Category Archives: Politics

Alex Salmond’s lawyer quits as head of Scottish legal body

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Gordon Jackson was filmed on train talking about Salmond and sexual assault trial

The lawyer who helped secure Alex Salmond’s acquittal over allegations of sexual assault has quit as the head of Scotland’s advocates body after a furore over remarks he made about Salmond and his accusers.

Gordon Jackson QC announced on Friday he was standing down as the dean of the Faculty of Advocates, one of the most powerful posts in Scotland’s legal profession, because he is under investigation for professional misconduct.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s wife Laura Alvarez hits out at critics on his last day

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As Corbyn prepares to step down as leader, Alvarez says Labour failed to ‘pull together’

Laura Alvarez, the wife of Jeremy Corbyn, has said she regrets Labour failed to “pull together” to win elections, condemning the media and his opponents in the party on his last day as leader of the party.

In a rare public statement, Alvarez said it had been “incredibly hard” for her to watch her husband vilified by the media and even harder to watch him be attacked by his own party.

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Words I thought I’d never write: thank God for Matt Hancock | John Crace

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The health secretary wrote off £13bn of NHS debt, promised 100,000 tests and acted like a grownup

For much of the week, it’s been as if the government has gone out of its way to appear wilfully clueless. First, the psychotically unstable Dominic Raab, then the pathologically untrustworthy Michael Gove, culminating with the shambolically underprepared Alok Sharma. History repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce. It was as if the only real contingency plans the government had made were for the postponement of this year’s climate change conference. Sometimes, doing absolutely nothing proves to be entirely the right option.

But cometh the hour … There are some words I thought I’d never write. Like “Thank God for Matt Hancock”. But thank God for Matt Hancock. It seemed a high-risk strategy to send out the health secretary for the daily Downing Street press conference as it was only six days since he announced that he had contracted coronavirus. And the official NHS guidance is for anyone with symptoms to self-isolate for a week.

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NHS call on PM to ensure test centres are conveniently located

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Concern that centres were too far from both work or home for those working in London

NHS staff have called on Boris Johnson to ensure the new coronavirus testing centres are located conveniently for health workers and not in out of town sites such as Ikea car parks.

Drive-in test centres for nurses and doctors were opened this week in converted car parks at the Scandinavian superstore in Wembley in London and Chessington theme park near the M25.

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Financial help for airlines ‘should come with strict climate conditions’

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Former EU climate chief Miguel Arias Cañete fears end of Covid-19 will bring higher carbon emissions

Financial help from taxpayers to airlines hit by the coronavirus crisis must come with strict conditions on their future climate impact, the former EU climate commissioner and a group of green campaigners have said.

“It must be conditional, otherwise when we recover we will see the same or higher levels of carbon dioxide [from flying],” said Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU climate commissioner who led the bloc to the Paris agreement, in an interview with the Guardian. “We know the level of emissions we have to commit to [under Paris]. They [airlines] are worried about survival and will need lots of support, lots of liquidity – that gives them a big responsibility.”

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Coronavirus embarrassed Trump and Bolsonaro. But the global right will fight back | Paulo Gerbaudo

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Science and welfare are at the heart of this crisis – which is bad for right-wing populists. But they won’t be wrongfooted for long

The populist right has built their electoral strength on boisterousness and arrogant self-confidence. Yet, amid the coronavirus pandemic, figures such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro seem to be confounded. They are either desperately clinging to a narrative of normality (it’s just a flu), or have already been forced to make embarrassing U-turns acknowledging the gravity of the crisis.

Boris Johnson had to abandon the government’s “herd immunity” strategy when new scientific evidence made apparent its horrific human cost. He recently tested positive for the virus and is now accused of complacency and lack of leadership. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party and former deputy prime minister, appears downbeat, unable to wear the robes of the responsible statesman this emergency calls for; his unabashed criticism of government has even earned him the label “unpatriotic”. In France, Marine Le Pen seems to have vanished altogether from the media, while Bolsonaro’s persistence in denying the crisis is leaving him increasingly isolated.

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Outrage over denial of amnesty for Turkish political prisoners

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Government’s critics not among 90,000 inmates eligible for early release due to coronavirus

Anger is growing in Turkey that while the government is preparing to grant amnesties to up to one third of the country’s prison population in order to combat the coronavirus pandemic, jailed human rights activists, journalists and opposition politicians will not be among those considered for early release.

The Turkish parliament discussed a legal amendment on Tuesday which should make 90,000 of the country’s approximately 300,000 prisoners eligible for either house arrest or parole by halving sentences for offences including non pre-mediatated murder and organised crime. Early drafts of the bill, which would also have covered sex offenders and those convicted of gender-based violence, were dropped after being met with outrage from women’s rights groups.

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How will the UK’s £75m coronavirus repatriation work?

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Key questions around the government’s plan to rescue 300,000 stranded Britons

The government has announced a £75m rescue mission to repatriate an estimated 300,000 British stranded abroad because of the coronavirus outbreak. How will this work and who will be selected for a flight home?

