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| Monday March 5 2018 |
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By Matt Chorley
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Good morning,
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An unpopular and ill-suited politician called to serve as prime minister in the nation's darkest hour, who faces down a trouble-making foreign secretary to ultimately triumph against the odds.
Gary Oldman won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Churchill last night.
And Theresa May clings on, obviously.
- Red Box is a must-read in No 10, and across Westminster. Know someone who is missing out? Get them signed up today thetimes.co.uk/redbox
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Must reads
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- Theresa May protested to President Trump over his plans for tariffs on steel and aluminium imports amid warnings about the prospects for a UK-US trade deal.
- Sir Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky manipulated the anti-doping system by deliberately using medical exemptions to take banned performance-enhancing drugs before his 2012 Tour de France victory, according to an explosive report by MPs.
- Jamie Oliver has claimed the obese poor think “in a different gear” and lectures about healthy eating that follow middle-class logic will not help them.
- Stand aside for Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. As the kingdom’s new crown prince begins a state visit to Britain this week, Times2 asks: What do we know about him?
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Homes and the homeless
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"Sobering moment in governors meeting," wrote Sam Freedman at the weekend. "Girl turned up to school on Thursday despite it being a snow day. She didn't know because she'd been homeless since the weekend."
Freedman is not some Tory-bashing, virtue-signalling leftie trying to score political points. He was a Conservative special adviser to Michael Gove at education, before taking on running Teach First. He is also by his own admission a "serial trustee and governor". Which is how he found himself at a meeting on a Saturday.
"The thing that has always upset me most about Brexit," he added on Twitter. "Is that it sucks up all the government / media attention. So we're not discussing the rise in homelessness or child poverty, let alone doing anything about it.
"There are 400,000 more children living in poverty than five years ago. In some London boroughs over 50 per cent of children are now living in poverty. How many middle-class people know this is happening?"
There are many arguments put forward against Brexit, some more convincing than others, but one of the most compelling is surely the idea that this time, energy, money and sheer government power could be put behind addressing the big social problems we face.
Even if you believe that Brexit will help in the long term, those problems will remain at best at a standstill for the intervening years, and could worsen.
Not on my watch, says Theresa May, who will today have another go at making housing the "mission" of her premiership.
She tried to announce her plan to make "the British Dream a reality by reigniting home ownership" at the party conference in October but it got drowned out by the sound of coughing, comedians and letters clattering to the floor.
Today's speech will focus on changes to the planning system. Developers who are too slow to build houses could be refused planning permission for further projects. The changes would also allow more affordable homes to be prioritised for key workers such as nurses, teachers and firefighters.
The PM also urges Telegraph readers to drop opposition to new homes after the paper ran a campaign against planning changes, saying in a comment piece that she is "sure Telegraph readers will understand that we need to build more homes" for their families to live in.
Every government says it wants to tackle the housing crisis, every government falls short of its promise. The problem is that it covers everything from twenty-somethings who can't afford to buy the smart flat in central London that they'd quite like, to someone sleeping on the streets.
On the latter, Heather Wheeler, the new-ish housing minister, has made at least one promise she is able to keep.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour how she would feel if the problem of rough sleeping got worse on her watch, she said: "Well there are two answers to that: a) it won't and b) I'd resign."
Will the PM promise to do the same?
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Read the full story
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FRIDAY'S QUESTION: I asked you who was winning the Brexit negotiations so far. Three-quarters thought Brussels was on top. Full results here
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Today's cartoon from The Times by Morten Morland
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| Tweet of the day |
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We are on the losing side of almost all trade deals. Our friends and enemies have taken advantage of the U.S. for many years. Our Steel and Aluminum industries are dead. Sorry, it’s time for a change! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
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@realDonaldTrump
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Trading places
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Theresa May picked up the phone to Donald Trump yesterday afternoon and made clear she was not happy. The prime minister raised her "deep concern" at the president's threat to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imports. None of which bodes well for Britain being at the "front of the queue" for a UK-US trade deal.
It has also emerged that days before Trump announced the new tariffs, his friend Carl Icahn began to unload shares worth $31 million in a Wisconsin crane manufacturer whose business is heavily reliant on steel.
