Category Archives: Politics

Aid sector is ‘last safe haven’ for abusers, UK investigation warns

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MPs say sexual exploitation still rife despite series of scandals and call for more effective measures

The sexual abuse and exploitation of local women by international aid workers remains “rife”, say MPs, describing the sector as the “last safe haven” for perpetrators.

A parliamentary inquiry found evidence of widespread abuse of beneficiaries, ineffective investigations and whistleblowers forced out of jobs, despite a series of recent scandals that had prompted some reforms.

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EU halts imports of seafood from smaller Scottish companies

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Export firms point to post-Brexit delays around health certificates, IT systems and missing customs papers

Deliveries of Scottish seafood to the EU from smaller companies have been halted until Monday, 18 January, after post-Brexit problems with health checks, IT systems and customs documents caused a huge backlog.

Scottish fishing has been plunged into crisis, as lorry-loads of live seafood and some fish destined for shops and restaurants in France, Spain and other countries have been rejected because they are taking too long to arrive.

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UK spent £2.4m to help Saudi Arabia comply with international law

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Over the last four years, the Gulf state has been accused of bombing and killing Yemeni civilians

Britain spent £2.4m over the last four years to help Saudi Arabia’s military comply with international humanitarian law – during which time the Gulf state has been accused of indiscriminately bombing and killing Yemeni civilians.

The figures – obtained via parliamentary questions – are the first time the UK has detailed the amount spent via secretive funds to the kingdom, prompting a campaign group to say British taxpayers were backing the country’s military.

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Top scientists warn of ‘ghastly future of mass extinction’ and climate disruption

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Sobering new report says world is failing to grasp the extent of threats posed by biodiversity loss and the climate crisis

The planet is facing a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction, according to an international group of scientists, who warn people still haven’t grasped the urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises.

The 17 experts, including Prof Paul Ehrlich from Stanford University, author of The Population Bomb, and scientists from Mexico, Australia and the US, say the planet is in a much worse state than most people – even scientists – understood.

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Asylum seekers on hunger strike over conditions at Kent barracks site

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Home Office urged to shut temporary accommodation after allegations of overcrowding and poor hygiene

Hundreds of asylum seekers are reportedly on hunger strike at a former army barracks in Kent being used as temporary housing, amid allegations conditions at the site are worsening.

About 400 men are being held at the Napier barracks site near Folkestone, which has been used as temporary accommodation since September and has faced calls for closure after allegations of cover-ups, poor access to healthcare and legal advice, and crowded conditions.

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In these grim times we all need a saviour and right now it is Chris Whitty | John Crace

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The chief medical officer seems the only person left we can trust to tell us the harsh truth on Covid

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. In these exceptionally grim times we’re all – Boris Johnson included – looking for a saviour to rise from these streets. And right now that salvation appears to be the England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty. Just about the only person left whom anyone can trust to tell the country the naked truth about coronavirus.

For months now, we’ve grown used to ministers being sent out on the morning media round to sell the latest U-turn. But sometime over the weekend, someone in Downing Street’s communications team realised many people tended not to take ministers all that seriously. They would hear the horrifying death statistics and still come up with a way of adapting lockdown guidance to their own convenience. And after Dominic Cummings got away with ignoring the rules during the first lockdown, who could really blame them. The rules were seen as an aspiration, not a binding necessity.

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Starmer accepts end of EU free movement in Brexit reversal

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Labour leader rules out extensive renegotiation if party wins next election

Keir Starmer has abandoned the commitment to free movement of people in the European Union he made to Labour members during the party’s leadership contest.

The Labour leader said his party had to be honest with the public, and that if it won the next general election a major renegotiation of the Brexit treaty would not be possible.

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Firms halt deliveries from UK to EU over Brexit border problems

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DPD pauses road service and retailers suspend sales or reduce lines amid concerns over paperwork and tariffs

A growing number of retailers and courier firms are suspending or cutting back deliveries into the EU as companies grapple with new border controls as well as import taxes.

On Friday DPD, the international delivery giant, said it was “pausing” its road service from the UK into Europe, including the Republic of Ireland. Separately, Marks & Spencer said it was concerned that a third of the products in its Irish food halls, including Percy Pig sweets, would now be subject to import tariffs. Such taxes could spell higher prices for shoppers.

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‘We’re bursting’: a day inside a Covid intensive care unit

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The Guardian spends a day with Covid patients and staff at Milton Keynes University hospital

In a private room by the locked entrance of the intensive care unit, Dilip Sharan is sitting up in bed, a plate of stew in front of him. He navigates his spoon around the breathing tube keeping him alive, every mouthful soundtracked by a discordant symphony of beeps and bongs from multiple monitors keeping tabs on his vital organs.

It is his fifth day in the last chance saloon of Covid care. He gasps for air, barely able to speak.

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UK coronavirus live: ‘major incident’ declared in London as cases surge; Moderna Covid vaccine approved

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Latest updates: Sadiq Khan declares major incident in capital with ‘spread of virus out of control’; seven million doses of Moderna vaccine ordered

Making the announcement in London, Sadiq Khan said: “We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.

“If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.

BREAKING: I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.

One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.https://t.co/OjV7SZ4BgQ

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared an effective emergency in the city, as it grapples with soaring coronavirus case numbers and hospitals struggling to cope with the influx of patients.

