UK News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Energy prices forecast to rise by 9% in October

19 August 2024, 07:21 BST

Domestic energy prices are expected to rise in the run-up to winter, according to consultancy Cornwall Insight.

The forecaster, which is widely regarded for its accurate predictions, said a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity would pay £1,714 a year from October.

That would be a £146 a year rise compared with a current typical annual bill - the lowest for two years - of £1,568.

Energy regulator Ofgem will announce the next official quarterly price cap on Friday, with charities concerned about the prospect of prices rising again.

Although the price cap is changed every three months, it is illustrated by Ofgem in terms of an annual bill for a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy54r9r1355o

[Time_Traveller]

Doug Beattie quits as Ulster Unionist leader

19 August 2024, 08:41 BST



Doug Beattie has resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

In a statement, he cited "irreconcilable differences" between him and party officers.

Mr Beattie took over as leader of the party in May 2021.

It is understood there have been internal tensions over his role in recent weeks linked to the selection of Colin Crawford as the party’s new North Antrim assembly member.

Party colleague Mike Nesbitt, who is a former leader of the UUP, said Mr Beattie's decision to step down came as a shock.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9v8rmm0geyo

[Time_Traveller]

Autumn Budget will be painful, warns Starmer

26 August 2024

October's Budget will be "painful" and the government will have to make "big asks" of the public, Sir Keir Starmer has warned.

Speaking from the Downing Street garden, the prime minister said people would have to "accept short-term pain for long-term good".

He did not set out the details of what would be in the Budget but said those with the "broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden".

The prime minister said he had inherited "not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole" from the previous Conservative government.

Conservative leader and ex-PM Rishi Sunak said the speech was "the clearest indication of what Labour has been planning to do all along - raise your taxes".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyn01p5npgo

[Vakanai]

Misogyny to be treated as extremism by UK government

5 hours ago

Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK's counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies.

The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction.

Ms Cooper said there has been a rise in extremism "both online and on our streets" that "frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy".

The review will look at the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism in the UK, as well as wider ideological trends, including extreme misogyny or beliefs which fit into broader categories, such as violence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15gn0lq7p5o

God, think of all the good it could do the world and all mankind if this were the case in all nations. Misogyny really has no place in the world, and holds back half the population.

[Time_Traveller]

Outdoor smoking ban at pubs being considered - PM

29 August 2024, 00:39 BST

Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed the government is looking at tougher rules on outdoor smoking to reduce the number of preventable deaths linked to tobacco use.

Responding to reports that smoking could be banned in some outdoor spaces in England, the prime minister said "we have got to take action" to reduce the burden on the NHS.

The details remain unclear but smoking could be banned in pub gardens, outdoor restaurants, and outside hospitals and sports grounds.

Health experts have welcomed the plans, but the BBC has been told that some ministers have raised concerns about the impact the ban could have on the hospitality sector.

Some business owners have already raised concerns. Pub landlady Lisa Burrage, 55, said pubs should be able to choose whether or not to go smoke-free and "it is not up to the government to make that decision".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg79ym5mrzyo

[Time_Traveller]

Workers' rights to four-day week could be strengthened

30 August 2024, 04:54 BST

Full-time workers' rights to ask for a four-day working week could be strengthened under government plans to increase flexible working.

Employees would still have to work their full hours to receive their full pay but could request to compress their contracted hours into a shorter working week, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph, external.

Since April, workers have already had the right to ask for flexible working as soon as they start a job but firms do not have to agree.

The government says it will not impose changes on staff or businesses, but the Conservatives say businesses are "petrified" about the plans.

A spokesperson at the Department for Business and Trade said: "Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gl5w83z7do

[wjfox]

Badger culling to end in England within five years

30 August 2024

Badger culling will end in England within five years as part of a shift in the fight against bovine tuberculosis, the government said on Friday.

As part of the new TB eradication strategy, badgers will be vaccinated instead of killed and work to develop a separate vaccine for livestock will also be stepped up.

The government hopes the strategy will deliver its target to eradicate the disease in England by 2038.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg52r7jzxo

[Time_Traveller]

Badger culling to end in England within five years

30 August 2024

Badger culling will end in England within five years as part of a shift in the fight against bovine tuberculosis, the government said on Friday.

