#british-politics

#british-politics

Trivial is the default mode of British politics.Whether or not the home secretary did ask civil servants and an aide to help her get out of a group speed-awareness course, and if she did, whether she was right to do so, is not the most urgent issue of the day.Yet, as MPs this week gathered round the Westminster village pump, it pushed immigration, the NHS, Ukraine and the G7 off the agenda.

The interesting thing about Boris Johnson's exit from parliament is not his statement, a thousand words from a psychedelic upside-down world in which everyone else is a liar and he alone tells the truth.Perhaps that'll come back to bite me: it could be important for the historical record.Right now, though, I'm struck by the new consensus that Johnson is an unlikable man, without friends or allies, whose only discernible mark on the universe is a trail of the betrayed and disillusioned.

Even as he departs Parliament as an MP, Boris Johnson continues to divide opinion through the nation's newspapers.While some bemoan the former prime minister's resignation, others welcome his departure but most agree he will continue to shape British politics for some time to come.Here, the PA news agency takes a look at how the nation's papers reacted to the news of Boris Johnson's resignation: The Daily Express declares his decision to quit means there is war in the Conservative Party and says the government will be stuck in zombie status.

Harrowdown Hill in Oxfordshire is the site where the body of Dr David Kelly was discovered in 2003.A public inquiry found that he had died by suicide.From 1991 up until the time of his death, Kelly had been a lead member of the scientific teams tasked by the United Nations with monitoring and removing Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability.

Dear home secretary, Today's Politico politics briefing alerts me to the fact that you're looking for help on LinkedIn.There have been 92 applicants so far, apparently.But I'm sorry, that help is me.For it has been my lifelong dream to play a front-seat role in the debasing of British politics and expanding the reach of extreme conservatism.

Six years ago, Jared O'Mara was seen as a breath of fresh air for British politics.You don't see people like me young, working-class lads with disabilities in parliament, but now you're going to, he said with understandable pride.Today, O'Mara's reputation is in tatters, his fall as spectacular as his rise.

2022 has been an extraordinary year for British politics, with three prime ministers, cabinet reshuffles, and resignations galore.But move away from the photo-op moment and look at the non-staged images as history unfolds, what does it tell us?Every prime minister faces a weekly grilling in the House of Commons - here, former PM Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to face MPs and the leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer.

The man behind the Secret Tory account on Twitter has unmasked himself as personal trainer Henry Morris.The parody account has built up nearly 200,000 followers since its launch in 2019, with its anonymous writer publishing a book last year.Followers have speculated that the person behind the account is a high-profile comedian or a real-life MP.

Albania's prime minister said he wants all Albanians in the UK to feel safe and honoured, after earlier criticising the Home Secretary's disgraceful rhetoric about migrants from his country.Speaking alongside Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Edi Rama said his visit to Downing Street is an opportunity to underline that just as all Britons are not James Bond or Mr Bean, not all Albanians are some characters out of Taken.

Boris Johnson knew the rules, broke them and lied about it.That much is not disputed.The former prime minister accepts that statements he made to the Commons about parties in Downing Street during the pandemic were false.He has a police record for attending illegal gatherings.As the prime minister who imposed social restrictions and explained them on television, he cannot plausibly claim to have been ignorant of what constituted a breach.

In a life-enhancing essay that confirms, if nothing else, that he would have been the all-time ideal dinner party guest, Robert Louis Stevenson writes that to talk with others about the affairs of the day is to bear our part in that great international congress, always sitting, where public wrongs are first declared, public errors first corrected, and the course of public opinion shaped, day by day, a little nearer to the right.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Northern Ireland on Thursday evening to meet with local political leaders, a sign that the U.K. and European Union may be nearing a settlement of the post-Brexit trade dispute that has brought economic headaches and political turmoil to the region.Sunak and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris are making the trip to talk with people on all sides of the issue and ensure any solution resolves the practical problems on the ground, meets our overarching objectives, and safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the U.K.'s internal market," the prime minister's office said.

