Political news

• Martin Rowson on the CBI's rejection of 'blunt targets' for EU workers – cartoon

  10-08-2018 19:51
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• Campaign for second Brexit vote seeks support beyond capital

  10-08-2018 19:16
  People’s Vote roadshow will try to show public that remainers are not part of establishmentCampaigners for a second referendum will hold the first of a series of events outside London on Saturday to try to mobilise popular support for the plan beyond the capital.The Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, the Lib Dem leader, Sir Vince Cable, and Labour’s Stephen Doughty will address a lunchtime event at the Colston Hall in Bristol, where tickets have sold out. Continue reading...
  
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• Equality watchdog attacks Boris Johnson's 'inflammatory' remarks

  10-08-2018 19:14
  EHRC says it has no powers to investigate MP’s ‘divisive’ comments about burqaThe equalities watchdog has branded Boris Johnson’s comments on the burqa “inflammatory and divisive”, but said it has no powers to launch an investigation.The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it had received a complaint from a member of the public about Johnson’s controversial article in the Daily Telegraph, but its remit extended to breaches of equality law, s
  
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• Second union boss urges Labour to adopt full definition of antisemitism

  10-08-2018 19:09
  Unison’s Dave Prentis argues that not doing so is costing party the moral high groundDave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, has become the second major union boss in two days to call for Labour to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition on antisemitism, arguing that not doing so is costing the party the moral high ground to oppose racial hatred and oppression.Prentis said the row had become a dangerous distraction for Labour and made it easy for s
  
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• Former chief defends offer to cash-strapped councils

  10-08-2018 18:49 via ft.com
  Paul Blantern quit Northamptonshire just months before it revealed £70m shortfall
  
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• Antisemitism, Islamophobia – and this is just the Brexit phoney war | Marina Hyde

  10-08-2018 18:45
  Boris Johnson’s swipe at Muslim women has left both major parties in conflict with minorities. It all feels a bit ominousNever less than up-to-the-minute, I have just read Boris Johnson’s 2004 novel Seventy Two Virgins. If you’re wondering if that title doubles as a description of its readership, you’re on the wrong track. It sold well, and the reader is duly lured in with the cover quote, promising “Johnson scores in his comic handling of these sensitive issues&rdq
  
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• Hammond steps up call for tax on revenues of online retailers

  10-08-2018 17:56 via ft.com
  Chancellor seeks to ensure duty between high street and Big Tech is ‘fair’
  
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• If so many Britons support freedom of movement, why doesn’t Theresa May? | Peter Kellner

  10-08-2018 16:48
  Even leave voters support qualified freedom, yet the prime minister’s targets for immigration cuts don’t reflect thisIn calling for Theresa May to abandon her ambition to reduce immigration to the “tens of thousands” a year, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is reflecting public opinion better than the prime minister. A YouGov survey of an exceptionally large sample of 10,000 electors finds that 70% are happy for EU citizens with a job or university place in the
  
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• MTR’s woes highlight weakness of UK rail franchise system

  10-08-2018 16:44 via ft.com
  Group has lost its chief executive but still has good chance of winning West Coast franchise
  
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• Call for Gove to give evidence over school abuse case claims

  10-08-2018 15:57
  Lawyers want minister called to inquiry over allegation he intervened in investigationLawyers representing child abuse survivors have called for the environment secretary, Michael Gove, to be called before a public inquiry over an allegation he intervened in a sexual abuse investigation at a boarding school.Two child abuse professionals have testified at the ongoing independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) that while he was the education secretary, Gove intervened to find out about an
  
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• UKIP Wales members elect Gareth Bennett as assembly leader

  10-08-2018 15:21 via bbc.co.uk
  The outspoken AM has caused controversy with his comments on immigration and transgender rights.
  
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• Boris Johnson's burka comments inflammatory and divisive - equalities watchdog

  10-08-2018 15:11 via bbc.co.uk
  The Equality and Human Rights Commission says his comments risk "vilifying Muslim women".
  
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• Philip Hammond urges EU to accept Theresa May's Brexit plan

  10-08-2018 14:43
  Chancellor says Chequers white paper lets UK remain linked to EU economy in way that works for both sidesThe British chancellor, Philip Hammond, has called on Brussels to accept Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint, saying it offers a “fair and sensible” way forward.Hammond said the controversial plan hammered out at Chequers last month would enable the UK to remain closely connected to the EU economy in a way that worked for both sides.Continue reading...
  