As part of the new TB eradication strategy, badgers will be vaccinated instead of killed and work to develop a separate vaccine for livestock will also be stepped up.

The government hopes the strategy will deliver its target to eradicate the disease in England by 2038.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg52r7jzxo

Not sure why this couldn't have been done originally than killing innocent defenseless animals.

[Vakanai]

Badger culling to end in England within five years

30 August 2024

Badger culling will end in England within five years as part of a shift in the fight against bovine tuberculosis, the government said on Friday.

As part of the new TB eradication strategy, badgers will be vaccinated instead of killed and work to develop a separate vaccine for livestock will also be stepped up.

The government hopes the strategy will deliver its target to eradicate the disease in England by 2038.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg52r7jzxo

Not sure why this couldn't have been done originally than killing innocent defenseless animals.

Well, I don't know anything about UK politics, but if your conservatives were/are like our conservatives, killing creatures is just plain more appealing to them than vaccinations.

[Time_Traveller]

Nigel Farage ditches Reform UK’s ‘contract with the people’ just 2 months after election

4 hours ago

Reform UK’s ruthless pursuit of putting Nigel Farage into Downing Street by 2029 has seen them already move on from their “contract with the people” at the general election just two months ago, the party’s new chairman has admitted.

Businessman Zia Yusuf was brought in by Farage to reorganise Reform UK after what the new chairman admits was “a scrappy start-up” election beset with scandals over candidates and serious questions over the party’s policies.

In a wide ranging interview with The Independent he also said:

• That Reform will allow members to ditch their own leader in a new constitution

• The party has been inspired by French far right leader Marine Le Pen doubling her vote in France

• That people who work for the Conservative Party have been in talks with Reform about coming over.

After Farage declared himself leader of Reform again at the start of the election he publicly ditched one policy agreed by former leader now fellow MP Richard Tice on air during an interview with the Today Programme, but now it seems he plans to go further.

When the “contract with the people” - so-called because Farage claimed manifestos were considered to be lies - was launched at Merthyr Tydfil it was lampooned for being “Liz Truss economics on steroids”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 05214.html

The only way is to figure out how the other parties can stop him becoming PM in 2029.

[Time_Traveller]

Rupert Murdoch-owned firm REA Group weighs up bid for Rightmove

Mon 2 Sep 2024 09.10 BST

An Australian property company majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has said it is considering a takeover bid for Rightmove, the British property website.

REA Group said it was considering a possible cash and share offer for Rightmove, but that it had not yet had any discussions with the company, in statements to the Australian and UK stock markets on Monday.

Shares in Rightmove surged by 25% on Monday morning, making it the top riser on the FTSE 100 and giving it a market value of £5.4bn. Shares jumped as high as £6.96, their highest level since March 2022, up from £5.55 on Friday night.

Rightmove is the UK’s leading property portal market, and estate agents across Britain use the site to advertise properties for sale and rent.

However, Rightmove’s position is expected to come under pressure after the American property company CoStar bought rival UK site OnTheMarket from a consortium of high street agents that had hoped to win back control of the market from Rightmove and the second biggest portal, Zoopla.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... -rightmove

[Time_Traveller]

UK to suspend 30 export licences for arms to Israel, Lammy announces



Foreign secretary David Lammy has announced that the UK government is to suspend 30 of the 350 arms export licences to Israel.

Mr Lammy made the announcement as he updated MPs in the Commons on the first day after recess.

The decision has been made after the new Labour government said it found a “clear risk” that UK arms could be used in serious violation of humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.

Mr Lammy insisted: “Throughout my life I have been a friend of Israel.”

He also said that Israel had a right to defend itself but he said that he was not satisfied with answers after he had raised concerns with the Israeli government.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 05778.html

Too bad, it's not a full ban on armed weapons plus the UK shouldn't be selling weapons to other countries in the first place.

[Time_Traveller]

UK to suspend 30 export licences for arms to Israel, Lammy announces



Foreign secretary David Lammy has announced that the UK government is to suspend 30 of the 350 arms export licences to Israel.

Mr Lammy made the announcement as he updated MPs in the Commons on the first day after recess.

The decision has been made after the new Labour government said it found a “clear risk” that UK arms could be used in serious violation of humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.

