Lender says Debbie Crosbie’s package ‘should compete with banks’ but critics say building societies are ‘supposed to be the good guys’
Nationwide is under fire for refusing to give members a binding vote on a controversial 43% pay rise for its chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, which could total up to £7m.
Campaigners say it leaves the mutual’s members with fewer rights than shareholders of listed UK banks and exposes a worrying “loophole” in building society rules.
Continue reading...Steve Reed says changes to living standards are happening and will make a big difference to trust in government
It was probably easier for Steve Reed to feel more cheerful about Labour’s most torrid week in government while sitting on bales of hay in the blazing sunshine about 40 miles from Westminster.
The environment secretary might have sympathised with Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall – he has experience of bearing the flak for some of the government’s most controversial decisions on family farm taxes – but at Hertfordshire’s Groundswell festival, named the Glastonbury for farms, he may simply have been happy not to be pelted with manure by unhappy farmers.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says government needs a better narrative and risks being bogged down by ‘imposed limitations’
Keir Starmer’s government is suffering from a “lack of narrative” about what it is trying to achieve and should be more fiscally bold and consider a tax on wealth, Neil Kinnock has said.
The former Labour leader said too many of the government’s achievements were being overshadowed. A year after a landslide election win, the party is struggling in the polls and has U-turned on policies including cuts to winter fuel payments and welfare.
Continue reading...Party’s supporters tell of dissatisfaction, but many feel the Starmer government’s good points have been overlooked
Labour supporters have told the Guardian of their dissatisfaction with the party’s first year in government, as Keir Starmer marks 12 months since becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown.
Members and voters said initial optimism had given away to unhappiness about the government’s record, although many were keen to state the positives they felt had been forgotten under the weight of recent events.
Continue reading...Many feel counter-terrorism policies and brazen Islamophobia have increased hostility and isolation experience by community
For many in the British Muslim community, the tragedy of 7 July 2005 lives long in the memory. The bombings sent shockwaves through the nation but also marked a turning point that left many grappling with grief, fear and a new scrutiny of their identity.
Twenty years on, feelings of suspicion, isolation and hostility experienced in the aftermath of the attacks have, for some, only worsened after decades of UK counter-terrorism policies, and a political landscape they say has allowed Islamophobia to flourish.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says it is in UK’s ‘interests to support new government’ in first visit by British minister for 14 years
Britain is re-establishing diplomatic relations with Syria after the country’s years-long civil war, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has announced during a visit to the capital, Damascus.
“There is renewed hope for the Syrian people,” Lammy said in a statement. “It is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.”
Continue reading...The Birmingham band are back together for one last concert at Villa Park, entitled Back to the Beginning – joined by the cream of heavy metal, from Mastodon to Anthrax – plus a host of special guests. Follow every song here
You’ll be thinking: show me photos of all these starry metal shenanigans! I’m really sorry but Live Nation have told me there won’t be any photos available until the end of the gig, and the livestream doesn’t allow screengrabs. Use the power of your mind, I guess.
There are a notable number of empty seats there, but remember this was all going on two hours ago which is quite an early start for a massive stadium show. “Stadium really pretty full from the beginning – testament to the depth of the line up,” Michael says. “Maiden a fortnight ago had a higher proportion of battle jackets though.”
Continue reading...Fiona Eastwood says real-life experiences that bring people together are vital amid a battle for attention in the digital era
Artificial intelligence is in the process of upending the business models of companies all over the world, but when it comes to the $100bn (£73bn) global theme park business the thrill of “big metal” rollercoasters is still the biggest draw.
Fiona Eastwood, the boss of the sector’s second biggest operator, Merlin Entertainments, says that in a world dominated by battles over screen time it is real-life experiences that provide families with an “antidote to phones and digital technology”.
Continue reading...Government under pressure on issue after stories of asylum seekers working illegally as takeaway delivery riders
The Home Office has announced what it is calling a “nationwide blitz” on asylum seekers who take jobs, after recent political controversy about people in asylum hotels working as food takeaway delivery riders.
In a statement, which gave few specifics, the Home Office pledged to begin “a major operation to disrupt this type of criminality” based around enforcement teams focusing on the gig economy, particularly on delivery riders.
Continue reading...Oasis fans were overjoyed by the performance of the reunited band, a ‘non-stop wild’ set that brought back fond memories
The atmosphere on the concourses in Cardiff after the first Oasis gig of their long-awaited reunion tour was one of speechlessness that the once-estranged Gallagher brothers had pulled it off.
Leigh, from Cardiff, could hardly find the words to describe the two and a half hours he had just witnessed. “They were quiet at the beginning, then the crescendos went wild, then they were non-stop wild,” he said. “It went supernova – crazy. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know what to say – I was 18 again.”
Continue reading...Focusing heavily on their 1990s output with only one song from their last four albums, Liam and Noel Gallagher performed together for the first time since 2009
Swaggering, cocksure and incredibly loud, Oasis burst back on to the live music scene on Friday night with an accomplished – if ever so slightly distanced – debut gig on their reunion world tour.
