From our UK edition
Here’s a law of politics that is about as cast-iron as a law of politics can be: people who hate tabloid newspapers are snobs. Every time. Scratch a Daily Mail basher or those people who seethe daily about the Sun and you will find someone who’s really just scared of the throng and of what all this tabloid fare is doing to their brains.
From our UK edition
Philip Hammond avoided any disasters in his second budget of 2017. Here are the headline announcements: Growth forecasts downgraded: Britain's economy is now expected to grow by 1.5 per cent in 2017, down from the prediction of 2 per cent made in March Stamp duty scrapped for first time buyers on homes costing up to £300,000 £3bn set aside for Brexit preparations Millenials' railcard confirmed; National Living Wage up; VAT threshold for small businesses maintained; £2.8bn more for the NHS; 100 per cent council tax on empty homes; target to build 300,000 new homes by 2020s Tobacco duty up; beer and wine duty frozen; No fuel duty rise for petrol and diesel cars next year Annual borrowing is £49.
From our UK edition
Philip Hammond’s second Budget of the year will mean that the Chancellor has another 'bite at a not especially flavoursome cherry’, says the Daily Telegraph. The last time, his announcements ‘misfired’; since then Hammond's ‘room for manoeuvre’ has become even more limited. This means that many in the Tory ranks are not filled with ‘great expectations’ about what Hammond might say and instead, says the Telegraph, they ’are just anxious to see Mr Hammond through the day without mishap’. But playing it safe won't be enough for the Tories, according to the paper, which argues in its editorial that it doing so would ‘throw away the opportunity’ for the government to ‘take the initiative’.
From our UK edition
You don't have to be a member of Her Majesty's Opposition to conclude that something has gone wrong with the Universal Credit rollout. After a series of issues including a six week wait for first payment and an expensive helpline to supposedly deal with said issues, the government is under pressure to put the scheme on pause. Matters weren't helped in recent weeks when Neil Couling – the man in charge of the Universal Credit programme – tweeted pictures of cakes celebrating the scheme at a time when some claimants on are said to be living on the breadline as a result of the bungled rollout. So, Mr S was curious to learn that Couling won a gong at this week's Association for Project Management awards.
From our UK edition
David Davis has just given a speech on the Brexit transition period – intended to prevent Britain from crashing out of the EU in a disorderly manner. But at the end of his address, it seems that he was personally advocating a different type of transition. As Davis said his goodbyes, he took a tumble. Mr S hopes it's not a sign of things to come...
From our UK edition
It's Budget day tomorrow and there's growing concern among Tories that the Chancellor may be about to bungle the Budget. Only rather than housing, the NHS or education, the issue that has got everyone hot and bothered is a plan for an 18-30 railcard. Nicknamed the millennials' card, the Chancellor is expected to announce that discounted train travel will be extended to people up to 30-years-old. Currently, the young persons' railcard – which costs about £30 and means a third off ticket fares – is just for the 16-25 age bracket. The move comes after a trial of the 26-30 year-olds card took place in East Anglia which led the Treasury to believe the policy will be revenue neutral. So far, so good? Apparently not.
From our UK edition
Donald Tusk’s jibe that Britain was no longer attempting to have its cake and eat it in Brexit talks was a clear dig at the Foreign Secretary. But now the EU is guilty of adopting the same approach, according to the Sun. Michel Barnier said yesterday that ‘he wants all his demands met’ on various issues, and also ‘wants a monstrous exit bung from Britain’. Theresa May has reportedly received the backing of her Cabinet to up this payment to £40bn. Yet this ‘won’t nearly suffice’ for the EU, says the Sun. And even if Brussels does agree, what will we get in return?
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Tomorrow is D-day for Philip Hammond. As the Chancellor puts the finishing touches to his Budget, Tory MPs wait nervously – hoping it will be a day free of gaffes. Unfortunately, history suggests that this is unlikely. Over the years Hammond has earned a reputation for being tin-eared and ham-fisted. To get readers in the mood for his Budget, Mr S has compiled a list of the Chancellor's worst gaffes: 1. There are no unemployed people Just this weekend, Hammond proved why he makes his colleagues nervous. Appearing on the Andrew Marr show, the Chancellor managed to turn one of his party’s top achievements into a toxic issue. Asked about unemployment – which is at a 42-year low – Hammond claimed that ‘there are no unemployed people’.
From our UK edition
Oh dear. Trouble is brewing at Lib Dem HQ over Sarah Olney. After losing her seat by 45 votes in the snap election, Olney was quickly appointed as Vince Cable’s Chief of Staff – beating several more conventional candidates (i.e. trained press officers) to the coveted job. At the time, Olney made a verbal agreement with Cable that she would not stand as a Parliamentary candidate – given that this would mean she would be unable to continue as Chief of Staff. So there was much surprise this month when Olney stepped down from the role so she could campaign to retake her old seat.
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Vicky Atkins was the first MP from the 2015 intake to become a minister, and had been preparing assiduously for doing so. She asked loyal questions of the Prime Minister and beavered away on the Home Affairs Committee and the joint committee examining the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill. But it was obvious that this very capable backbencher wanted to join the government - and that she was very likely to do well as a minister. Today’s Home Office questions marked her first outing on the frontbench in the Commons - and therefore the first glimpse of what someone who has been auditioning to be a minister is going to be like now she’s got the part. Atkins was greeted with a huge cheer from her colleagues as she stood up to answer a question.
