Public ‘expect’ council staff to work full five-day week, Michael Gove says July 4, 2023 Michael Gove has said people “expect” council staff to be working a full five-day week, amid a row over the government telling a local authority to cease a four-day week trial. The levelling up secretary has said he is a “strong believer” in the rule that council employees should be working Monday to Friday. It [...]
Facebook vs Twitter: Meta launches rival as Musk locks Tweetdeck July 4, 2023 Facebook owner Meta is launching a new app to rival Twitter this week. Threads, which will be linked to Instagram, is available for pre-order in the Apple App Store and will go live on Thursday. It is described as a “text-based conversation app… where communities come together”. The new app is the latest chapter in [...]
Twitter explainer: What are rate limits and why are they causing advertising headaches July 4, 2023 Twitter advertising troubles may have gone from bad to worse after Elon Musk has put his foot in it again – this time by restricting users’ viewing limits over data concerns. On Saturday, the billionaire ex-CEO of Twitter imposed a temporary ‘rate limit’ on all users, effectively capping the number of Tweets that accounts can [...]
Sue Gray: Partygate investigator broke Whitehall rules with Starmer talks July 3, 2023 Partygate investigator Sue Gray broke civil service rules “as a result of the undeclared contact” between her and the Labour Party, according to a Whitehall investigation. The former senior civil servant is due to take up the role as opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff after being cleared to start the job in [...]
Javid: Truss ‘ignored’ Treasury warnings on balancing books – and Britain ‘paid consequences’ July 3, 2023 Liz Truss “ignored” warnings from the Treasury orthodoxy meaning the country “paid the consequences” for her disastrous mini-budget, Sajid Javid has said. The former chancellor said the focus in HMT on “balancing the books in the medium term” was a good thing, and without that the UK “would have constant financial crisis”. Speaking at an [...]
Tories facing biggest by-election defeat in UK history as Nadine Dorries’ seat goes up for grabs July 3, 2023 The Conservative Party is facing the biggest by-election defeat in British history in Nadine Dorries’ Mid Bedfordshire seat, pollsters at Opinium have warned. Labour is set to overturn the former culture secretary’s 24,664 majority in the ‘safe’ seat, which has voted blue since 1931. Adam Drumming, from Opinium, said: “The Conservatives are holding onto just [...]
Labour and Just Stop Oil donor says there’s “no kind of deal” on party policy July 2, 2023 Green energy industrialist Dale Vince has denied being “an eco-zealot” as he defended his £1.5m donations to Labour. Vince told Sky News he was not seeking to influence leader Sir Keir Starmer by giving cash to the party and that there was not “some kind of deal going on”. The Ecotricity owner accused the “right [...]
Lord Goldsmith, accused of undermining partygate probe, quits government due to its ‘apathy’ on the environment June 30, 2023 Foreign Office minister Lord Goldsmith has announced his resignation over what he described as Government “apathy” towards the environment. In a scathing letter to the Prime Minister on Friday, the Tory peer accused Rishi Sunak directly of being “simply uninterested” in climate issues. The departure comes just a day after the peer was censured in [...]
Nigel Farage claims he may have to leave UK after bank accounts closed June 29, 2023 Nigel Farage has claimed he may have to leave the UK after his bank accounts were closed. The former UKIP leader and Brexiteer today posted a six-minute long video on Twitter, stating his accounts had been closed and he was unable to secure banking services elsewhere. He wrote: “The establishment is trying to force me [...]
Cleverly defends China visit plans and pledges to use UK’s global ‘influence’ June 29, 2023 Foreign secretary James Cleverly has defended a possible trip to China as he argued that international reforms cannot happen without recognising Beijing’s global financial influence. Cleverly confirmed last week that he is “looking at the options” for a potential visit to China – the first by a UK foreign secretary since Jeremy Hunt went in [...]