Rishi Sunak’s popularity soars in Tory league table with ‘big jump’ before local elections April 3, 2023 Prime minister Rishi Sunak has seen his popularity soar among the Tory grassroots, a poll has shown. The Conservative Home website’s survey of party membership shows Sunak’s approval ratings have risen from sixth from bottom to sixth from top, in the cabinet league table. In the end of February’s poll, the PM was at just [...]
Teachers back new strikes after ‘insulting’ offer as schools likely to shut, forcing parents to stay at home April 3, 2023 Schools in England face fresh strikes this spring after members of the largest education union in the UK rejected the Government’s pay offer. An overwhelming 98 per cent of National Education Union (NEU) teacher members in England, who responded in a consultative ballot, voted to turn down the deal. The NEU, which had urged its [...]
UK housing model is ‘broken’, says Michael Gove April 3, 2023 The UK’s housing model is “broken”, housing secretary Michael Gove has said. The comments by the senior cabinet minister come in a foreword to a collection of essays by liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue. First reported by the Times newspaper, Mr Gove writes: “We desperately need more homes to bring ownership within reach of [...]
Watch the moment Russia is rocked by an explosion in St Petersburg cafe which kills prominent pro war blogger April 3, 2023 An explosion has torn through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city, killing a prominent military blogger who had supported the fighting in Ukraine and was speaking at a patriotic discussion event. Russian news reports said blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in the explosion at the Street Food Bar No 1 cafe in St Petersburg. Twenty-five [...]
Passport workers start five week strike as Brits fear disruption to holiday plans April 3, 2023 Passport Office workers are beginning a five-week strike in the increasingly bitter civil service dispute over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at eight sites are walking out in an escalation of the long-running row. Picket lines will be mounted on Monday outside the [...]
‘Adverse effect of Brexit’? Braverman rejects link to Port of Dover chaos as weekend of long queues ends April 3, 2023 Queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover have cleared after a weekend of disruption, according to one of the ferry companies hit by delay – but the Home Secretary staunchly denied any links between queues and Brexit. Coach passengers were forced to spend hours waiting to enter the port, be processed and board [...]
The Notebook: Adam Tyndall on London’s freight dilemma, a must-read book and cricket at Lord’s April 3, 2023 The Notebook is a place for interesting people to say interesting things. Today it’s Adam Tyndall, Programme Director for Transport at BusinessLDN London policy wonks love to collect examples of all the ways in which the capital supports the whole country. Two events last week gave me fresh material for the list, in the form [...]
The new audit regulator’s boss should be based in London, not Birmingham April 3, 2023 Will the arrival of just shy of 200 regulatory staff in Birmingham, relocated from London, make a tremendous difference to the West Midlands economy? Probably not. Will putting half the staff of the new audit regulator in Birmingham risk making the body less effective? That ones easier: yes. The plan for the CEO of the new [...]
No plans to delay EU laws ‘bonfire’ deadline, says government April 1, 2023 The government has said that there are no plans to delay the deadline of the so-called “bonfire” of EU laws following reports that Rishi Sunak’s pledge, scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, was proving difficult. The Times reported on Saturday that Downing Street is considering a six-month extension to the Government’s [...]
Government to encourage businesses to save energy as it slashes bill support April 1, 2023 The government has launched a bid to help businesses use less energy on the same day as it pulls away most of its energy bill support for companies. Small and medium-sized companies will be told that they can save money on their bills by putting light and heating on timers, turning down flow temperatures on [...]