Corporation’s sports coverage severely disrupted as presenters and pundits pull out in solidarity with Lineker
Match of the Day viewing figures were unaffected by the absence of Gary Lineker on Saturday night.
The shortened 20-minute version of the show had no commentary, presenters, or pundits after staff walked out in solidarity with its host Gary Lineker. Even the show’s theme music was dropped, as the BBC dealt with the fallout after suspending its highest-paid star.
Continue reading...Exclusive: report describes culture of low fees and exploitation as research finds median hourly rate of £2.60 an hour
Artists working in the public sector are struggling to stay afloat amid a culture of low fees, unpaid labour and systemic exploitation, research shows.
A survey of people engaged by everything from flagship galleries to smaller projects found an overall median hourly rate of £2.60 an hour, dramatically below the UK minimum wage of £9.50.
Continue reading...SVB specialised in high-growth startups, solving problems other lenders would not touch
Silicon Valley Bank’s name isn’t just hollow branding. Founded in Santa Clara in the 1980s, in the heart of the Bay Area’s tech cluster, it was a regional bank that served the local economy.
As that local economy became the engine of American growth, SVB – which collapsed on Friday – grew alongside it. It remained a tech specialist, a limitation that allowed it to continue to be regulated as a regional bank and so avoid the stricter requirements piled on larger competitors, but otherwise spread across the US and the world.
Continue reading...The chancellor has room for giveaways in this week’s budget, but business and consumer groups fear he will hold them back for the election
Jeremy Hunt is under pressure to be generous when he delivers his first budget speech since he became chancellor last October.
The public finances have improved dramatically from the chaotic days that followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget in September, which rocked international money markets and sent interest rates on government debt soaring. The cost of financing Britain’s debt has fallen in recent months and the cost of gas on wholesale markets has tumbled.
Continue reading...Treasury says move will save four million households £45 a year on their energy bills
Prepayment meter customers will no longer be charged more to receive their energy under reforms to be announced in the budget.
The chancellor is to end the “prepayment premium” from July, saving more than four million households £45 a year on their energy bills, according to the Treasury.
Continue reading...Latest phase of Aukus scheme comes amid concerns about growing threat from China
Rishi Sunak will fly to San Diego on Sunday to unveil plans for supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus scheme amid concerns about the growing threat from China.
A major announcement 18 months in the making is expected when the UK prime minister meets his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, and US president Joe Biden.
Continue reading...From Alan Sugar and Karren Brady to Richard Osman and Nadiya Hussain, there is nothing new about TV presenters writing about politics
Gary Lineker’s suspension for expressing political views set off an avalanche of comparisons with other BBC stars who have not been similarly sanctioned for lacking impartiality.
Some were obvious: Lord Sugar of The Apprentice, whose 18 years of firing people have been punctuated by political outbursts, from newspaper interviews calling on people to vote Conservative to tweeting a mocked-up image of Jeremy Corbyn sitting next to Adolf Hitler.
Continue reading...Attack by 29-year-old on woman, who was seriously injured, took place outside a leisure centre
A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a woman was stabbed outside a leisure centre in Cheltenham.
The arrest is in relation to the attack on a woman at about 9.15pm outside a leisure centre in Tommy Taylors Lane, Cheltenham on Thursday, Gloucestershire constabulary said.
Continue reading...Councillor says continuing loss of land to the sea would damage local economy, which is heavily dependent on visitors
A councillor has warned that continued erosion of a Norfolk coastline could cause a dramatic decline in the local economy, after a seaside home was demolished.
Several wooden properties, built on sand dunes at Hemsby, are perilously close to toppling into the sea due to coastal erosion.
Continue reading...Senior Tories condemn ‘sickening’ plans which would allow unaccompanied minors to be held, in U-turn on past legislation
Rishi Sunak’s plan to reduce small boat crossings will effectively reverse a ban on child detention implemented under David Cameron and open the door to an expansion of the practice, the Observer understands.
With a potential Tory rebellion already brewing over the proposals, it has emerged that the Illegal Migration bill will allow the detention of families with children and even allows the deportation of unaccompanied children if it is deemed to be safe in their country of origin.
