Time is running out and the Prime Minister just repeats herself.
It’s difficult to see how Theresa May’s statement to the House of Commons today was any different from her last, other than the fact that Jeremy Corbyn’s delivery of his response was a lot better.
Anyone who had had the privilege – or should that be misfortune? – to sit
2018-10-22 17:10 | News | NewStatesman
“We do not know what they want, they do not know themselves what they really want.”
More than 850 days after the referendum, the EU’s patience in the Brexit negotiations is running out. Last week’s European Council summit in Brussels brought no progress to the deadlock in Brexit talks and saw an increasingly isolated Theresa May facing the unanimous voice of the
2018-10-22 14:10 | News | NewStatesman
The chancellor must somehow increase public spending in next week ’ s budget, but Tory MPs are determined to resist most ways of achieving it.
Philip Hammond needs to increase taxes, but Conservative MPs won’t let him. That is the dilemma that the chancellor, burdened by Brexit and Theresa May’s promise to end austerity, faces ahead of next week’s budget.
The
2018-10-22 12:10 | News | NewStatesman
Trump to Withdraw from 1987 U.S.-Russia Nuclear Deal, Plans to Establish Biological Definition of Gender Threatens Trans Rights, Saudi Arabia Says Khashoggi Killed in "Fistfight" Amid Mounting U.S. Pressure, NYT: Saudi Troll Farm Targeted Khashoggi, Other Critics on Twitter, Afghanistan: 27 Killed, 100 Injured as Voters Head to Polls, Gaza: Israeli Forces Shoot and Injure 130 Palestinian Protesters, Israel Delays Plans to Evict Bedouin Village in West Bank, Central American Caravan Crosses into Mexico as Trump Threats Mount, Honduras: Lawyers
2018-10-22 12:10 | News | DemocracyNow
The broadcaster joined in Twitter mockery of her “dropping t’s”.
This morning, the director of inequality thinktank Class, Faiza Shaheen – Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Chingford & Woodford Green and a regular talking head on political shows – went on Sky News’ All Out Politics programme to discuss Brexit, Theresa May and the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.
So far, so normal.
2018-10-22 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
Some of the mess the Conservatives find themselves in is May’s fault. But none of it is going to go away if she does.
Are these the last days of Theresa May? This morning’s papers are full of stories of plots and ultimatums to the Prime Minister unless she changes her Brexit strategy, whether from her Scottish MPs over any extension of the transition
2018-10-22 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Author: Reuters ID: 1540198118014029400 Mon, 2018-10-22 08:30
LONDON: British households’ confidence in their finances worsened this month as their earnings from employment rose at the weakest rate since February, adding to growing signs of caution among consumers, a survey showed on Monday.
The IHS Markit Household Finance Index, watched by the Bank of England as a gauge of consumers’
2018-10-22 08:10 | News | ArabNews
Author: Reuters ID: 1540184677643564300 Mon, 2018-10-22 08:04
BENGALURU: The outlook for global growth in 2019 has dimmed for the first time, according to Reuters polls of economists who said the US-China trade war and tightening financial conditions would trigger the next downturn.
At the start of 2018, optimism about a robust global economic outlook was almost unanimous among respondents.
2018-10-22 05:10 | News | ArabNews
Theresa May will tell lawmakers that Brexit talks are "95 percent complete," although Northern Ireland remains a sticking point. The British PM is desperate to stem a potential rebellion from hardliners in her party.
2018-10-22 04:10 | News | DeutscheWelles
Organizers claimed 700,000 turned out in London, calling for a vote on the terms of the Brexit deal. Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out another referendum.
2018-10-20 13:10 | News | DeutscheWelles
The display of English arrogance and contempt over Brexit is laying waste to traditional ties.
Whither the English Unionist? Properly put to the test by Brexit, those who have for so long professed their damp-eyed commitment to the integrity of the UK have been found wanting. Asked “if Brexit means the collapse of the Irish peace process, what is your choice?”,
2018-10-20 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Seasonal, local and pesticide free: how the NS office was converted to fruit and vegetables.
