24 September 2015
Week in Brief: UK
LABOUR: Major Labour donor, Assem Allam, who has given £720,000 to the party over the last five years, has offered to provide financial support for the formation of a new centre left party or to those Labour MPs who are prepared to defect to the Liberal Democrats. John Mills, Labour’s biggest individual donor, has also withdrawn his support for the party.
The new shadow Chancellor John MacDonnell has apologised for praising the IRA and for joking about the assassination of Margaret Thatcher. Meanwhile Mr Corbyn has now agreed that his party will campaign to stay within the EU but has undertaken to renationalise the railways despite the opposition of previous Labour rail minister, Tom Harris. Neale Coleman, previously an aide to Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, has been appointed as Mr Corbyn’s new director of policy and rebuttal.
SCHISM: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has called the heads of the various Anglican churches to a conference next January in an attempt to find a framework which will accommodate their differing views over issues such as homosexuality, where the belief of the Nigerian Church that it should be regarded as criminal stands in stark contrast to the appointment of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church of the US. The Archbishop’s idea is to avoid complete schism by promoting a looser structure under which the churches are more independent of each other but remain linked through their relationship with Canterbury. Out of the 800 bishops who should have attended the last Lambeth conference in 2008, 25% stayed away because of concerns that Dr Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop, was too liberal.
DIPLOMACY: The government is to give £1,500,000 to the Royal Shakespeare Company to translate the complete works of the Bard into Mandarin as well as providing it with a £300,000 grant for a tour of China next year. This is part of a cultural initiative which will include China being added to the itinerary for the British Museum’s exhibition “The History of the World in 100 objects”. The Tate Gallery and the Royal Opera House will also be involved.
BALANCE OF ECONOMY: according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics, the number of civil servants has shrunk to 398,000, the lowest level since the war. The drop of 140,000 over the last ten years has been counterbalanced by an increase in private sector jobs of 2.7 million. Figures also indicate that wages are now increasing at a rate of 2.9% per annum – the highest rate since 2009. Despite the good news, which has had the effect of strengthening the pound, productivity figures are still bad with the UK producing 20% less per hour than other G7 economies.
UNIVERSITIES: Under new guidelines to combat radicalisation, universities will be required to put in place policies to prevent hate speakers from speaking unchallenged and also to deal with gender separation at student events. It is no longer proposed that they should have to vet the contents of particular speeches in advance.
ROAD ACCIDENTS: Road accident figures for last year show a 5% increase, a reversing of the previous trend. Serious injuries among cyclists rose by 8%. A report by the RAC blamed reductions in funding and targets by local authorities, as well as increased distraction by gadgetry.
CABBIES: A meeting at London City Hall broke up in disorder when the Mayor, Boris Johnson, described cabbies opposing use of the Uber system as “Luddites”. Cab drivers are concerned that the technology threatens their livelihood because it enables other drivers to compete with taxis unfairly. The system is banned in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belgium. Two executives of Uber have been charged in France with illegally running a taxi service.
MURDER: Joshua Williams, who murdered a fifteen-year-old boy to steal his bicycle, is to serve at least twenty-one years. Although Mr Williams’s family, who are strong Christians, gave evidence on his behalf they declined to do so on oath.
DEMENTIA: Projections by the Office of National Statistics indicate that 27% of boys born this year and 30% of girls will suffer dementia. That is because increases in longevity have not been matched by improvements in dementia treatment. Charities concerned with the disease are calling for increased research and better funding.
BLACKMAN: The Ministry of Defence is to release its full report into the incident leading to the conviction of Sergeant Alexander Blackman for the murder of a prisoner in Afghanistan, to his legal team. Sergeant Blackman’s wife leads a campaign to have his conviction reduced to manslaughter.
MI5: Andrew Parker, the Director General of MI5, appeared on the Radio 4 “Today” programme in the first live interview given by the head of the agency. Amongst other things, he advocated the need for enhanced powers in order to monitor communications between terrorists.
CASH FOR QUESTIONS: The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has cleared Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw of impropriety after allegations made by Channel 4. The Commissioner was critical of the reporting of the conversations between the MPs and the undercover reporters used by Channel 4 and the Daily Telegraph.
ASIAN GIRLS: The Court of Appeal has been criticised for ruling that in sentencing a paedophile it was right to take into account the fact that the marriage prospects of his Asian victim would be damaged. Critics said that this undermined the level playing field between victims. However the Court seems to have done little more than follow current sentencing guidelines which provide for the judge to take into account the effect on the victim.
WEBSITE AD BLOCKERS: Ad blockers have now been installed by two in five people in the UK and some 200 million people worldwide. It is estimated that they will cost online publishers £14 billion a year in lost advertising revenue. As the fight between blockers and website hots up, the ad blocking app “Peace” has been withdrawn by its promoters and some websites now include software denying access to those with blockers in place. No doubt apps will soon be available to circumvent this. In the end the introduction of blocking is likely to reduce the number of free sites.
PIG OBSCENITY: Allegations by Lord Ashcroft and Isabelle Oakeshott in their book “Call Me Dave” that the Prime Minister was involved in obscene initiation rites for the Piers Galveston Club while at Oxford, have been undermined by the fact that he was not a member of that club. Mr Cameron has not responded to the allegations. The book, which appears to be designed to denigrate Mr Cameron, suggests that he knew that Lord Ashcroft had not given up his “non-domiciled” status when he appointed him to the House of Lords. That contradicts previous assertions by the government.
UNMARRIED PARENTS: According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, 47.6% of UK babies are born to unmarried parents. The highest incidence is in the Northeast and Wales where the rate reaches almost 60%. The rate in London is 36%.
EU REFERENDUM: It has been unanimously agreed by the board of the Conservative party that they will not endorse either the “in” or the “out” campaign.
HOSPITAL SHOPS: W H Smith is to review prices charged at its hospital shops to ensure that they are no more than 2% higher than those charged by its shops on the High Street. Retailers have blamed the high cost of operating in hospitals, largely costs imposed by the NHS, for the existing discrepancies.
VW: The scandal over the rigging of Volkswagen cars to pass emissions tests is likely to spill over into a general attack on diesel vehicles. In Britain, the Department of Transport has called on the EU to open an enquiry amid fears that other manufacturers may have perpetrated similar frauds.
RSPCA: Consideration is being given to taking away the power of the RSPCA to initiate prosecutions after allegations that four out of every five attempts to prosecute figures linked to hunting have failed. The charity was also forced to apologise for its treatment of a cat owner in Hertfordshire after allegations about cruelty to a cat, the Crown the Prosecution Service having to intervene to stop the prosecution.
CHESS: The new chess program, Giraffe, has achieved international chess master rating by mimicking the action of the human brain. This differs from previous programs which simply crunched a huge number of possible alternatives. The machine achieved its rating after playing for only seventy-two hours.
TENNIS: Britain, playing under the captaincy of Andy Murray, beat Australia to earn a place in the final of the Davis Cup where it will meet Belgium. Britain has not won the Davis cup since 1936.
RUGBY: England beat Fiji 35:11 in the opening game in the Rugby World Cup. In an unexpected victory Japan beat the Springboks 34:32.