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Read the full story
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Pasty wars
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The US is lobbying for the UK to drop food name protections to sell ‘Cornish pasties’, the i newspaper reports on its splash today.
Although as my former Western Morning News colleague Graeme Demianyk, now working in New York, points out: "There is no such thing as a US 'Cornish pasty', however much heavy lifting ' ' is doing. God, I wish there was. If they mean empanadas ... well."
Which seems a good time to say happy St Piran's Day to everyone marking Cornwall's national day.
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Taking back (some) control
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Theresa May has suggested Britain’s future migration system will be a matter for negotiation with the EU, undermining previous promises to take back control. Read the full story
Oh and the City could still be bound by the EU cap on bonuses after Brexit. Read the full story
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Chart of the day
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Pay up baby boomers
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Everyone agrees that the NHS and social care need more money, but where should it come from? Lord Willetts, the former Tory minister, argues today that there is a straightforward choice: tax the wealth of baby boomers who have had it good through inheritance or property, or more aggressively tax the incomes of their children. He writes for Red Box ahead of a speech later.
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Read the full story
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Ones to watch today
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- Theresa May makes a Commons statement following her Brexit speech on Friday. Will all the talk of taking the heat out of a Tory rebellion prove right?
- A summit on safeguarding in the aid sector has been called today, after The Times exposed sexual misconduct by Oxfam staff. Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, will say British aid agencies must set new standards of good conduct for the rest of the world to follow. Read the full story
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Racist rethink
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Not before time, Labour appears to be having a rethink about its decision to appoint Munroe Bergdorf, a transgender model, as an adviser on equality issues, despite being sacked by L'Oreal for saying that “all white people are racist".
As I wrote in my Saturday column in The Times, in Labour’s game of virtue-signalling Top Trumps, “being trans” scores more points than “being racist”.
The double standards of the left are breath-taking. There is no pedestal high enough for Saint Jeremy. Well, I’ve got no time for the cant.
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Read the full story
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| Quote of the day |
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"I can't guarantee that. It is not in the bag, but it certainly could happen."
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Ed Miliband on Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM, GQ
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Ten commandments for robots
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Thou shalt not steal thy master’s job. Thou shalt not spy on them in their home. And thou shalt not overthrow humanity in a robot revolution.
A set of ten commandments to govern artificial intelligence and protect humans from murderous machines has been issued by the Right Rev Steven Croft, the Bishop of Oxford, who sits on the House of Lords select committee on AI.
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Read the full story
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Collaring Gove
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Michael Gove’s plan to improve animal welfare could cause some awkward moments around the cabinet table. The environment secretary wants to ban electric shock collars for cats and dogs but sources say that Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, uses them to save his two cats from being run over.
He will also have Quentin Letts, the Daily Mail sketchwriter to deal with: "If our terriers are, as a result, run over on the road by our house, I will deposit the corpses on Mr Gove's desk."
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Read the full story
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Parlamento appeso*
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*hung parliament
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Italy is facing a hung parliament and tough talks to forge a government after populist and hard-right parties surged in a general election last night amid rising anger over migration and Italy’s stuttering economy.
With around half of the votes counted early this morning, Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement was consolidating its position as the country’s biggest party with 30.7 per cent of the vote, while the anti-migrant Eurosceptic League stood at 18.8 per cent, a massive increase on the 4 per cent it took in elections in 2013.
The rightwing coalition backed by Silvio Berlusconi, which contains the League and the hard-right Brothers of Italy party, led voting on over 37 per cent of the vote according to the projection, short of the 40 per cent needed to form a working majority.
More throughout the day at thetimes.co.uk
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Read the full story
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Merkel's moment
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Angela Merkel will be proposed for a fourth term as German chancellor today after Social Democratic Party (SPD) members voted in favour of a new coalition with her conservatives.
Theresa May called Merkel yesterday to congratulate her, and say she looks forward to "continuing to work closely together".