Autumn is here, and the New Statesman office has embraced the harvest spirit with a crop of veg box reviews. Backpacks bursting with crimson berries and green kale were taken home for taste-testing, with largely joyous effects: Anoosh Chakelian still has the sound of “apples plopping to earth” ringing in
2018-10-19 15:10 | News | NewStatesman
No country in the world has cultivated arrogance the way Britain has. But the sad truth is: The former global power can't even find its way to the door without tripping over its feet.
2018-10-19 13:10 | News | Spiegel
The former deputy Prime Minister has an unparalleled reach in the place where Facebook’s lobbying matters: the European Union.
The Financial Times has shocked Westminster with an astonishing scoop : Nick Clegg, the former deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, is leaving the United Kingdom to take a job as Facebook’s head of global policy and communications - in other words,
2018-10-19 12:10 | News | NewStatesman
Here’s why they’re a match made in heaven
Here to ruin our Friday, the Financial Times broke the news that ex-MP and ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg will be joining Facebook as their Head of Global Affairs and Communications this January. Twitter was immediately flooded with people screaming about why they think this is a terrible match, given
2018-10-19 12:10 | News | NewStatesman
Brexit, and the reasons for it, cannot be fixed by Remainers beating Brexiteers.
As tens of thousands prepare to march through the street’s of London on Saturday to rage against Brexit and demand a “people’s vote”, they should spare at least a thought for those who have been raging in towns and villages across our nation for decades. People for whom the
2018-10-19 10:10 | News | NewStatesman
Spending on education is falling, and the ramifications are being felt now, and will be felt for many years if it is not increased.
The Department for Education was reprimanded earlier this month by the Statistics regulator for making incorrect claims about spending on schools. In true “Thick of It” style, the schools minister claimed on the Today programme that spending
2018-10-19 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Tory MPs feel Theresa May is deceiving them over Brexit. They have a point.
The Conservative Party is as united over Europe as it has ever been this morning: the bad news for Theresa May is that they are united in opposition to the prospect of an extension in the transition period.
Iain Duncan Smith told Newsnight
2018-10-19 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
As Brexit approaches, figures show that Germans who made Britain their home are increasingly applying for repatriation. The majority are the families of those who fled because they were persecuted by the Nazi regime.
2018-10-19 02:10 | News | DeutscheWelles
From Dove to Bumble, more companies are enlisting “real people” to market their products. If you live in New York City, Bumble wants to remind you that it exists. The dating/networking/friendship app rolled out a new campaign last week featuring billboards in Times Square, posters in subway stations across the city, and ads in the New York Post. You may soon drink coffee out of a disposable cup ensconced in a Bumble-branded sleeve, or be given a pizza
2018-10-18 19:10 | News | Vox
It is not only Mrs May of the UK that is having a horrible time dealing with Brexit and mutinous cabinet ministers, but the German Chancellor’s grip on her Grand Coalition Partners is now very
2018-10-18 18:10 | News | AlArabiya
The backstop is an insurance policy that there will never be a hard border on the island of Ireland. It may not be as simple in reality.
The negotiations between the United Kingdom and the remaining 27 nations of the European Union (EU27) have deadlocked over one topic: the backstop.
So what is the backstop? It’s designed as an insurance policy to
2018-10-18 16:10 | News | NewStatesman
The Prime Minister is saying things about the transition period that simply aren't true - no wonder her pro-Brexit MPs smell a conspiracy.
Theresa May continued to store up trouble for herself and her successors with another press conference in which she refused to come clean with journalists or her MPs about the nature of Brexit.
The topic this time was
2018-10-18 15:10 | News | NewStatesman
The EU summit brought the possibility of an extended period for Britain's Brexit process and more funds for dealing with migrants across the bloc. But the UK's Theresa May has challenges from her own party at home.