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• Boris Johnson’s burqa remarks are no surprise – his misogyny goes far back | Robert Verkaik

  10-08-2018 14:26
  The seeds of his bigotry were sown in Eton and cultivated at Oxford, forming an outlook that is central to his politicsBoris Johnson’s comparison of women to inanimate objects such as letterboxes betrays a kind of misogyny that has become an all too familiar feature of his alpha-male politics.This is the man who in his first flush of reporting at the Telegraph in 1996 wrote an article about the Labour conference in Blackpool, which he devoted to reviewing the quality of “the hot tott
  
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• No one’s civil liberties are violated by a ban on the far-right Infowars | Michael Segalov

  10-08-2018 13:53
  Platforms such as Apple and Facebook are not engaging in censorship: they are deciding not to profit from hateIt’s nearly a decade since BNP leader Nick Griffin was invited to appear on Question Time, arguably one of the BBC’s most irresponsible decisions. There’s an often repeated, but flawed suggestion that the presence of the British National party on the corporation’s flagship current affairs show back in 2009 led to the party’s downfall. I get it – it&rsq
  
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• The mysterious momentum of Boris and tofu sausages | Emma Brockes

  10-08-2018 13:50
  Also this week: the end of the food is nigh, and the first shots of a New York cab warWho really likes Boris Johnson? This is a genuine question. I had a drink in New York this week with a veteran member of the Conservative party, who was happy to raise a glass, in absentia, to Jacob Rees-Mogg, but who on mention of Boris Johnson, barked out a word considered so rude in the US that people looked up from a neighbouring table.Continue reading...
  
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• UK growth boosted by warmer weather

  10-08-2018 13:42 via bbc.co.uk
  The recent heatwave helped to lift the economy, but analysts say growth remains relatively subdued.
  
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• Saudi Arabia and Israel are killing civilians – and Britain is complicit | Owen Jones

  10-08-2018 13:28
  The slaughter in Yemen and the Palestinian territories is happening with British arms and support – and media silenceWill not even the massacre of children in Yemen end the silence over the murderous complicity of the British government? They were little kids on a bus on the way back from a picnic, no doubt laughing and raucous as large groups of children tend to be, and then they were burned to death. At least 29 children were among the 43 slaughtered, an atrocity perpetrated by the aircr
  
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• Week in Review: Boris Johnson's dreary ambitions drift alt-right

  10-08-2018 13:13
  
  The hogwash around free speech only serves to muddy a dangerous tactical issue.
  
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• Westminster goes on holiday, but its problems remain

  10-08-2018 10:56 via ft.com
  The FT’s political editor reports from the Houses of Parliament, where Brexit and the anti-Semitism row cast clouds over the summer
  
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• A tactic for all: Time for moderates to embrace deselection

  10-08-2018 10:37
  
  If Labour moderates had a bit more confidence they'd realise that opening up party democracy can work in their favour.
  
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• Politics Live - readers' edition: Friday 10 August

  10-08-2018 10:15
  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 web 9.12am BST I’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
  
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• New York is making Uber pay a living wage – UK workers deserve the same | Frank Field

  10-08-2018 09:00
  This country desperately needs minimum standards of employment to stop exploitation in the gig economy
  • Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, is chair of the Commons work and pensions committeeThe fightback against poverty wages and exploitation in the gig economy has, until now, taken place almost exclusively in the courts. But a new front is beginning to open up in the attack on these abysmal working practices. Throughout this war of attrition between David and Goliath, the legal system
  
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• Immigration: Scrap targets after Brexit, CBI urges

  10-08-2018 08:07 via bbc.co.uk
  The business group calls for a system that "ensures immigrants add to the economy" instead.
  
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• Immigration minister Caroline Nokes 'refused' to meet Sinn Féin MP

  10-08-2018 07:52 via bbc.co.uk
  Chris Hazzard says Caroline Nokes was "parachuted" into Kilkeel to discuss the impact of Brexit.
  
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• Network Rail sale of arches property angers tenants

  10-08-2018 05:00 via ft.com
  Struggle with rising debt prompts group to dispose of commercial estate
  
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• Generation gap?

  10-08-2018 01:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Differences across the generations over Brexit appear to be becoming even more pronounced.
  
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• Disputes over deposits leave renters struggling to move home

  10-08-2018 01:01 via ft.com
  Consumer watchdog calls for reform as landlords delay returning cash
  
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• CBI urges government to drop 'blunt target' on immigration numbers

  10-08-2018 01:01
  Business leaders call on Theresa May to bring in new freedom of movement rules for EU citizensThe Confederation of British Industry has urged Theresa May to drop her “blunt target” on immigration numbers and introduce new freedom of movement rules for EU citizens post-Brexit to ensure firms, large and small, can stay in business when the UK leaves the bloc.Outlining the results of a major consultation with business leaders, Josh Hardie, the CBI’s deputy director general, said c
  
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• CBI calls for UK to abandon immigration targets after Brexit

  10-08-2018 01:01 via ft.com
  Employers’ body says EU citizens should not be included in Tier 2 visa system
  
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