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In a quiet, tinkering Budget, in the face of ‘global economic storms’, John Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, distributed gas bill standing charges onto unit charges and gave £100 to households in council tax bands A to D. The bank surcharge would rise by 3 per cent for 15 months. Minimum wages would rise, but people aged 18-20 would not catch up with older workers. Pensioners wholly reliant on the state pension would not have to pay income tax on the £466.40p by which it exceeded the personal allowance. Business rates would begin to come under local spending control. The business rate threshold would rise from £12,000 to £18,000. Vape shops would gain no business rate relief. The limit on cash Isas would not be reduced from £20,000. Gambling taxes would rise. Import tariffs were removed on gherkins, garlic and jars of marmalade.
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, when asked if he wanted Britain to rejoin the EU, said: ‘In my lifetime I would like to see that happen’; he said he would welcome an ‘honest discussion’ about returning to free movement between the UK and the EU. Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, urged everyone to stockpile enough food and water for three days and blankets, cash, a first aid kit, a torch with batteries and a wind-up FM radio. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, announced an independent review into the murder of Henry Nowak last December. In connection with whatever happened at RAF Fairford on 27 September, Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, from Westminster, was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act, and Nouman Essghir, also 24 and from Westminster, was charged under the same act with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on 22 August. Richard Baines, 60, the long-serving curator of Logan Botanic Garden near Stranraer, was killed by a falling tree during storm Boelo.
The King and Queen began a tour of the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda. The King said it was right to ‘acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past’. The Duchess of Sussex’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jnr, was reported to have found a stash of images at his father Thomas Markle’s former Philippines home. The Metropolitan Police said it had received a letter in 2019, understood to have been written by his ex-wife Roslyn Loveless, making a number of claims about him, information which it gave to the Duchess, but not to other law-enforcement agencies. Consultant doctors in England will go on strike for more money on 25 and 26 November. Rogue cyclists thronged the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street in London. In an EFL Cup match, Fleetwood Town beat Arsenal.
Abroad
Websites around the world were shut down while patches were applied to avoid hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in the PHP language used in connections between websites and databases. In Israel, in a general election with a high turnout, no party or bloc secured a majority. After the killing of two Israeli soldiers by two Palestinian gunmen, the Israeli military demolished homes and businesses in Hebron, displacing hundreds of families. Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, meeting President Isaac Herzog of Israel in Azerbaijan, told him that the ‘forced establishment’ of settlements in the West Bank must be stopped. Gunmen killed nine during a funeral at St George’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hmoud, in the Karak governorate of Jordan. More than 60 people were killed and 20 houses burnt down in attacks in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
President Vladimir Putin sought talks about the future of Ukraine with President Donald Trump of the United States and Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, in the middle of November. Encouraged by Melania Trump and the Pope, a ceasefire began in Oleshky, in Kherson, to allow trapped civilians to escape. Andre McKechnie, a murderer serving a life sentence in Victoria, Australia, failed in his claim that a ban on prisoners eating Vegemite denied him the right to ‘enjoy his culture as an Australian’.
Brazil’s left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a fourth term in office, defeating Flavio Bolsonaro, whom America offered a visa after his passport was cancelled. In Serbia, the party of Aleksandar Vucic was defeated by the Student List movement. Fire destroyed Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest house on the Obersalzberg in Bavaria; a 33-year-old man was arrested. CSH
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