2018-10-18 11:10 | News | DeutscheWelles
The New Statesman podcast with Helen Lewis and Stephen Bush.
Helen and Stephen attempt to bring some calm rationality to the discussion of Brexit and "the backstop" — whatever that turns out to be. Then Helen talks to the American author Rebecca Solnit about reporting on Trump and her new book Call Them by Their True Names . Finally,
2018-10-18 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
It’s not unreasonable that Conservative MPs, whether they be Leavers or Remainers, want a fresh face in charge.
Next month’s Brexit summit is cancelled: leaders of the EU27 have resolved that there is not sufficient progress for it to be worth the trip. Here at home, Conservative politicians and the Brexit press are in uproar over the idea that the transition period could
2018-10-18 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Author: Pagemaker London3 ID: 1539805045106227100 Wed, 2018-10-17 22:38
BRUSSELS: Failure to secure a trade deal for Britain when it exits the EU next year could set the UK auto sector back two decades, leading parts suppliers said on Wednesday as they urged leaders to reach agreement at a summit in Brussels.
Europe’s carmakers’ lobby ACEA and suppliers’ association CLEPA,
2018-10-17 19:10 | News | ArabNews
Sometimes a strident behavior or a controversial remark holds such wide-ranging implications that cannot be fully explained even in a book. Britain has recently provided a sample of the populist
2018-10-17 16:10 | News | AlArabiya
Sullivan and Smith have little in common, but both are creating urgent, skilful work.
Hannah Sullivan’s debut collection, Three Poems , shares its title with a book by John Ashbery, but that turns out to be a red herring. The blurb compares the work to “the great modernising poems” of Eliot and Pound, but that’s equally misleading (and seriously:
2018-10-17 16:10 | News | NewStatesman
With a declining Catholic church, a gay premier and a politically astute citizenry, Ireland has come of age. But on the border old wounds are reopening.
Driving through County Donegal, somewhere south of Ballybofey, we turned left on to a narrow lane. After a few miles we came to an old stone bridge over a tumbling stream. It was wide open country,
2018-10-17 16:10 | News | NewStatesman
Europe is once again divided – this time between liberalism’s defenders in the west and north, and states in the south and east who increasingly reject it.
A contest is under way for the future of Europe and the battle lines have been drawn. From the east, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is spearheading a popular revolt against the EU’s ancien
2018-10-17 15:10 | News | NewStatesman
The End of History author on what Karl Marx got right, the rivals to liberal democracy and why he fears a US-China war.
History is having its revenge on Francis Fukuyama. In 1992, at the height of post-Cold War liberal exuberance, the American political theorist wrote in The End of History and the Last Man : “What we may be witnessing…
2018-10-17 14:10 | News | NewStatesman
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
Arise, Sir Brexit? Dreary Greg Clark, a Business Secretary with the firmness of soggy cardboard, is searching for tycoons who back a potential national economic catastrophe to gift them gongs. My snout with the magnifying glass whispered that Clark’s department is scrutinising the small list of business Brextremists to honour a few
2018-10-17 14:10 | News | NewStatesman
The promise is good for winning parliamentary exchanges but its longterm political value is less clear.
In practice, Prime Ministers Questions has two functions: the first is that it is a useful device for the Prime Minister of the day to exert control over their government, the second is that, as with party political broadcasts , they are a good insight
2018-10-17 13:10 | News | NewStatesman
Today, borders are secure but populations are in flux.
Is it racist for a white Briton to object to a few non-white immigrants entering Britain because she is attached to its ethnic composition? What about 5,000 a year? A million (including descendants) in five years? Ten million over 50 years?
The answer changes as the scale
2018-10-17 13:10 | News | NewStatesman
Today, borders are secure but populations are in flux.
