Category: Labour Party (UK)

Hammond under pressure for U-turn on self-employed National Insurance hike

Philip Hammond is facing growing pressure to back down on a A 2 billion National Insurance hike for the self-employed, as former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith added his voice to calls for a rethink of the move. In a round of post-Budget broadcast interviews, the Chancellor insisted that the decision – along with a cut in tax-free dividend allowances which will also hit the self-employed – was “fair and appropriate”.

‘I, Daniel Blake’ director Ken Loach on working-class feelings:…

British director Ken Loach has for 50 years been making lauded dramas rich in social realism that give dignity to the dispossessed. But his “I, Daniel Blake,” which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, has powerfully struck a nerve, tapping into the same working-class frustrations that are upending politics in Europe and the U.S. The film, which is now in limited release, has emerged as a kind of rallying cry, part film and part movement.

Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ emerges as a timely rallying cry

But his “I, Daniel Blake,” which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, has powerfully struck a nerve, tapping into the same working-class frustrations that are upending politics in Europe and the U.S. The film, which opens in limited release in North America on Friday, has emerged as a kind of rallying cry, part film and part movement. It’s about a man – a cheery, blue-collar bloke – who, after a heart attack, is told by his doctor he’s too sick to work.