London has been the worst-hit area of the UK so far in the winter peak of Covid-19 cases.

Related: Sadiq Khan declares Covid emergency in London

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Fears Covid vaccines would not work against South Africa variant led to travel curbs

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Minister says extra check on travellers introduced as ‘we simply cannot take chances’

Fears that Covid vaccines will not work against the new South African strain of the virus have prompted the introduction of testing for new arrivals into England and Scotland from abroad, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said.

Outlining the new testing regime for England and Scotland, he told Sky News: “This is an extra check and we’re doing this now because there are these variants that we’re very keen to keep out of the country, like the South African variant, for example.

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‘I’m stuck here’: lorry drivers in Calais begin to feel effects of Brexit

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Truck drivers tell of long delays for checks at the Eurotunnel as trade barrier goes up between UK and EU

Roger White arrived in France at 2.30pm on Tuesday with a truckload of hard cheese from Somerset.

Before Brexit he would have rolled off the Eurotunnel train and carried on up the A16 to Belgium, unloading his wares a few hours later at his ultimate destination in Utrecht.

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Leave. EU leaves Britain after Brexit

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Eurosceptic campaign group founded by Arron Banks is now registered in Ireland

Leave.EU has left the UK, as Brexit forced the Eurosceptic campaign group to choose between its name and its country.

According to domain name registration records, the organisation, founded by businessman and activist Arron Banks, picked the former. The website is now registered in the name of Sean Power, the chief executive of the Ireland-based professional services company BSG.

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Northern Ireland facing food supply disruption over Brexit, MPs told

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Trucks arriving at GB ports lack paperwork needed to enter region, business leaders say

Northern Ireland is facing disruptions to its food supply because suppliers in Great Britain are unaware of the Brexit-related paperwork needed to send goods to the region, business leaders have said.

Trucks are arriving at GB ports with incorrect or absent documentation that delays their passage across the Irish Sea, they told MPs on Wednesday.

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UK Covid live: Williamson to make statement after Johnson cautious over when English schools will reopen

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Latest updates: PM says people should be ‘extremely cautious’ about timetable of return to classrooms after February half-term

The Metropolitan police have said Londoners are “increasingly likely” to face fines in the new lockdown. In a statement explaining its intention to adopt a slightly stricter approach to enforcing the rules than has applied in the past, it says:

Although officers will still apply the 4 Es approach of engaging, explaining, and encouraging – only then enforcing, the Met has issued refreshed instructions to officers to issue fines more quickly to anyone committing obvious, wilful and serious breaches.

In practice this will mean that all those attending parties, unlicensed music events or large illegal gatherings, can expect to be fined – not just the organisers of such events. Similarly, those not wearing masks where they should be and without good reason can expect to be fined - not reasoned with.

Johnson says some of the individual parts of the lockdown package are not susceptible to “iron logic”. But cumulatively they are there to protect the public.

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Boris’s boosterism means he never learns | John Crace

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The prime minister’s first Downing Street press conference kept up his veneer of acting as if he knew what he was doing

Let’s take the positives first. There have been no changes in government policy on coronavirus in the past 24 hours. After the confusion of the past few days, weeks and months, that is in itself cause for celebration. A sign of some much needed stability in Westminster.

Boris Johnson’s narcissism is an open secret. What’s less clear is whether he is at heart just deeply cynical: a politician who is aware of his own failings and goes out of his way to conceal them. Or whether he is a man who is merely the product of his own imagination: bending reality to suit his personality. It’s hard to know which is the more disturbing prospect. But then maybe it’s a bit of both.

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Strict Covid restrictions could last months, Boris Johnson signals

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PM says lifting lockdown is subject to ‘lots of caveats’ as figures show 1m people in England have Covid

Britain could face harsh restrictions for many months to come, Boris Johnson and his chief scientists warned as figures suggested more than 1 million people in England are infected with coronavirus, or one in every 50.

The prime minister said the plan to emerge from a newly-imposed national lockdown in mid-February was subject to “lots of caveats, lot of ifs”. He refused to guarantee that children would be fully back at school before the summer, calling this a “fundamental hope”.

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Boris Johnson says more than 1.1m people in England have been vaccinated – video

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The prime minister said 1.3 million people across the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 650,000 people over 80 – 23% of the cohort - have received their jab, he added. Johnson also pledged that 1,000 more vaccination stations would be open by the end of the week


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Covid lockdown in England likely in place until March, Gove warns

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Minister says time needed for vaccine to take effect means restrictions cannot definitely be lifted in mid-February

The third national lockdown imposed in England to try to deal with the huge increase in Covid-19 cases is likely to remain in place into March at least, with some measures lasting even longer, the government has indicated.

The cabinet secretary, Michael Gove, said he hoped the gradual lifting of restrictions could begin in mid-February, but that the time it took for the vaccines to take effect meant it was likely to be at least another couple of weeks before measures could start to be eased.

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Australia ‘not for turning’ in dispute with China, UK envoy George Brandis says

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The high commissioner in London offers sharp observations on the dispute between Canberra and Beijing

Australia is “not for turning” in its dispute with China and must cut its reliance on supply chains “over which we had little to no sovereign control”, the country’s top envoy to the UK has said.

George Brandis, Australia’s high commissioner in London, argued the situation “must change” as he called for a trade deal between Australia and Britain to be completed by the end of this year.

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