The statistical football of this week was lobbed all the way from Washington.From its US headquarters, the International Monetary Fund predicted the UK would be the worst-performing major economy of the year, and the only one to plunge into recession.The news dominated BBC coverage and Westminster debate for the morning, a useful stick both to poke the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and to gauge the bleakness of the outlook.

Some 80 robberies a day were closed last year without a suspect being identified, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.The party said it had commissioned research showing 30,000 muggings went unsolved in 2022 across England and Wales.It accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of becoming embroiled in endless scandals while violent criminals are let off the hook.

Some 80 robberies a day were closed last year without a suspect being identified, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.The party said it had commissioned research showing 30,000 muggings went unsolved in 2022 across England and Wales.It accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of becoming embroiled in endless scandals while violent criminals are let off the hook.

Housing is always centre stage in British politics, usually in the form of support for first-time buyers, like right to buy.But Keir Starmer is making housebuilding a key pre-election dividing line, attacking Rishi Sunak for scrapping the government's 300,000 homes a year target for England and, more boldly, recognising that some development on green belt land will be required.

The Albanian prime minister has criticised the home secretary, Suella Braverman, calling the singling out of migrants from his country a disgraceful moment for British politics.Edi Rama, who is in Britain for talks with Rishi Sunak, said Braverman's comments last year about Albanian criminals crossing the Channel in small boats, could themselves be considered a crime.

Albania's prime minister has hit out at the disgraceful way migrants from his country have been singled out by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and other UK ministers for political purposes.Edi Rama, who is in Britain for talks with Rishi Sunak, said the row which erupted at the end of last year marked a very low point in relations but that he believes there is now a will to overcome their differences.

For a Brexit-minded MP, the parallels may seem striking: an electorally embattled prime minister trying to push through a controversial Northern Ireland deal in the face of Tory and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) scepticism.But one thing has changed: this is 2023, not 2019.Theresa May's struggles with Brexit, and her tumbling popularity with voters, led to her being forced out as prime minister by Conservative backbenchers.

Several months before Britain's 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, around the time that Boris Johnson came out in support of Brexit in a dramatic turn, a much lesser-known politician also declared his support.Rishi Sunak, who on Tuesday became prime minister, broke ranks with then-Prime Minister David Cameron, hailing Brexit as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our country to take back control of its destiny.

Ireland's prime minister said Saturday that the U.K. and the European Union are inching closer to agreeing on a deal to resolve a thorny post-Brexit dispute in Northern Ireland.Leo Varadkar told reporters that he believed an agreement may be possible within days.His comments came amid intense speculation that a breakthrough on months-long wrangling over the trading arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, is imminent.

A proposed meeting between King Charles and the president of the EU Commission just days before an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol has been cancelled at the last minute.Sources close to the palace said this was done for 'operational reasons' but the meeting was seen by some as an attempt by the government to politicise the monarchy.

Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands has said he believes a Russian spy tried to recruit him over a pint of beer in a London pub.The Cabinet minister said he met Alexander Kashitsyn who he now thinks was a secret agent at the Seven Stars pub in Fulham while he had been seeking election as Tory MP for the area almost 20 years ago.

Prime ministers came and went in 2022 as both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss departed from No 10 during a tumultuous 12 months in British politics.Partygate, local election and by-election losses, and a damaging confidence vote beset Mr Johnson before he resigned amid criticism of his handling of allegations against deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.

Labour immediately used Mr Biden's latest comments as further evidence of the damage the chaos of recent weeks has caused to the UK's reputation.Not for the first time, comments by a US president about British politics have caused problems for Downing Street.In a highly unusual intervention, Joe Biden said: I wasn't the only one that thought it was a mistake, when he was asked about Liz Truss's original economic plan.

The inventor of the flying shuttle, the 18th-century innovation that transformed textile production and helped Manchester earn the nickname Cottonopolis, actually came from Bury.By the late Victorian period, John Kay's home town and neighbouring Rochdale and Oldham were all renowned hubs of textile manufacture, while Manchester had become a globally important cotton trading hub.