28 July 2016
Week in Brief: UK
Government
BREXIT: At a meeting with Mrs May, President Hollande indicated that France will keep to the Le Touquet agreement under which British border police operate in Calais. While stressing that ties between the two nations would remain strong, he also said that Britain would have to choose between allowing free movement of workers from the EU and leaving the single market. Unlike Germany, which believes that Britain should take time before beginning exit negotiations, France believes that they should start as soon as possible.
The EU has appointed Michel Barnier as its chief negotiator in relation to Brexit. He will not become involved in negotiations, however, until notice is served under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty which is not expected until next year.
CRONYISM: Objections have been raised by the Cabinet Office to Mr Cameron’s nominations for new peers on the grounds that they focus too much on his friends and allies. The list will also be vetted by the Appointments Commission before it is finalised. Mr Cameron has been criticised for awarding outgoing aides severance payments amounting to six month’s salary. Resignation honours have often proved contentious in the past with both Harold Wilson and Tony Blair incurring criticism.
SAUDI ABUSE: Four written answers and two speeches by UK ministers indicating that Britain had taken steps to check that Saudi Arabia had not breached human rights in the war in the Yemen, have been withdrawn on the basis that no assessment was in fact made.
Opposition
LABOUR LEADERSHIP: Owen Smith, who is to challenge Mr Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour party, has appointed Neale Coleman, previously an aide both to Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, as his chief policy adviser.
Angela Eagle, who has withdrawn her leadership challenge to Mr Corbyn and now supports Owen Smith, has stopped holding public surgeries on police advice following threats and abuse.
A High Court judgement on whether the National Executive is entitled to allow Mr Corbyn to participate in the leadership elections without being nominated by 50 MPs, is expected today.
Labour now lags the government in the polls by 27 % to 42%.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES: Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the trade union Unite, has suggested that there is a secret service plot to undermine Mr Corbyn. Chris Williamson, also a Corbyn backer, has suggested that the rebel MPs are “sleepers” put in place by the Conservatives in order to stir up problems for Labour.
A statement by Mr Corbyn on Newsnight that, as a result of boundary changes, there would be a full selection process in every constituency, is being interpreted as a threat to remove dissident MPs. According to supporters of Mr Corbyn, however, he did no more than to explain the process through which Labour candidates are chosen.
Committees
BHS: The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, and Business Committee, have reported on the failure of British Home Stores, where the last branch shuts on the 20 August. The Committees were highly critical of Sir Philip Green, finding that he weakened the group by the payment of dividends to himself and his family before distancing himself from its collapse by selling it to Retail Acquisitions for £1. The report will add to pressure on Sir Philip to contribute to the £571 million pension deficit.
Health
GENERAL PRACTITIONERS: A survey by NHS England shows that 11% of patients failed to get an appointment with their GPs last time they tried. That translates to about 46 million occasions on which patients could not get access to a doctor. It is estimated that on 9.4 million occasions the patient ended up taking no medical advice at all. NHS England has promised additional doctors and pharmacists, with £2.5 billion more funding, by 2020.
NHS TRUSTS: Analysis by the Nuffield Trust indicates that NHS spending plans imply a saving of £1.6 billion this year. In an attempt to bring hospital deficits, which reached £2.5 billion last year, under control, regulators have asked a number of hospitals to put cost savings before efficiency targets.
CANCER: The Institute of Cancer Research claims that treatments for cancer fail to take into account the way in which tumours mutate to make them resistant to drugs. They predict that future treatments will be designed around the way in which the particular cancer might develop.
VITAMIN D: New guidance by Public Health England recommends that everyone in Britain should take 10 µg of vitamin D supplement to counter risks of heart disease, bowel cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rickets, all of which are increased by vitamin D deficiency. Apparently low exposure to sunlight, particularly in the winter months, makes it hard to ingest healthy levels of the vitamin although equivalent protection could be obtained by eating ten eggs, one salmon fillet or 2½ tins of tuna each day.
DEMENTIA: Research by Moorfields eye hospital indicates that eye examinations could give early warning of dementia because the layer of nerve fabric in the eye is thinner for those who do badly in reasoning and memory tests.
