Featured News

June 19, 2018

Brexit’s law of unintended consequences

Could England become independent as Scotland quits the UK? Murray Ritchie says emboldened nationalists are now showing renewed optimism amid growing signs of impatience with…

Immigration: the ugly face of Brexit and beyond

Italian storms darken European horizon

Riverford farms plants idea of staff ownership

‘Dialogue of the deaf’ proves an expensive exercise

How much does your neighbour earn?

Chief-Exec series: The iceberg of intangible capital

Is the UK heading for a general election?

Chief-Exec series: Lifting the lid on UK productivity

January 25, 2018

Opération Séduction: a week in the life of the President

Emmanuel Macron continues to surf the wave that swept him to power in the French presidential election in 2017. John Egan reviews a week in…

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Peers force another Commons vote on final say in Brexit
MPs are set for a fractious vote on Theresa May’s abandoned compromise with pro-EU rebels over a final vote on the Brexit deal after peers inserted it into her legislation. After two days of negotiations last week the government defied demands for parliament to be able to influence the direction of Brexit in case of no deal and instead published an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill that critics said would give MPs less control. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney-general, who has emerged as the effective leader of the rebels on the so-called meaningful vote issue, later accused ministers of bad faith and reneging on an earlier compromise amendment. Yesterday peers voted by 354 to 235 to insert the putative compromise that Mr Grieve thought he had secured into the bill, which gives legal effect to the UK’s departure from the EU. It sets up a difficult confrontation between the prime minister and about a dozen of her backbenchers when the legislation returns to the Commons tomorrow. The Times, June 19

Pharma chiefs warn Brexit threatens UK life sciences dominance
Britain’s dominant position in life sciences is in peril through a combination of Brexit uncertainty and the slow take-up of innovative medicines by the taxpayer-funded National Health Service, some of the world’s leading pharma businesses have warned. A number of leading US companies will on Tuesday meet government ministers, including Greg Clark, business secretary, to demand faster action to implement its industrial strategy, launched with considerable fanfare last year, which pledged to accelerate the uptake of new medicines by the NHS. The UK head of Pfizer, Erik Nordkamp, said: “The UK pharmaceutical industry and the patients who rely on it are under serious threat from Brexit as well as from the flawed way medicines are developed, tested and made available to patients in the country.” Financial Times, June 19

There’s no more money, Hammond tells cabinet
Philip Hammond has warned the cabinet that he has no more money for other policies after being forced to find £25 billion for the NHS. The chancellor used a presentation to senior ministers before Theresa May’s speech on the health service yesterday to rule out extra spending on areas including schools, defence, prisons and police. He also made clear that, having fulfilled the Vote Leave pledge of paying for the NHS rise from a “Brexit dividend”, the government would need to find money to replace other funding provided at present by Brussels. The Times, June 19

Trump threatens further tariffs Chinese imports
Donald Trump has ordered his administration to draft plans for tariffs on a further $200bn in Chinese imports if Beijing does not abandon its intention to retaliate against US duties on imports announced last week. In a statement issued late on Monday, Mr Trump said he had asked US trade officials to identify a further $200bn in goods from China to be subject to a 10 per cent tariff, and that he was prepared to impose tariffs on an additional $200bn beyond that. China’s commerce ministry said the threat was “blackmail” and warned of “strong countermeasures”. Financial Times, June 19

Merkel given extra time to solve migrant crisis
Angela Merkel was given a two-week ultimatum by her Bavarian allies to set tougher migration controls at EU level or they will start rejecting asylum seekers at the German border. The challenge follows days of intensive talks on a “migration masterplan” drawn up by Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, which pushed the government to breaking point over his call to turn away certain migrants. Mrs Merkel insisted that there would still be no automatic rejections at the German border even if she could not reach agreement with other EU countries by July 1, deferring a showdown with her coalition partners. The Times, June 19

Student visa snub is ‘kick in teeth’ for India
Sajid Javid has caused a diplomatic rift by excluding Indians from a new fast-track visa system for students. The home secretary announced that he was reducing the level of documentation needed for applicants for student visas from 26 countries, including Australia, the United States, China, Argentina, Cambodia and Thailand. Indian students have been left off because of fears of “non-compliance”, meaning they are judged at risk of disappearing after entering on student visas, although the Home Office does not publish statistics to support this claim. India has repeatedly raised the issue of visas for students and professionals and the change has caused outrage in the Indian media. The Times, June 19

Primary school kids affected by hygiene poverty
Primary school children are arriving for their lessons unwashed and in dirty clothes because their parents cannot afford to buy washing powder, soap or shampoo, according to a survey by a UK charity. More than four in 10 parents (43%) who took part in the survey said they have had to go without basic hygiene or cleaning products because they can’t afford them, while almost one in five (18%) admit their child wears the same underwear at least two days in a row. Schools are intervening to support struggling families who are having to choose between food or personal hygiene. More than half of primary teachers who took part in a parallel survey said they provide pupils with washing powder, soap and shampoo on a weekly basis because of family hygiene poverty issues. The Guardian, June 19

Sharp rebuke for KPMG over ‘deterioration’ in audit quality
KPMG has been sternly rebuked by the UK accounting watchdog for an “unacceptable deterioration” in the quality of audit work it performs for Britain’s largest publicly traded companies. The criticism, in a report by the Financial Reporting Council, will intensify pressure on KPMG, which has become embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals over the past 12 months, prompting several international regulators to launch investigations into its work. According to the FRC, which is itself under heavy pressure to demonstrate a tougher approach to monitoring the audit market, half of KPMG’s audits of FTSE 350 clients required “more than limited improvements”. Financial Times, June 19

Senior tory: cannabis war ‘comprehensively lost’
Former Conservative leader Lord Hague has called for a “decisive change” in the law on cannabis – suggesting that the Tories should consider legalising recreational use of the drug. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said “any war” has been “irreversibly lost”. Lord Hague goes further than senior Tories who have suggested a law change after a boy with epilepsy was given a special licence to use cannabis oil. The government is creating an expert panel to look into individual cases. Last week officials at Heathrow Airport confiscated Billy Caldwell’s cannabis oil, which the 12-year-old’s mother Charlotte had been attempting to bring into the UK from Canada. BBC news, June 19

Apple fined for misleading Australian customers
An Australian court has fined Apple A$9m (£5m; $6.5m) for refusing to fix iPhones and iPads that had been serviced by third parties. The nation’s consumer watchdog took the tech giant to court last year following complaints from users about faulty devices. Apple admitted that it misled 275 people about their rights to remedies such as repairs and replacements. The Federal Court of Australia found those actions breached consumer law. The investigation followed complaints about Apple’s so-called “error 53”. BBC news, June 19

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