UK News and Discussions

[wjfox]

They won't be getting my vote if they drop this.

The fact that they're even considering dropping this has already damaged my support for Labour.

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Labour to hold crunch talks on future of £28bn green investment plan

Fri 19 Jan 2024 18.33 GMT

Senior Labour officials are to hold crunch meetings on the future of the party’s pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment, amid reports Keir Starmer is preparing to ditch the entire plan.

Party sources said on Friday that officials would meet in the coming days to discuss the green prosperity plan, which would see a Labour government spend £28bn on environmental schemes each year by the second half of the next parliament.

A Labour spokesperson said Starmer remained committed to the plan after the Sun reported he had decided to drop it altogether. Sources have told the Guardian that the Labour leadership is still considering abandoning it if they decide it is likely to damage them in an election campaign.

One said: “There are discussions going on about this at official and political levels. There are more meetings to come this week but a final decision has not been made yet.”

A spokesperson for Starmer said: “We are committed to Labour’s green prosperity plan to drive growth and create jobs, including our plan to ramp up to £28bn of annual investment in the second half of the parliament, subject to our fiscal rules.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... tment-plan

[firestar464]

As we'll be seeing more of this, governments must ensure that these people can find financial security.

[firestar464]

They won't be getting my vote if they drop this.

The fact that they're even considering dropping this has already damaged my support for Labour.

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Labour to hold crunch talks on future of £28bn green investment plan

Fri 19 Jan 2024 18.33 GMT

Senior Labour officials are to hold crunch meetings on the future of the party’s pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment, amid reports Keir Starmer is preparing to ditch the entire plan.

Party sources said on Friday that officials would meet in the coming days to discuss the green prosperity plan, which would see a Labour government spend £28bn on environmental schemes each year by the second half of the next parliament.

A Labour spokesperson said Starmer remained committed to the plan after the Sun reported he had decided to drop it altogether. Sources have told the Guardian that the Labour leadership is still considering abandoning it if they decide it is likely to damage them in an election campaign.

One said: “There are discussions going on about this at official and political levels. There are more meetings to come this week but a final decision has not been made yet.”

A spokesperson for Starmer said: “We are committed to Labour’s green prosperity plan to drive growth and create jobs, including our plan to ramp up to £28bn of annual investment in the second half of the parliament, subject to our fiscal rules.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... tment-plan

They've now denied that they're gonna axe the pledge.

https://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/na ... nt-pledge/

[wjfox]

If recent polling is to be believed, the Tories could be looking at a vote share of 25-26% in the next election.

For historical perspective (right-click to view larger version)...

[wjfox]

Tories must oust Rishi Sunak to avoid ‘extinction’, says ex-minister

George Parker in London
YESTERDAY

Conservative MPs must oust Rishi Sunak or risk “extinction”, a former cabinet minister said on Tuesday, amid growing rightwing pressure on the prime minister.

Sir Simon Clarke aimed a volley of criticism at Sunak, saying in a newspaper article that the Tories should replace their party leader who had “sadly gone from asset to anchor”.

Clarke admitted some MPs would think it “ridiculous” that they should even consider ditching Sunak and replace him with a fourth Conservative prime minister in less than 18 months.

[...]

Many Conservative MPs fear the party could shed votes to the rightwing Reform UK party, which was founded by leading Eurosceptic Nigel Farage. “If Nigel Farage returns to the fray, as looks increasingly likely, extinction is a very real possibility for our party,” Clarke wrote.

Downing Street was on Tuesday braced for the possibility that other admirers of Truss or Boris Johnson — whom she replaced as prime minister in September 2022 — could join the revolt and call publicly for Sunak to go.

https://www.ft.com/content/dea75e01-5f0 ... 195ced1c46

[Time_Traveller]

Telegraph takeover: UK government intends to order new investigation into deal

Wed 24 Jan 2024 16.05 GMT

The government has said it intends to launch a second investigation into the Barclay family’s complex deal to transfer control of the Telegraph, after its UAE-backed consortium partner revealed a last-minute corporate structure change that has raised public interest concerns.

The culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, said she was “minded to” issue a new public interest intervention notice (PIIN) to call in the regulators Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look at RedBird IMI’s move to create a new UK holding company to house The Telegraph and sister magazine The Spectator when it takes control of the titles.

RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City football club, is paying the £1.16bn in debts that the Barclay family owed to Lloyds bank and has said it will swiftly convert the loan to take ownership if the deal goes through.

The consortium, which is run by the former CNN chief Jeff Zucker, said that the corporate structure manoeuvre had not changed the “identity, nature or economic interests of the ultimate shareholders”.

However, in a written statement Frazer criticised the company for revealing the change at this “very late stage” – Ofcom and the CMA are due to deliver by Friday the reports on the findings prompted by her first PIIN, which she issued in November.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/ ... -into-deal

[Time_Traveller]

Post Office chairman Henry Staunton ousted amid government row.

Saturday 27 January 2024 16:25, UK

The chairman of the Post Office is being forced out of the role amid frustration in Whitehall over the state-owned company’s governance as it reels from the Horizon IT scandal.

Sky News has learnt that Henry Staunton, who only became chairman of the Post Office in December 2022 after a long career in FTSE boardrooms, was this weekend told by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, that he was to be replaced amid mounting tension with the government.

Sources said this weekend that Ms Badenoch had notified him of the decision in a telephone call on Saturday afternoon.

The hunt for a new chairman will come as the government tries to force through legislation that will more quickly compensate hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted over the faulty software which triggered Britain's biggest miscarriage of justice.

https://news.sky.com/story/post-office- ... t-13057745

[Time_Traveller]

Britons switching to smaller, higher-quality alcoholic drinks, experts say

Sat 27 Jan 2024 10.00 GMT

As the adage goes: good things come in small packages. According to alcohol industry experts British consumers are increasingly choosing to enjoy their beverages in smaller portions, but of higher quality – fuelling a trend for 100ml taster bottles.

The shift comes from a desire to be healthier, experts say, with drinking among UK teenagers and young people falling. In June 2023, Tesco sold 25% more low- and non-alcoholic beer than in dry January.

Richard Halstead, the chief operating officer for consumer research at drinks market analysts IWSR, said: “We are certainly seeing smaller pack formats launched across categories to cater to moderation trends and also financial factors. These smaller sizes lower the cost barriers to entry and encourage the trial of new products or categories.”

He added: “The evidence from mainstream wines suggests that consumers see smaller servings (eg cans) of wine generally as convenient, and promote the idea of portion control, but are reluctant to buy them as they often don’t represent good value compared with a standard bottle.”

Halstead said that with fine wine “this innovative approach makes a lot of sense in terms of the moderation drivers, as wine is a category that due to packaging norms caters less to moderation.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... lic-drinks

[Time_Traveller]

UK ministers vow to close loopholes in disposable vape ban

Mon 29 Jan 2024 08.25 GMT

UK ministers will aim to stop firms from skirting around an upcoming ban on disposable vapes by eliminating ruses such as attaching charging points to them, the health secretary has said.

The draft legislation, being introduced in parallel with an already announced ban on selling tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, would be put together with the help of experts who would try to anticipate possible loopholes, Victoria Atkins said.

“We will listen very carefully to suggestions that big tobacco and other vaping companies will somehow find a way around this,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The motivation here is to help ensure that children and young people are not dragged into this addiction to nicotine, which sadly, these vapes can mean for children, young people.”

Questioned about the possibility of vaping firms adding USB charging points to what remained un-refillable and cheap vapes to dodge the ban, Artkins said: “That’s incredibly cynical and it shows, if you like, the battle that the government is prepared to take on.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... -loopholes

[Time_Traveller]

Rwanda Bill faces first of several key tests in Lords

3 minutes ago

Rishi Sunak's flagship Rwanda bill is facing its first test as debate gets under way in the House of Lords.

Peers including the Archbishop of Canterbury have criticised the principles of the bill, while the Lib Dems are pushing to kill it entirely.

The move is expected to fail, but peers have indicated they will try to strip out key powers as the bill progresses.

The government's plan aims to halt legal challenges against sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Last week, peers inflicted a defeat on the scheme when they called for a UK-Rwanda treaty to be delayed until Kigali improves its asylum procedures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68126734