Armed Services
ATTACK ON MILITARY: An RAF serviceman was attacked while out running by two men of Middle Eastern appearance who tried to get him into a car. He knocked one down and escaped, as did the assailants. It is not yet clear whether a terrorist offence was contemplated.
MILITARY RECRUITMENT: A report by the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association External Security Team has recommended that the contract under which recruiting is delegated to Capita should be reviewed. The report doubts whether the army will meet its target of 30,000 part-time soldiers by April 2019. IT problems have meant that the army has had to send soldiers back to assist with recruitment, the very thing that the contract with Capita was designed to avoid.
SUBMARINE ACCIDENT: Britain’s most advanced nuclear submarine, HMS Ambush, has been involved in a collision with a merchant ship and is now undergoing damage assessment at Gibraltar. An investigation into the accident is being carried out.
Transport
HEATHROW: It is understood that the leaders of Richmond, Hillingdon and Wandsworth councils are prepared to mount a legal challenge should the government decide to expand Heathrow airport. Historically the Prime Minister has been opposed to a new runway at Heathrow, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, supports the alternative expansion at Gatwick. A report, commissioned by the government and published a year ago, came down firmly in favour of Heathrow. A decision is expected this autumn.
TRAINS: The row over the performance of Southern Region continues, with only 12% of trains on time on Tuesday 19th July. Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has demanded that the railway should be re-nationalised, but Govia Thames Link, who operate the franchise, blame force majeure, including a sinkhole, a signal failure, overcrowding at Brighton station and tracks buckling in the heat. They also blame industrial action by the RMT union in a dispute over whether conductors can open train doors.
VIRGIN TRAINS: The Rail Maritime and Transport Workers Union is to hold a ballot on strike action in relation to jobs and working conditions on the East Coast Line, a franchise now operated by Virgin. The action has been triggered by proposals for cost cutting although the company says that compulsory redundancies have been ruled out.
TICKETING: A report by The Times indicates that customers are not being told that they could reduce rail fares by buying separate tickets for different stages of their journey. Martin Lewis, founder of moneysavingexpert.com, said that this is anti-consumer and contrasts it with the energy industry where companies must advise consumers of cheaper alternatives.
Education
UNIVERSITY FEES: Three universities have indicated on their websites that they will be increasing their fees to £9250 a year from 2017/2018. This reflects official indications that universities which satisfy requirements as to teaching standards will be able to increase fees in line with inflation.
Media
DISCREDITED WEBSITE: Exaro, the website whose reporting was behind the now discredited investigation into high-profile politicians for paedophilia at Dolphin Square, has been shut down by the entrepreneur who had funded it. Although the editor, Mark Watts, had already been replaced earlier this month, it was too late to save the business. The editor of the BBC programme “Panorama” accuses the website of producing “wrongheaded” articles about paedophilia and having done substantial damage to innocent people as well as to victims of genuine abuse who saw their grievances turned into a “commodity”.
General
SPORTS DIRECT: Iain Wright, chairman of the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, has criticised treatment of staff at Sports Direct as being “closer to that of a Victorian workhouse than that of a modern, reputable high street retailer”, suggesting that either Mike Ashley, the founder, had turned a blind eye or that governance failures had kept him in the dark. Mr Ashley denied any knowledge of alleged incidents of sexual favours being sought in return for permanent employment contracts. He is putting together a plan to ensure that further mistreatment of staff does not occur. The Committee accused the employment agency, Transline, of deliberately misleading it and is considering whether it is in contempt of Parliament.
DOVER: Increased French security following the Nice attacks have caused chaos at Dover which the French authorities left seriously understaffed. Motorists queued for up to 15 hours at the weekend. The fact that at one stage there was only one French immigration officer on duty raised suspicions that the shortage was deliberate. M Berterand, the leader of the Calais region, commented that while the position was unacceptable it highlighted the fact that the Brexit vote would have consequences.
CYCLING: Britain’s Chris Froome won the Tour de France by more than four minutes. He has won it twice before.
CRICKET: England beat Pakistan at Old Trafford by 300 runs to level the four match series 1-1.
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