purpose. As someone who quit their A-levels to do an engineering apprenticeship with Michelin Tyres before going on to establish Phones4U, I gladly took the opportunity to criticise the current status qu
  
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