Is it racist for a white Briton to object to a few non-white immigrants entering Britain because she is attached to its ethnic composition? What about 5,000 a year? A million (including descendants) in five years? Ten million over 50 years?
The answer changes as the scale
2018-10-17 13:10 | News | NewStatesman
The Labour leader’s Brexit questions put pressure on Theresa May, who was unable to reassure business interests.
Is Labour the party of business nowadays? Many high up in finance would chuckle at that question – but it truly looked that way at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, when Jeremy Corbyn used UK business leaders’ Brexit fears to put pressure on Theresa May.
Dedicating
2018-10-17 12:10 | News | NewStatesman
The similarities with the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury seem striking, as is the silence of Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt.
The week opens with the new academic year at UCL, completing an arbitral award, and an early morning appearance on the Today programme to discuss the Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who entered his country’s consulate in Istanbul but apparently never
2018-10-17 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
A Brexit that is too soft to secure the support of Tory ultra-Brexiteers will also struggle to retain the support of Labour’s band of Leavers.
In December 2015, when David Cameron wanted parliamentary approval to join air strikes against Islamic State (IS) in Syria, he knew that he would be unable to win the vote with the support of Conservative MPs alone. So
2018-10-17 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
If I am offered the new service from Royal Mail as part of the government’s loneliness strategy, I’ll say I’d prefer earlier and more reliable deliveries.
Here is some news that has attracted surprisingly little comment. George Osborne was right to sound the alarm about UK public finances in 2010. Sort of. According to an International Monetary Fund report, the UK government’s net worth
2018-10-17 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
Yet another politician gets away with faux English whimsy.
Melting butler and Environment Secretary Michael Gove is the master of getting away with it. After comparing pro-Remain economists to Nazi doctors in the run-up to the EU referendum, he simply mildly apologised and carried on – later running for Tory leader.
Now he’s in the cabinet, his frothing Brexiteering has been
2018-10-17 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
Early access for digital subscribers to the New Statesman podcast with Helen Lewis and Stephen Bush.
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Welcome to the early access, ad free edition of the New Statesman podcast. You have a few options as to how to listen.
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2018-10-17 11:10 | News | NewStatesman
London had been the ultimate goal. Now I doubt I will ever move back.
Last week, I packed my books, my clothes and my teapot, boarded the Eurostar, and left the UK. It wasn't technically difficult, but mentally it was, because I doubt I will ever move back.
My impending departure was met with disbelief among my friends
2018-10-17 10:10 | News | NewStatesman
Author: Reuters ID: 1539769314702997000 Wed, 2018-10-17 09:30
LONDON: British inflation fell more than expected in September to a three-month low, offering some relief to consumers who have been squeezed financially since the Brexit vote.
Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.4 percent, more than reversing August’s jump to a six-month high of 2.7 percent, the Office for
2018-10-17 09:10 | News | ArabNews
The new system is underfunded, years late and will lead to three million working families losing an average of £2,500 a year.
Theresa May has promised what neither David Cameron nor Ed Miliband ever did: the end of austerity. But fulfilling this pledge will be much harder than making it.
As if to prove as much, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther
2018-10-17 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Iain Duncan Smith and his acolytes recklessly dismissed warnings from experts - a preview of the Brexit debacle.
Theresa May has promised what neither David Cameron nor Ed Miliband ever did: the end of austerity. But fulfilling this pledge will be much harder than making it.
As if to prove as much, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, conceded on
2018-10-17 09:10 | News | NewStatesman
Despite a damning report on bullying and harassment, the bulk of Labour MPs are rallying around the Speaker.
What's a little bit of bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace when there's a Brexit to shape? That's the calculation that Labour MPs are making and that a few of their number have gone so far as to say out loud after Laura
2018-10-17 08:10 | News | NewStatesman
The Netherlands, from whence the UK imports many of its vegetables, prepares for the worst-case scenario of a potential failure to reach a Brexit deal.
2018-10-16 18:10 | News | Aljazeera