Playing Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the six-piece impressed at the start of what is arguably the most anticipated tour of the century, focusing overwhelmingly on songs from their 1990s heyday – only one song, Little By Little, was taken from their final four albums.
Continue reading...With a heavy emphasis on their 1990s heyday, here is every song that Oasis and their support acts played on the first night of their tour
Hello
Acquiesce
Morning Glory
Some Might Say
Bring It on Down
Cigarettes & Alcohol
Fade Away
Supersonic
Roll With It
Talk Tonight (sung by Noel)
Half the World Away (sung by Noel)
Little By Little (sung by Noel)
D’You Know What I Mean?
Stand By Me
Cast No Shadow
Slide Away
Whatever
Live Forever
Rock ’n’ Roll Star
Encore
The Masterplan (sung by Noel)
Don’t Look Back in Anger (sung by Noel)
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova
Tehran now places little faith in the European countries who played a key role in brokering the Iranian nuclear deal
Exposed as divided and marginalised during the Iran crisis, European nations are scrambling to retrieve a place at the Middle East negotiating table, fearing an impulsive Donald Trump has diminishing interest in stabilising Iran or the wider region now he believes he has achieved his key objective of wiping out Tehran’s nuclear programme.
On Tuesday the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, was the latest senior European figure to phone the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, offering to be a facilitator and urging Tehran not to leave the crisis in a dangerous limbo by keeping UN weapons inspectors out of Iran.
Continue reading...CCRC says the four grounds his lawyers argue undermine safety of conviction for 1985 murders fail to meet threshold
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has refused to refer the case of Jeremy Bamber, who was convicted of murdering five members of his family in 1985, back to the court of appeal.
The CCRC, whose chair Helen Pitcher resigned in January and whose chief executive resigned this week after successive justice secretaries declared the miscarriage of justice review body unfit for purpose, has spent four years examining just four of the 10 grounds Bamber’s lawyers identified as undermining the safety of his conviction. It will continue to examine the other six.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Band’s management tell agencies and publishers they can only use shots of first gig in Cardiff for a year
A row has broken out over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures taken at Oasis reunion gigs, as the band prepare to play the first night of what is expected to be the most profitable tour in UK history.
Photo agencies and publishers have been told they can use shots of the first concert, which takes place in Cardiff on Friday, for one year and then the rights revert back to the band and management.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
My colleague Lauren Almeida, who is running the Guardian’s business live blog, has shared the following:
Rachel Reeves has not given herself enough fiscal headroom to manage public finances, Charlie Bean, the former deputy of the Bank of England has said, and has to “neurotically fine tune taxes”.
About £10bn – that’s a very small number in the context of overall public spending. Government spending is about one and a quarter trillion so £10bn is a small number … and it is a small number in the context of typical forecasting errors.
You can’t forecast the future perfectly both because you can’t forecast the economy and you can’t forecast all the elements of public finances …. The forecasts are imprecise and there is no way you can avoid that. That is a fact of life.
In light of reports of atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and reports of the UK’s collaboration with Israeli military operations, it is increasingly urgent to confirm whether the UK has contributed to any violations of international humanitarian law through economic or political cooperation with the Israeli government since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.
Continue reading...Corbyn says ‘discussions are ongoing’ after MP’s surprise announcement, and is understood to be reluctant to take title of party leader
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he is in discussions about creating a new leftwing political party, hours after the MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the project.
Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who had the Labour whip suspended last year for voting against the government over the two-child limit on benefits, said on Thursday night she was quitting Labour and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn.
Continue reading...Number looking to move to urban centres up 16% in first five months of 2025 compared with same period in 2015
With the rise of home working and surging house prices in many urban areas, one might have assumed that British cities had lost some of their appeal to homebuyers over the past decade, but it turns out the opposite is the case.
An analysis of the first five months of this year shows the number of would-be first-time buyers in Great Britain looking to move to cities is up by 16% on average compared with the same period in 2015.
Continue reading...Coventry South MP, who lost whip last year, surprises some in Corbyn’s Independent Alliance with news of formal plans
MP Zarah Sultana, suspended from Labour, has announced she is resigning from the party to join Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance.
Sultana declared she will “co-lead the founding of a new party” – even though, while there was an agreement in principle to form one, the timing and leadership had not been settled, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...The health service transformation proposed for England faces daunting challenges that overwhelmed earlier attempts at reform
The government’s 10-year health plan to revive, modernise and future-proof the NHS in England has arrived as the service is facing a dual crisis. It has been unable for a decade now to provide the rapid access – to GPs, A&E care, surgery, ambulances and mental health support – which people need and used to get.
Normalisation of anxiety-inducing, frightening and sometimes fatal delay has produced a less tangible, but also dangerous, crisis: of public satisfaction, born of a profound loss of trust that the NHS will be there for them or their loved ones when they need it.
Continue reading...