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Read the full story
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Around the world
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CHINA: Almost 3,000 delegates gather at the opening of the two-week national people’s congress in Beijing, which will abolish the limit on President Xi’s term of office, freeing him to rule indefinitely. Read the full story
SYRIA: Thousands of people are fleeing their homes in eastern Ghouta as President Assad’s forces launch what appears to be a concerted attempt to stamp out the last rebel strongholds around Damascus. Read the full story
AUSTRALIA: The former deputy prime minister of Australia who was forced from office for getting an aide pregnant prompted a new row yesterday by suggesting in an interview that he may not be the father. Read the full story
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Also in the news
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- STUPID QUESTION: Should we permit child grooming, asks Facebook (The Times)
- BIG THAW: Misery continues as pipes burst and roads crumble (The Times)
- LOST AND FOUND: Home Office has lost hundreds of foreign criminals (The Times)
- TRAINING PLACES: Fears over apprenticeship targets as numbers fall (The Times)
- LIVING COSTS: Pay more and get less, Scottish councils tell households (The Times)
- SNOWED IN: Don't punish workers who took snow days, government minister tells employers (The Daily Telegraph)
- TUSK TASK: These MPs want the government to get on with the ivory ban before more elephants die (Buzzfeed)
- SPEND A PENNY: Home Office spends thousands of taxpayers money on ten gender neutral toilets for its staff (The Sun)
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What the papers say
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The Times
"The challenge for Mr Trump’s advisers is to disabuse him of a conviction, repeated in his tweets, that the US deficit is the result of “bad deals” made by earlier presidents. It is not. It is because consumers are drawn to foreign products if they are better or cheaper." Read the full article
The Guardian
"The succession of scandals requires immediate and concrete action to restore trust in two areas: the protection of vulnerable people, and evidence that aid makes a difference." Read the full article
Financial Times
"The experience of the cold war shows it should be possible to pursue dialogue in areas of mutual interest even if there is no hope of progress on difficult issues such as Ukraine and Syria. Mr Putin, however, is choosing to play on American fears about the loss of superpower status. The US must resist the urge to retaliate." Read the full article
The Daily Telegraph
"Donald Trump did not hide his protectionist instincts during the presidential election campaign of 2016. But to see his America First pledges translated into policies that may presage a global trade war still comes as a shock." Read the full article
The Sun
"The PM is right to demand that Britain’s financial services companies can continue to trade in the EU. And why wouldn’t Brussels want that, too? Europe’s businesses rely on the City. Companies based here put more than a trillion quid’s worth of lending into the Continent every year. It would be sheer madness for the EU to say no." Read the full article
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Agenda
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Today
- Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, speaks at an aid sector safeguarding summit.
- UK and EU officials meet for the latest round of Brexit negotiations in Brussels.
- Tax bands should be scrapped, according to a report by the IPPR think tank.
- The Department for International Development and the Charity Commission co-host an event on safeguarding in the charity sector.
- Michel Barnier meets Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Fein leader, for talks on Brexit.
- The digital, culture, media and sport committee publishes report on doping in sport.
- Westminster council holds an advice session for EU citizens concerned about Brexit.
- 9.30am David Willetts, the former universities minister, speaks on wealth taxation at the Resolution Foundation think tank.
- 1.00pm Stephen Lovegrove, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, addresses the Royal United Services Institute.
- 6.00pm: The Demos think tank launches a report on the rising tide of populist parties in Britain and Germany and the role of traditional media in populism.
House of Commons
- Defence questions
- Data Protection Bill [Lords], second reading
- Adjournment debate on the liquidation of DMB solutions (Caroline Lucas)
Westminster Hall
- 4.30pm Debate on e-petitions on: British Sign Language being part of the national curriculum; changes to car insurances.
Select committees
- 9.30am Public administration and constitutional affairs: Mike Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister, Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and Adam Tomkins, Scottish Conservatives, on devolution and exiting the EU.
- 4.00pm Housing, communities and local government: Rishi Sunak, the local government minister, on business rate retention.
- 4.00pm Public accounts: Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, and Sir Chris Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health, on sustainability and transformation in the NHS.
- 4.30pm European scrutiny: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, on EU withdrawal.
House of Lords
- 2.30pm Oral questions on air gun registration; GPs taking early retirement; sovereign green bond, and and women’s prisons.
- European Union (Withdrawal Bill) (Lord Callanan)
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