Continue reading...Speaking ahead of voting opening on Monday, Stephen Flynn praises Yousaf’s childcare, independence and energy plans
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, has given his backing to Humza Yousaf to be Scotland’s next first minister, saying the Scottish health secretary can take the party to “new heights”.
There are three candidates battling to be the next SNP leader and Scottish first minister.
Continue reading...Some of party’s MPs even believe they could narrowly win next election – but the odds remain stacked against them
When Rishi Sunak took over, most Conservative MPs were in despair. Some even suggested the party did not deserve to be in power. “We need a reset,” one said at the time. “A period out of office to get our act together.”
But almost five months on, Sunak has given them hope that they can avoid a total wipeout at the next election. Despite 13 years in office and all the problems the UK is facing, they now believe they could hang on, albeit with a significantly smaller majority.
Continue reading...Ex-director general says decision to suspend presenter for criticising government’s asylum policies is mistaken
The BBC has undermined its own credibility with its decision to stand Gary Lineker down from hosting Match of the Day because it will be viewed as having bowed to government pressure, its former director general Greg Dyke has said.
Dyke’s comments come after the corporation suspended Lineker on Friday for breaching impartiality guidelines by criticising the government’s asylum policies.
Continue reading...We look at who might be the winners in the industry’s biggest industrial dispute in decades
After 23 days of national strikes, two years of talking and hundreds of thousands of cancelled trains, rail workers are contemplating a pay rise that barely catches the coat tails of inflation. The rail industry’s biggest industrial dispute in decades may be approaching its final chapter – but with little chance of a happy ending for anyone involved.
The pain for passengers is not yet over – four more 24-hour strikes across 14 operators by train and station staff in the biggest rail union, the RMT, start next Thursday, 16 March.
Continue reading...Shadow education secretary to announce policy aimed at giving parents more information than Ofsted’s current system
School ratings such as outstanding and inadequate would be scrapped in England under a Labour government and replaced with a “report card” aimed at helping parents, the shadow education secretary is to announce.
Bridget Phillipson will tell a headteachers’ conference in Birmingham on Saturday that Ofsted’s current system of ratings “is high stakes for staff but low information for parents” because it fails to convey important details about a school’s strengths and weaknesses.
Continue reading...Some advisers and civil servants speaking to the Guardian say an ‘anti-lockdown filter’ has been placed on events
The mass leaking of thousands of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages have laid bare in the starkest terms the extent of the divisions inside the cabinet and among advisers and civil servants handling the deadliest pandemic in modern times.
But some who worked in Number 10 and across Whitehall, as well as bereaved families, have been angered by what they see as a rewriting of history by some cabinet ministers and by the framing of some of Hancock’s texts.
Continue reading...PM said Father’s Day card would be his ‘limit’ in response to Johnson nominating his father for knighthood
Rishi Sunak has said his father would be lucky to get a card on Father’s Day, let alone a knighthood, after accusations that Boris Johnson’s honours list had discredited the system.
Sunak has come under pressure to reject Johnson’s list, in which he nominated his father, Stanley Johnson, for a knighthood, given previous allegations about his behaviour.
Continue reading...Decision taken after corporation takes its highest-paid presenter off air and his fellow broadcasters refuse to appear in solidarity
Match of the Day will be broadcast without any presenters or pundits this weekend, after the main host, Gary Lineker, was suspended from the BBC for breaching impartiality guidelines over his criticism of the government’s asylum policies.
In a dramatic and unexpected escalation of a crisis that has been brewing all week, the corporation took the decision to take its highest-paid presenter off its flagship football show after he was criticised by Tory MPs and the rightwing media.
Continue reading...Former culture secretary called into question neutrality of civil servant after her appointment as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff
The BBC has apologised for the failure to properly scrutinise claims made by Nadine Dorries on a radio show, capping a day of controversies for the corporation.
The broadcaster said in a statement on Friday that “there should have been more challenge” when the former culture secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist made allegations about Sue Gray on Radio 4’s World at One.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Decision to make episode about natural destruction available only on iPlayer angers programme-makers
The BBC has decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press, the Guardian has been told.
The decision has angered the programme-makers and some insiders at the BBC, who fear the corporation has bowed to pressure from lobbying groups with “dinosaurian ways”.
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