The British Red Cross has stepped in to support the NHS, calling it a “humanitarian crisis” January 7, 2017 NHS hospitals face a "humanitarian crisis" as A&E departments experience one of their busiest weeks ever, The British Red Cross has said. The charity has called on the government to invest more in health and social care as its volunteers and staff have been required to help patients get home from hospital. British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said: "The [...]
A new US intelligence report says Russia helped Trump win the US election, but gives little evidence of how January 7, 2017 The Russian government helped Donald Trump win the US election by discrediting his rival Hillary Clinton, US intelligence agencies said in a report released last night. "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election," the report said. "We further assess Putin and the Russian government developed [...]
It looks like Theresa May is going to Davos January 6, 2017 If you're a recently-anointed world leader with two-and-a-bit months to organise a major geopolitical upheaval, there are few better places to be this January than the World Economic Forum in Davos, the annual billionaires' knees-up. So it's hardly surprising that ahead of the beginning of Brexit negotiations, it appears Theresa May is planning to follow [...]
A big year, but it won’t Trump 2016’s shocks January 6, 2017 2016's events made fools of most pundits, and looking back at my column exactly a year ago, I fared little better. True, I correctly said that Santander UK would re-engage in an effort to buy Royal Bank of Scotland's Williams & Glyn unit, but I was well wide of the mark arguing that the FTSE-100 [...]
A liberal Brexit means continued EU-UK cooperation – but this time as equals January 6, 2017 Brexit means something remarkably straightforward: at some point before the middle of 2019, the UK will no longer be under the jurisdiction of any EU court or legislature. The fact of our impending departure does not, however, mean cutting ourselves off from Europe. If Brexit is easy to define, the details of what our post-EU relationship [...]
Labour is collapsing because it’s losing the battle of ideas: Free marketeers take note January 6, 2017 The Fabian Society’s latest report, which paints a doom-and-gloom picture of Labour’s chances at the next election, seems to have hit a nerve among the left’s most prominent commentators. Surely this is because there’s some truth to it: the Fabians’ estimation that Labour will struggle to win even 200 seats backs up the other evidence [...]
There are good reasons to be optimistic about the City’s prospects post-Brexit January 6, 2017 The risk and uncertainty of Brexit has cast a shadow over parts of the City, with some worried that two of London’s great crowns – global litigation centre and global financial capital – will be threatened. But how much will London’s standing on the world stage change in these respects as a result of Brexit? [...]
Business secretary Greg Clark to hone in on industrial strategy in raft of meetings with companies next week January 5, 2017 Business secretary Greg Clark is expected to hold meetings with a raft of companies next week to discuss industrial strategy ahead of a green paper due out later this month. Morning Wire understands Clark will be in meetings throughout the week with business figures from a range of industries to discuss the UK's nascent industrial [...]
Prime Minister Theresa May to visit President-elect Donald Trump in the US next month January 5, 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May will visit President-elect Donald Trump in the US next month. The PM will visit Washington DC after Trump's inauguration, which is on 20 January, a senior Number 10 source told Sky News. Trump invited May to visit him "as soon as possible" in a phone call the day after the US [...]
Royal Mail pensions closure: Unions warn on strikes if they disagree with plans January 5, 2017 Royal Mail today revealed plans to scrap its mammoth pension scheme that serves 90,000 postal workers. The former state-owned firm said the current final salary surplus would run out in 2018 and unless changes were implemented, the bill for servicing the scheme could run to over £1bn a year – a level it said “would [...]