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Authoritarian leaders may use Covid-19 crisis to tighten their grip

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Hungary’s PM insists extreme measures are only to fight the pandemic, others are not so sure

The coronavirus has already overwhelmed medical services, grounded flights and halted economic growth, but one of its most enduring effects could be to usher in a political age in which soft authoritarians have turned harder, and the surveillance state becomes a way of life even in some democracies.

In Hungary, after a set of measures introduced on Monday, it is now a criminal offence to spread misinformation about coronavirus, and the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, can rule by decree for an indefinite period. In neighbouring Serbia, soldiers patrol the streets as part of the coronavirus response plan. In Moscow, authorities are reportedly mulling measures that would require everyone who wants to go outside to submit the reasons online, and then be tracked via their smartphones.

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UK police warned against ‘overreach’ in use of virus lockdown powers

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Exclusive: policing chiefs seek to set out legal powers forces have in coronavirus lockdown

Police chiefs are drawing up new guidance warning forces not to overreach their lockdown enforcement powers after withering criticism of controversial tactics to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Guardian has learned.

The intervention comes amid growing concern that some forces are going beyond their legal powers to stop the spread of Covid-19, with one issuing a summons to a household for shopping for non-essential items and another telling locals that exercise was “limited to an hour a day”.

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Extend Brexit transition by years over coronavirus, UK told

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European People’s party says it hopes ‘common sense will prevail over ideology’

The largest group in the European parliament has urged the UK government to do the “responsible thing” and extend the Brexit transition period, as coronavirus plays havoc with the timetable for an EU-UK deal.

The centre-right European People’s party (EPP), which unites the parties of 11 EU leaders, including Angela Merkel and Leo Varadkar, issued a statement on Monday calling on the government to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of the year.

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EU citizens in UK at risk of becoming illegal as coronavirus response prioritised

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Campaigners urge government to replace settled status process with guaranteed ‘right to stay’

Campaigners fear that EU citizens who have made their homes in the UK are at risk of becoming illegal as the government diverts resources to fight coronavirus.

Under current rules, all EU citizens have until June 2021 to apply for settled status. However, there are concerns that the pandemic will mean that the government support available to help EU citizens will reduce, and public awareness campaigns, designed to reach the most vulnerable people and those without an online presence, will be delayed.

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Up to six months to see if UK measures have ‘squashed’ coronavirus, says top health official – video

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The deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, has said restrictions could remain in place for up to six months, and that lifting them too soon would risk a second wave of infection. She said the current measures would be reviewed three weeks after implementation. ‘We actually anticipate our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two, and then we are looking to see whether we have managed to push that curve down and we start to see a decline,’ she said

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UK’s coronavirus lockdown will be in place for significant period, says Gove – video

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The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, has said the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain will depend on people’s actions. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show and that the lockdown would remain in place for a significant period

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Revealed: £1bn of taxpayers’ cash to help foreign countries buy British arms

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Campaigners say plan will end up fuelling conflict and human rights abuses

The government has quietly drawn up proposals to lend other countries £1bn of public money so that they can buy British-made bombs and surveillance technology.

The move has been attacked by arms-control campaigners who say that taxpayers’ cash may end up fuelling conflict and human rights abuses.

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Alister Jack is third UK cabinet member to self-isolate during Covid-19 outbreak

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Scottish secretary has not been tested for coronavirus but has mild symptoms

A third member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet is self-isolating after developing coronavirus symptoms.

Alister Jack, the secretary of state for Scotland, said he had not been tested for Covid-19 but had a temperature and a cough.

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‘There is a lot of Covid-19 in Westminster’: how politicians fell ill

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Were Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock practising what they have been preaching?

Prof Neil Ferguson was the first to sound the alarm – and perhaps provide a clue as to how the prime minister, the health secretary and the chief medical officer all became victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ferguson is the scientist whose research at London’s Imperial College led to the government’s dramatic pivot in its handling of the outbreak.

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Michael Gove: rate of coronavirus infection in UK doubling every three to four days – video

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Michael Gove has said the rate of coronavirus infections in the UK is doubling every three to four days. The Conservative politician gave the update during the government’s daily Covid-19 briefing after Boris Johnson was diagnosed with the virus

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Applause for NHS was bittersweet | Letter

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For Corinne Fowler, the clapping event transcended the bitter rows of the last few years, but also caused a pang of sorrow

The mass clapping event (Millions of Britons clap for carers on coronavirus frontline, 26 March) was bittersweet and loaded with irony. It was an unprecedented show of collective gratitude, inspired by a Dutch woman living in the UK, by a nation whose Brexit vote caused a shortage of medical staff as it sent EU citizens away. A clapping nation whose government created a “hostile environment” to banish the Windrush generation, who made vital contributions to the NHS.

I also thought of supermarket workers on low wages now risking life and limb, generally with no gloves or masks. There is little consideration for their safety. If it weren’t for them we would not be eating.

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‘I shook hands with everybody,’ says Boris Johnson weeks before coronavirus diagnosis – video

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Boris Johnson said he was shaking hands with coronavirus patients just weeks before he tested positive for Covid-19. The prime minister confirmed he had entered self-isolation on Friday 27 March. Early this month, he insisted that people would be 'pleased to know' that the virus would not stop him greeting hospital patients with a handshake

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