Sinn Fein has overtaken its unionist rivals to become the largest party at local level in Northern Ireland for the first time. The Irish nationalist party, which wants to leave the UK and form a united Ireland, had already made a historic victory in last year’s Northern Ireland Assembly election. Sinn Fein also leads opinion polls in the Republic of Ireland ahead of national elections due in 2025. The polls saw the cross-community Alliance Party make limited gains, while hardline Traditional Unionist Voice failed to repeat the surge in its votes at the regional level.
A letter to The Telegraph has expressed concern that Sir Keir Starmer's call to broaden the electorate might lead to Labour removing the vote from British citizens aged over 75, in an effort to reverse Brexit. The suggestions follow Sir Keir's support for granting the vote to both 16 and 17-year-olds and EU nationals resident in the UK. Terry Smith from north-west London argues that it would be absurd to remove the vote from elderly citizens on the grounds that they would not live to experience decisions about Brexit. Similarly, other letters were written arguing either for or against the increasing of the UK's population, the effect of LED lights on drivers and support for reparations to those impacted by slavery.
UK vineyards can potentially gain £180m from the scrapping of European Union (EU) regulations planned under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, according to Environment Secretary Therese Coffey. The abandoned regulations include some that affect UK winemakers, such as restrictions that prevent vineyards from producing new blends and a requirement for certain sparkling wines to have mushroom stoppers and foil caps. Packaging requirements, which vineyards find costly and unwieldy, will also be lifted. A consultation will precede the implementation of the removal of all regulations selected for scrap.
New estimates from the UK's Office for National Statistics due on Thursday are expected to reveal a new record high of at least double the previous level for net migration to the country. Some advocates for Brexit and opponents of high migration feel betrayed by the rarity of such preliminary measures by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to slash net migration. Instead, Sunak has shifted towards tackling chaos in the asylum system and reducing the number of people arriving via small boats. Post-Covid immigration will see a surge in international students and those with British National status in Hong Kong. Surgeon inflows from Ukraine have also led to an uptick in migrants.
Former Olympic rower James Cracknell is among those emerging as a 'hungry and ambitious' new breed of Conservative MPs, according to the Daily Telegraph. Cracknell, who has his sights set on the watery constituency of Henley-on-Thames, has set his sights on the UK’s obesity crisis. He takes his inspiration from his mother, Jennie who retired after working as a physio in hospitals in Sutton and Chertsey. “My personal motivation has been about public health and preventative healthcare. My mum worked in the NHS. I believe for the benefit of the whole society, the NHS needs to shift focus to actually stop people getting ill and that involves spending to save and it’s going to be a generational change, not within a five-year term.” Cracknell is under no illusions about the difficulty of winning a constituency seat and believes it is a highly competitive field.
Brexit will allow UK consumers to have a greater range of cheaper wines following planned relaxation of EU regulations on costs and bureaucracy for the wine sector. The changes will enable Protected Designation of Origin wines to use a wider range of vines, and will allow imported wine to be blended, carbonated, sweetened and de-alcoholised. Labelling will also be simplified. The reforms will generate a £180m ($234m) boost to the industry, according to the government. A consultation on the proposed changes will take place shortly.
A candidate with a minority of highly energised supporters could win the London mayoral election next year if the left-wing vote is split, according to an editorial in The Telegraph. The newspaper claims that Labour’s Sadiq Khan, standing for an unprecedented third term, is a “dismal mayor” who is deeply unpopular as a result of his expansion of the Ulez (Ultra-Low Emission Zone). From August, cars that don’t meet strict pollution limits will have to pay a daily £12.50 fine, which could penalise some of the capital’s poorest residents. Half of Londoners believe that Khan isn’t up to the job and the outer boroughs are protesting the new measures. Tories should choose a mayoral candidate who campaigns on issues that matter to voters, such as poor services and high crime, as well as opposition to Ulez expansion.
Supermarket bosses fear they will face having to place “not for EU” labels on individual packs of food, cases and supermarket shelves under post-Brexit plans, which follow discussions with officials. Some fear that millions of shelf edge labels may have to be replaced, although government officials are expected to publish guidance on labelling shortly. “Not for EU” labels will be phased in from October on meat and dairy goods under the Windsor framework designed to ensure the same goods are available in shops across the UK. The British Retail Consortium has warned that traders do not have “sufficient detail” about requirements.
UK carmakers warn that they are not ready for the "rules of origin" requirements for electric vehicles set out in post-Brexit trade agreements between the UK and the EU. From 2024, EVs traded between the UK and the EU must have 45% of their parts sourced from either region or face 10% tariffs. Carmakers may not be able to meet this requirement due to problems caused by the domestic supply chain and market competition. The UK currently lags behind Europe's 30 planned battery gigafactories and its electric automakers cannot rely on political help from Westminster.
Vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, Professor Colin Riordan, has stated that changes to research and innovation funding post-Brexit could negatively impact on the “economy of the future”. Prof Riordan has called for an “imaginative approach” to funding and warned that products such as electronic devices could be affected without guarantee as to innovation investment. It is expected that upcoming evidence provided by four Welsh university vice-chancellors to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee will address 60 large-scale projects in Wales due to be affected by expiring funding from 2014-2020. The average Welsh university receives 15-20% of its funding from the EU.
