Ex-leader of the SNP, who has died at 69, described by Keir Starmer as a ‘monumental figure of Scottish and UK politics’
Politicians and commentators in the UK have been paying tribute to Alex Salmond after the death of the former first minister of Scotland on Saturday.
Keir Starmer called Salmond a “monumental figure of Scottish and UK politics”.
Continue reading...BBC journalist says ‘broadcast interviews matter for the health of our democracy’ after Liz Truss cancels one-on-one encounter
Politicians feel television and radio grillings are “all risk” with almost “no opportunity”, Nick Robinson has said after Liz Truss cancelled an interview with him at the last minute.
The Conservative leadership frontrunner was to be interrogated by the senior BBC journalist in a face-to-face interview due to be broadcast at 7pm on Tuesday on BBC One. However, she pulled out on Monday because she could “no longer spare the time”.
Continue reading...Latest updates: final two candidates exchange blows over plans for cost of living, levelling up and China
Starmer says Labour’s approach to levelling up will be based on a practical plan, unlike the government’s.
And he says he was impressed by the approach of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, whom he met in Berlin recently. Starmer suggests Britain could learn from the way new battery factories are located in poor regions in Germany.
There will be no magic money tree economics with us.
Continue reading...Businesswoman had made claims about journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by Jeffrey Epstein
Andrew Neil says he has launched legal action against Jennifer Arcuri, the US businesswoman and former lover of Boris Johnson, after she made claims about the veteran journalist’s inclusion in a contact book owned by the deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In a public spat that started with a disagreement over the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, Arcuri tagged the former BBC presenter in a now-deleted tweet that read: “Citation for @afneil: Not only is he a paid for pharma puppet but here he is on the pedo elite train. Everyone knows what happened on that plane.” Alongside were the hashtags #itsOver and #ticktock, a picture of Neil arm in arm with a woman, and a screengrab from Epstein’s address book purportedly showing Neil’s name.
Continue reading...Sources say presenter was in legal battle with rightwing channel’s bosses over his £700,000-a-year contract
When Andrew Neil took a leave of absence from GB News a fortnight after its 13 June launch, the rightwing news channel and its star presenter spent weeks insisting he was taking a long break to “recharge [his] batteries”.
The reality, sources have told the Guardian, is that rather than merely being on holiday Neil was locked in an increasingly fierce legal battle with the channel’s bosses from mid-July, with the station in turmoil as their lead presenter attempted to renegotiate and then exit a four-year contract believed to worth about £700,000 a year.
Continue reading...TV station also hit by internal dispute over its direction after Guto Harri dropped for ‘taking the knee’
Nigel Farage is to take centre stage at GB News in a victory for the rightwing faction at the beleaguered television channel. The former leader of Ukip is to host a nightly primetime show from Monday as part of a reboot of programming designed to attract more viewers.
The new channel is facing plummeting viewing figures and a split in management between those angling to keep broader-based regional news coverage and those planning to boost coverage of the “culture wars”.
Continue reading...Bart Simpson was a big fan, and the prank call has always been the curse of phone-in shows – as GB News discovered this week
Name: Prank calls.
Age: The oldest known dates from 1884, and involved telephoning undertakers in Rhode Island to summon them to the homes of not-dead people.
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