Mr Lammy insisted: “Throughout my life I have been a friend of Israel.”

He also said that Israel had a right to defend itself but he said that he was not satisfied with answers after he had raised concerns with the Israeli government.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 05778.html

Too bad, it's not a full ban on armed weapons plus the UK shouldn't be selling weapons to other countries in the first place.

More on this: -

UK defends partial Israel arm sales ban

3 September 2024, 11:28 BST

The UK has defended its decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the decision "shameful", saying on social media that it "will only embolden Hamas".

But Husam Zomlot, the Palestinians' top envoy to the UK, called the partial ban an “important first step” to the UK’s fulfilment of its “legal obligations under domestic and international law”.

On Monday, the UK suspended around 30 out of 350 weapons export licences to Israel.

But UK Defence Secretary John Healey insisted the UK remained a "staunch ally" of Israel, telling the BBC Israel's security would not be weakened by the decision.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2np2l5mlko

[Time_Traveller]

Cabinet Secretary backs Labour in ‘Tory £22bn black hole’ row

4 hours ago

Britain’s top civil servant has rebuked the Conservatives for suggesting Labour exaggerated the scale of the black hole in the public finances when Sir Keir Starmer took office.

Cabinet secretary Simon Case said Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt’s failure to hold a spending review in its last year in office added to the uncertainty facing the Treasury.

It came after Mr Hunt, who served as chancellor until the general election, wrote to Mr Case in July to criticise what he described as “deeply troubling” statements by Rachel Reeves about the state of the public purse.

He said her claims about there being a £22bn financial black hole contradicted formal government spending plans signed off just days earlier.

In a response leaked to the BBC, Mr Case said the discrepancy could be explained by the rushed parliamentary timetable in the run up to the general election.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 06084.html

[Time_Traveller]

Independent Alliance: Jeremy Corbyn and four independent MPs form new group

Monday 2 September 2024 14:57, UK



Five independent MPs - including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - have formed a new group.

The Independent Alliance parliamentary group, launched today, consists of former Labour leader Mr Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed.

They were all elected as independent MPs for the first time in July, with all five taking a pro-Palestine stance in Labour-supporting constituencies with large Muslim populations.

Mr Adam unseated leading Labour politician Jonathan Ashworth to become MP for Leicester South, while Mr Corbyn won the Islington North seat he had held since 1983 as a Labour MP before he was ousted from the party.

With five MPs in the House of Commons, the group is the same size as Reform UK and the DUP, and larger than the Greens, who have four MPs.

https://news.sky.com/story/independent- ... p-13208512

[Time_Traveller]

Robert Jenrick inquired into revoking Palestinian student’s visa, emails reveal

Tue 3 Sep 2024 18.52 BST

The former immigration minister and Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick inquired into revoking a Palestinian student’s visa, court documents have revealed.

Dana Abu Qamar, 20, a law student who led the Friends of Palestine society at Manchester University, was stripped of her visa in 2023 after speaking at a university demonstration on Gaza’s historical resistance to Israel’s “oppressive regime” and a subsequent interview with Sky News.

On 1 December, the government revoked her visa on the assertion that her presence in the UK was “not conducive to the public good”, after her statements.

According to disclosed emails, however, a member of Jenrick’s team wrote to Home Office officials saying the minister was interested in “finding out about Dana Abuqamar” and to inquire whether it would be “possible to revoke her student visa”, the Guardian understands.

A spokesperson for the European Legal Support Center, which provides legal support for Europeans advocating for Palestinian rights, said: “For a government minister to personally and arbitrarily intervene to remove a Palestinian student from the country and suppress her speech while her family are being killed in Gaza is truly unconscionable.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ils-reveal

[Time_Traveller]

Tom Tugendhat goes after human rights as he enters Tory leadership race

9 hours ago

Tom Tugendhat has become the second senior Tory to announce a leadership bid, indicating he would be prepared to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to protect the UK’s borders.

The shadow security minister, who joined James Cleverly in publicly declaring his leadership ambitions, insisted he could lead the Conservatives to victory at the next general election.

In his first round of interviews since entering the contest, Mr Tugendhat echoed Rishi Sunak’s stance on the ECHR, attempting to toe the line between appealing to right-wingers and not spooking more moderate Conservatives. He said he would be willing to quit the convention if he believed it no longer “served the interests of the British people”.

