Tuesday, February 18

Day: January 9, 2018

Tory chairman defends Theresa May’s botched reshuffle
Featured, United Kingdom

Tory chairman defends Theresa May’s botched reshuffle

    Brandon Lewis, who is charged with overhauling the Conservative party’s organisation, insisted May was in control and had succeeded in bringing in new talent. He named Matt Hancock, the new culture secretary, Damian Hinds, the new education secretary, Caroline Nokes, an immigration minister and Claire Perry, a business minister, as signs that fresh faces would be seen around the cabinet table. However, the prime minister’s attempt to stamp her authority on her party was overshadowed by the botched changes at cabinet level, in which Jeremy Hunt refused to give up his job as health secretary and Greening refused to take the role of work and pensions secretary. Lewis told the BBC’s Today programme: In a reshuffle, personalities, people, roles do change. It is a shame ...
David Davis complaint about planning for no deal Brexit
Europe, Featured

David Davis complaint about planning for no deal Brexit

    The European Union has expressed surprise at David Davis’s complaints about its planning for a no deal Brexit given the scenario was first put forward by Theresa May. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Brexit Secretary said he would urge the EU to drop measures and guidance that could require UK companies to relocate to Europe or risk contracts being terminated in the event of no deal. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described Mr Davis’s moaning as extraordinary given the Government has set aside £3.7 billion to prepare to leave the EU without an agreement, and has repeatedly stated that no deal is better than a bad deal. And European Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a daily Brussels briefing: “We are somehow surprised that the United ...
Britain First deputy leader to face trial over anti-terror rally comments
Featured, United Kingdom

Britain First deputy leader to face trial over anti-terror rally comments

    The deputy leader of far-right group Britain First faces a spring trial in Belfast over remarks made at an anti-terrorism rally last summer. Jayda Fransen appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Tuesday on two hate charges related to a speech she made at a Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally in the city in August. The 31-year-old will go on trial on April 6, district judge Fiona Bagnall said. Britain First Deputy Leader Jayda Fransen leaving Belfast Magistrates Court where she faced charges related to comments made about Islam. She faces four unrelated charges after alleged threatening behaviour concerning remarks made on December 13 beside a peace wall dividing Catholics from Protestants in Belfast. The comments, about Islam, were posted on social media. ...
White House struggles to silence talk of Trump’s mental fitness
America, Featured

White House struggles to silence talk of Trump’s mental fitness

    The White House is struggling to contain the national discussion about President Trump's mental acuity and fitness for the job, which has overshadowed the administration's agenda for the past week. Trump publicly waded into the debate spawned by a new book, Fire and Fury Michael Wolff's inside account of the presidency over the weekend by claiming on Twitter that he is "like, really smart" and a very stable genius. In doing so, the president both underscored his administration's response strategy by being forceful and combative while also undermining it by gleefully entering a debate his aides have tried to avoid. Trump privately resents the now-regular chatter on cable television news shows about his mental health and views the issue as an invented fact and a joke...
May’s reshuffle could have been radical
Featured, United Kingdom

May’s reshuffle could have been radical

    For Westminster villagers, Cabinet reshuffles are like Christmas and Transfer Deadline Day rolled into one, with the minutiae of every promotion, demotion and gaffe feasted upon. It is true, the wider public won’t care whether or not David Lidington’s move to the Cabinet Office makes him de facto First Secretary of State, or about how many minutes Chris Grayling was named party chairman before the mistake was rectified. But what the public will notice are the broad brush impressions that are left by what should be a set-piece moment for any Prime Minister. Which begs the question, what is the big visionary message that Theresa May is hoping to get across to voters particularly those who deserted her party on election day last June from what was billed as her widest...