Michelle O'Neill, Vice President of Sinn Fein, has called on both the British and Irish governments to deliver a plan to restore the Stormont powersharing institutions. Her party delivered a stunning success in the council elections, becoming the largest party in local government in Northern Ireland for the first time. Ms O'Neill said there now needed to be an urgent meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to plot a route to restore the Assembly. The DUP has reinforced its position as the dominant force in unionism by winning 122 seats, the same number as in 2019. The cross-community Alliance Party increased its representation on councils by winning 67 seats, an increase of 14. It was a disappointing election for the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, with both parties suffering significant losses. The challenge for unionist parties is the low turnout of voters, with only 44% of the vote in 2019 compared to 39% this election.
Jeremy Hunt's recent article condemning the "insidious declinism" of former optimists has been met with criticism from some readers. They argue that the government itself is responsible for the shift in national pessimism, pointing to issues such as housing, immigration, energy, and taxes. Hunt's statement that Conservative governments always make the "tough decisions necessary to put the economy back on track" is challenged by some, who feel that the current socialist government in power has failed in this regard. Readers also suggest that Hunt's own involvement in the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic and his role in the Treasury have contributed to declining optimism, with high taxation and regulatory red tape stifling economic growth. Similarly, Rishi Sunak's comments that people no longer judge others by their bank account to some ring hollow; one reader argues this emphasises how little he understands about poverty in the country. Meanwhile, a group of current students at the University of Oxford declared their support of the invitation to Professor Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical feminist philosopher, to a university event, arguing that free speech is key to the institution's heritage.
UK trade minister Kemi Badenoch is heading to the Middle East this week to continue discussions on a trade deal with the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Badenoch's visit will take her to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with meetings with politicians and business leaders. Trade talks between the UK and the GCC began last year, with three rounds so far concluded.
UK food prices are around 19% higher than a year ago, pushing a typical £50 ($70) grocery bill up to roughly £60, with overall food production costs eye-wateringly high, says the BBC. Issues include the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which pushed up grain, fertiliser and sunflower oil prices; energy prices, which affected retailers who did not have similar access to government support as households; the impact of the UK's increased minimum wage and Brexit-induced labour shortages as well as the growing cost of living. One key problem for the food chain is that profit margins can be very slim; the study for food alliance Sustain found that most of the cost of a £2.50 piece of cheese came from retailers' and processors' overheads. While profit margins for processed food and drinks can be 15%, overall supermarkets make an average profit of 5% on each £1 of goods sold.
The success of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the country's recent presidential election has challenged conventional political wisdom that under-performing incumbents will always "face electoral nemesis." Erdogan and other leaders, including Russia's Vladimir Putin and India's Narendra Modi, have appealed to citizens who feel threatened by the changes to the economy, technology and social mores that have accompanied globalisation, and who long for the stability and glory of the past, according to Bloomberg Opinion's Pankaj Mishra.
Net migration to the UK could rise above 700,000 for the year ending December 2022, up from 485,000 in the year to June 2021, according to independent analyses by think tanks Migration Watch UK and the Centre for Policy Studies. The predictions follow the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election commitment to decrease migration, while the UK prime minister Boris Johnson is believed to have called at least one minister to instruct them not to repeat the pledge, according to unnamed senior figures from the party’s campaign. Migration numbers have reportedly increased as successive governments’ have removed levers on immigration, analysts have said. For instance, since 2019, growth in the number of UK work permits issued has been driven by applications from Nigerians and Indians, with student visa growth seeing sharp rises among Bangladeshis, Nigerians, and Indians.
The prevailing culture of subservience and powerlessness in British businesses benefits only shareholders according to doctoral student Daniel Chandler. Chandler claims that workplace democracy benefits both companies and employees at all levels and proposes that UK businesses allocate half their board seats to worker reps, something already established in Germany and France. Anti-establishment sentiments could be ameliorated by empowering workers, said Chandler. He recommends laws to limit the size of cooperative organisations to ensure worker investment remains and calls for a debate about power in UK companies. Chandler's ideas have been endorsed by figures such as economists Thomas Piketty, Amartya Sen, and Sir Angus Deaton.
China's Cyberspace Administration has banned US semiconductor company Micron in its technology battle with the United States. The state cyber agency claimed that Micron's components posed significant security risks to China's critical information infrastructure supply chain, thereby affecting national security. The US Commerce Department responded by saying that there was no basis in fact for Beijing's claim and that it would continue to try to limit industry disruptions with its allies. Micron has yet to identify the products that have been barred. China has previously blacklisted US technology companies, cut off the flow of processors and barred Americans from helping the Chinese chip industry.
Pay for staff working in UK restaurants and pubs has increased at a faster rate than the national average as curbs on immigration introduced since Brexit and near-full employment put pressure on the hospitality sector. Pub wages were reported to have grown by 11.3% in the sector, compared with an average increase of 9.5%, according to research by online headhunter Caterer.com. The report also revealed that more than 1,700 jobs offering salaries of at least £50,000 ($66,640) a year were being advertised in the sector.
The Group of Seven (G7) announced a 1,600-word statement on economic security covering trade-distorting subsidies, cybertheft, and more. The statement indicated the G7 would use early warnings and rapid information sharing and explore "co-ordinated responses" to counter economic coercion, according to the FT's Alan Beattie. However, further action will not be automatic and leaves participating countries to uphold their "respective legal systems" to counter economic coercion. The announcement serves as a rhetorical commitment to support countries affected by coercive trade blockades. Nevertheless, Australia's response to Chinese trade embargoes may be an effective strategy as companies' primary tactic was to adjust and not make noise or show weakness.