Quizzed about what went wrong, Mr Tugendhat refused to criticise the former prime minister, who led the Conservative Party to its worst election defeat in history. Instead, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “we need to be looking at everything that happened in the last five years and making sure we are rethinking the agenda on which we stand”.

Pressed repeatedly on what went wrong, Mr Tugendhat said the party “failed to deliver” after the 2019 general election, highlighting the spiralling tax burden and record net migration.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 85459.html

I see the Tories are turning authoritarian, if they choose Tugendhat he is willing to quit the ECHR and please Reform UK in the process.

Which one of these rights, enshrined in the ECHR, would people be happy to surrender?

The right to life (Article 2)
Freedom from torture (Article 3)
Freedom from slavery (Article 4)
The right to liberty (Article 5)
The right to a fair trial (Article 6)
The right not to be punished for something that wasn’t against the law at the time (Article 7)
The right to respect for family and private life (Article 8)
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9)
Freedom of expression (Article 10)
Freedom of assembly (Article 11)
The right to marry and start a family (Article 12)
The right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights (Article 14)
The right to protection of property (Protocol 1, Article 1)
The right to education (Protocol 1, Article 2)
The right to participate in free elections (Protocol 1, Article 3)

More on this: -

Tugendhat doubles down on bid to win over right-wing Tories with attack on human rights convention

1 hour ago

Tom Tugendhat doubled down on his bid to reinvent himself as a candidate of the Tory right as he waded into the growing debate within the party over ditching the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Just 24 hours after the contest’s frontrunner Kemi Badenoch had dismissed leaving the ECHR as an attempt to seek “easy answers”, the former security minister told his supporters that he was willing to ditch it.

When the race to replace Rishi Sunak began after the election disaster for the Tories, Mr Tugendhat had been seen as the candidate for the party’s One Nation group on the left who would try to win back power from the centre ground of British politics.

He was seen as the best candidate to win back votes from the Lib Dems and Labour, if not from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the right.

But with the Tory membership seen increasingly as right-wing and some candidates believing they need to win over defectors to Reform, Mr Tugendhat has spent most of the summer pandering to right-wing policies.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 06294.html

[Time_Traveller]

Robert Jenrick in pole position to be next Tory leader as Priti Patel eliminated in first round of voting

3 minutes ago



Robert Jenrick has won the first round of voting in the race to be the next Conservative leader as Dame Priti Patel was eliminated.

The former immigration minister took 28 votes, beating the favourite Kemi Badenoch into second with the backing of 22 Tory MPs.

The other contenders still in the running are former security minister Tom Tugendhat, ex-home secretary James Cleverly and Mel Stride.

Next week the group will be whittled down again, to just four.

Next month’s Conservative party conference will then be dominated by the contest, after which MPs will then chose who to put into the final two.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 06987.html

[Time_Traveller]

State pension to rise by over £400 next year

4 September 2024, 00:03 BST



The Treasury expects the new full state pension to be boosted above inflation by more than £400 a year in cash terms.

The internal working calculations seen by the BBC reflect the near certainty that the state pension will be increased by average earnings figures released next week.

This is due to the triple lock, which means the state pension increases every April by whatever number is highest out of inflation, the average UK wage increase, or 2.5%.

The news comes as the government faces a backlash over its decision to cut the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.

Given that millions of people will lose the payment, the overall increase in their income is likely to be £100 or £200.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewlqxv0n1qo

[Time_Traveller]

Grenfell Inquiry: The companies and organisations named and shamed in report

Thursday 5 September 2024 05:35, UK

A landmark report into the Grenfell Tower fire named and shamed companies which it said were responsible for the 2017 disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people.

The report, the final phase of a seven-year public inquiry into the fire at the west London high-rise building, concludes that incompetence, dishonesty and greed led to the "avoidable" deaths.

Inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, described "systematic dishonesty" on the part of manufacturers, involving deliberate manipulation of the testing process for materials used on the Grenfell Tower.

He added that "warning signs" about materials being used in buildings were emerging as early as 1991.

Sky News takes a look at the different companies involved in the disaster at the 24-storey residential block.

https://news.sky.com/story/grenfell-inq ... t-13209632