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Oh dear. As resignations go, there has been some tough competition for the most newsworthy in recent years – from Nigel Farage's unresignation to the entire Labour shadow cabinet's to Priti Patel's last week. However, up until now, Mr S had yet to come across a resignation from a job that it is unclear they still held. Step forward George Freeman. This afternoon Labour have gone on the attack over the news that Freeman – as he himself announced in a ConHome blog this morning – has 'stood down' from his role in No 10.
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The furore over the Brexit divorce bill has been such that it is easy to forget that it isn't the only major sticking point in talks with the EU. Theresa May looks set to up Britain’s offer this week (from €20bn to around €40bn), in the hope that more cash on the table will unlock the next stage of negotiations. But Michel Barnier’s speech today should serve as a warning to the British government: things won’t necessarily get easier when the Brexit divorce bill is sorted. In fact, Barnier makes it clear that talks could get even more difficult. The EU’s chief negotiator hinted that Britain would still miss out on a trade deal if it doesn’t agree to tie itself down to a ‘European model’ after Brexit.
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This weekend, Richard Leonard proved that an Englishman can succeed in Scottish politics. The Corbyn ally – who hails from Yorkshire – beat Anas Sarwar to be crowned the leader of Scottish Labour. However, it remains to be seen whether an Englishman can ever be First Minister. While Scottish Labour members may be over to get over their leader having an English accent, Mr S wonders if the latest confession by Leonard will prove a step too far when it comes to the general public. With England and Scotland enjoying a fierce rivalry in sport, Leonard was asked today, on Radio 5live, what side he was on when it comes to football and rugby: 'If it's England vs Scotland, I do support England. Every other game I'll support either Scotland or England.
From our UK edition
We’ve all gone a bit bot-mad in the past few weeks. Automated accounts have invaded our civic life – especially pesky Russian ones – and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have woken up to the fact that a new propaganda war is taking place online. Bots – which is of course short for robot – are essentially accounts which can be programmed to automatically post, share, re-tweet, or do whatever the programmer chooses. Creating a bot is extremely easy, and huge amounts of cheap bots are available on dark net markets for next to nothing. There are millions of harmless bots out there doing all sorts of helpful and funny things, including breaking news stories. But Russia twigged early that bots can also be usefully deployed to influence public opinion.
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When I had lunch with a senior CDU politician in Düsseldorf on Saturday, there was no sign that Germany’s coalition talks were about to break down so abruptly, plunging the Bundesrepublik into a political crisis with no solution in sight. Sure, negotiations had dragged on for weeks, said the man from Merkel’s party, but that wasn’t unusual here in Germany. They’d probably drag on until January, but the participants would eventually work something out. The next day his comfortable prediction was confounded, as Christian Lindner’s Free Democratic Party walked out of the coalition talks. ‘It became clear that the parties weren’t able to develop a common idea of how to modernise Germany,’ said Lindner.
From our UK edition
It is just a week since Theresa May used her Mansion House speech to launch a broadside on Russia. During a wide-ranging survey of the international horizon, it was Russia she singled out for special criticism and it was her Russia attack that attracted (and was surely intended to attract) the headlines. Just a reminder of what she said. Russia was 'chief' among those who seek to undermine 'our open economies and free societies'. Not only had it annexed Crimea illegally, but it had fomented conflict in the Donbas, repeatedly violated the national airspace of several European countries, and waged a 'sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption'. And this was the climax: 'It is seeking to weaponise information.
From our UK edition
Morrissey, Smiths frontman turned solo crooner turned novelist, has long taken pleasure in rattling the establishment. From mocking the monarchy on the 1986 Smiths album The Queen is Dead, to his lovely ballad about how much he wanted Margaret Thatcher to die, to his frequent foot-stomping over the meat industry, the music industry and industry in general, this Mancunian contrarian, this gobby quiff-sporter, has never been shy about shooting off his mouth at powerful people who irritate him. Now he’s at it again. Only this time he’s saved his ire for the new establishment: the PC, sex-panicking, Brexitphobic bores who make up the 21st-century chattering class.
From our UK edition
On Sunday, Philip Hammond took both No 10 and No 11 by surprise with his interview on the Andrew Marr show. As well as announcing that there are 'no unemployed people', he promised to launch Budget week by posing in a driverless car, on a visit to the West Midlands today. Given that it doesn't take much to work out that a beleaguered Chancellor about to deliver his budget pictured in a driverless car is not a metaphor for success, people soon took to social media to ask who had approved such an idea. It turns out no-one. As the Times reports today, aides had explicitly ruled out such a stunt. There was a plan for the chancellor to see a driverless car today but not for him to sit in one.
From our UK edition
The Cabinet is expected to resume talks about Brexit today, reportedly nudging towards a £40 billion offer ahead of a meeting on Friday – but is there much point? Germany still has no government with Angela Merkel’s coalition talks having collapsed. The chairman of the Free Democratic Party ended talks with Merkel last night and her old coalition partners, the Social Democrats, refuse to enter a deal as this would confer opposition status on the populist AfD and thereby augmenting the progress they made in the recent federal elections. All of a sudden, Merkel’s fourth term has been thrown into question, and there’s talk of her doing a Theresa May and holding a snap election. 'It is a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany', Merkel said.
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Although Jeremy Corbyn has seen a number of celebrity supporters come and go, Martin Freeman has at least proved loyal. The Hobbit actor has spoken in favour of the Labour leader – and appeared in party broadcasts. Indeed on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Freeman once again endorsed Corbyn. Only this time he added a caveat – making clear he supported Corbyn primarily because he was the leader of the Labour party as given that Labour is his 'team', he would support whoever held that role: AM: You quite like Jeremy Corbyn as a man, don't you? MF: Yes, generally I think most people do, a lot of Tories quite like him as a decent person – they can get their head around that.
