Tag: Featured

    Jim Fraser A tiny Scottish village is showing solidarity with EU nationals, who face an uncertain future thanks to Brexit. Jim Fraser, a 59-year-old market researcher who has lived in Pencaitland, East Lothian for around a decade, was in shock in June at the referendum result. Fraser, who is pro-EU and pro-independence, took his nine-year-old daughter Cissy to a pro-EU demonstration in nearby Edinburgh the day after the vote, where she carried a placard saying This Is Europe. He spoke to his French neighbour, who has lived in Scotland for 20 years, had three children there, and feared what Brexit would mean for her. Feeling the issue was still unresolved and under-discussed eight months later, Fraser set up a Facebook group at the start of March and circulated a statement ...

    Jeremy Corbyn was presented with an unexpected bonus in the shape of the chancellor’s confirmation, half an hour before PMQs began, of the government’s budget reversal on increased national insurance contributions for the self-employed. He accused Theresa May of leading a “government in chaos” having presented a budget that unravels in seven days. May said she didn’t usually heed lectures from Corbyn, but that when it came to chaos he’d be the first person I’d turn to. Corbyn suggested she should apologise for the stress caused to 4.8 million self-employed people in the UK and asked what measures she would take to fill the budgetary black hole following the NICs U-turn. Jeremy Corbyn stuck to his prepared questions when he should have focused on NICs. May responded with he...

    Philip Hammond is fighting to save his career after being forced into the most humiliating Budget U-turn in a generation. Theresa May scrapped the Chancellor’s headline policy a hike in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed after a backbench rebellion over what amounted to a broken manifesto pledge. Tory MPs said the fiasco had been hugely damaging to Mr Hammond’s authority, with one saying he was now on probation. With Mr Hammond now looking increasingly isolated from Number 10, a Conservative source said the Prime Minister had “dug her stiletto in and told him, We are reversing this – I don’t care how bad it is for you. Mr Hammond admitted in a letter to Conservative MPs that the NI rise had broken the spirit of the manifesto. He said: In light of what h...

Her Majesty's palatial pads The news that Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's London bolthole, is set to undergo a major makeover comes as no surprise. The crumbling palace hasn't been renovated since the 50s and is in dire need of a facelift. As UK taxpayers mull over the expense of the $456 million (£369m) 10-year refurb, which is scheduled to begin next April, we take you through the keyhole and into the Queen's official and private residences. Buckingham Palace The Queen's official London home dates from 1703 when the Duke of Buckingham built a fine townhouse in the capital's fashionable St James's district. The townhouse was acquired by King George III in 1761 and lavishly enlarged in the 19th century. Buckingham Palace The 830,000-square foot palace comprises a total of 775 rooms...