UK Politics

[Dong Zhou]

-Lord Young defends Whitehall objectivity

-NHS head Simon Stevens has invited Trump to see NHS for himself

-Unhappiness at immigration Whitepaper being delayed

-Zac Goldsmith shares a death threat to 80 year old by Remainers. Cowards

-DUP says still significant gaps with Sinn Feinn

-Northampton MP's asking for government to intervene on the council, Hollobone and Ellis clearly not fans of the council leadership

-New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern say free trade deal with UK is a significant priority

-Rudd says she is sympathetic to calls, like from Ruth Davidson, to pardon jailed suffragettes but she warns it is problematic due to things like arson (Labour says they would give blanket pardon, Caroline Lucas says pardoning them forgets their bravery), Soubry is being characteristically robust in a high tempered debate

-Centenary of women getting the vote

-Government to review sustainability of the press and how to deal with clickbait

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-Soubry says May should show a spin and remove 35 hardline Brexiteers (this is going too far), willing to leave if Boris and Rees-Mogg lead party, all her suggestions have been dismissed due to the Brexiteers, these Brexiteers have taken down the last two Tory PM's. Lord Lamont suggests she has a habit of going over the top and done so here

-Farron disagrees with May's Brexit stance

-MEP Steven Wolfe says Brexiteers must unite to stop the Remainer betrayal of Brexit

-Been noted Farage says NH was being destroyed by migrants before Trump tweeted his attack on NHS

-MSP James Dornan first to throw hat in to replace Robinson

-Rees-Mogg says EU could harm City of London with directives during transition, he has summoned his group for a meeting pre May's Brexit cabinet

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-Kuessenberg on a big week for Brexit and anniversary of women getting vote and what more needs to be done

-Behr on Brexit purists

-Stephen Glover says Whitehall is overreacting, it does have it's biases

-Brendan O'Neill (sun) wants universities to stand up to students and protect free speech

-Gabby Hinsliff warns Soubry wrong to suggest Rees-Mogg and co are not proper Tories

-Aine Lagan calls May a feminist icon

[Dong Zhou]

PMQ's: May deals with heckle by pointing out Tories brought in true universal suffrage, Corbyn does a little piece on it being the ordinary women suffering and campaigning who led to votes for women but focusing on working class women might have been an error. Corbyn says crime rising s does PM regret police cuts, May says crime is down to record lows and protecting police budget, Corbyn says recorded crime and violent crime is up wile budgets cut then quotes inspectorate warnings about neighbourhood crime. May says reported crime is about reforms to get crimes recorded and says budgets have been protected, quotes former Labour minister who says police could have 10% cut but ignores quote. Corbyn points to flaws in recording and quotes another chief constables due to cuts of police support staff making people feel unsafe, May says she pushed through reforms on recording crime and extra money made to police, gives general defence of what she has brought in for police and the crimes she has got taken seriously. Corbyn says she should act on report about unrecorded crime, that May is failing on first duty of PM of safety and quotes Philip Davies (who quips about being quoted by Corbyn) before going on guncrime and again chief constable saying he doesn't have resources to fight it. May again says increasing police budgets and points (without backing up) Corbyn's record on police powers, Corbyn quotes policeman on police cuts and loss of other public services like youth and probation are adding to strain on police. May points to areas she has tackled and then launches into a wider attack on Corbyn's record on law and order. Corbyn doesn't have a strong defence on his record but talks of need for rehabilitation and goes on cuts, crime can't be stopped on cheap. May goes for strong economy and quotes McDonnell adviser of danger of Labour

Corbyn lacked incisiveness but wins by being able to quote police head after police head complaining about resources and cuts works in providing a theme, one decent section on cut to prevention. May never really got to grips with the attacks, she ignored the quotes given against her and can't talking about protecting police budgets without a strong defence of that while her counter-attacks lacked punch, worrying for Tories to struggle on law and order. Blackford welcomes RBS agreeing to limit bank closures which he puts down to communities and SNP while saying May did nothing, May says commercial decision but asks why SNP fail on broadband to rural community, Blackford calls it pathetic and ignores the attack before going into Wapsi women, May defends the reforms of pensions to equalize the pension and taken action to help Wapsi ladies. Felt Blackford failed there

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-Carillion bosses do not fare well before Committee

-Baroness Evans says she backs a full decant

-Victoria Atkins has left twitter due to abuse and death threats. Wouldn't it be nice if we were a civilized country where I didn't mention these things because people could behave like adults?

-MP's wore purple and green of the suffragette's

-Abbott disagrees at May's approach to handling online abuse

-Leaked papers suggest EU wants ability to suspend some UK privileges of single market if there is a long running dispute, UK would be consulted about fishing quota's. Bernard Jenkin says this shows EU is scared of UK being a success

-May concerned at public debate coarsening

-MP's looking at how to allow domestic abuse victims anonymity on electoral register for more then 12 months

-Carl Sargent's son Jack elected to Welsh Assembly

-Carwyn Jones forced to apologize to Plaid Cymru AM Adam Price after criticising Price for not turning up to consultation when Price had

-Public accounts committee concerned at how slow Whitehall and government have been in getting country prepared for Brexit

-Parole Board chair Nick Hardwick says they have failed to explain to public what they actually do and wants more freedom to give more transparency on decisions

-Gauke says way of informing victims was correct in process but they will look to improving process

-Convey hopes UK drops it's current Brexit red lines

-House prices down

-Concerns that SPD seem set to get control of the German finance ministry and the foreign ministry.

-DUP demand a "no surrender" policy to EU

-Labour MP Hugh Gaffney apologises for homophobic and racist remark (aimed towards Chinese) over Burn night remarks and being sent to diversity training

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-Lamb concerned at police keeping mugshots

-Ken Clarke says majority of Tory MP's support staying in customs union

-Lord Adonis slams Grayling

-Tugendhat with an interesting (and long) speech on markets

-Dennis Skinner doesn't seem overly impressed by Bercow congratulating him on birthday

-Farage compares proposed transition deal to Vichy France

-Rees-Mogg says university incident looked worse then it was, didn't mind the heckling but got concerned at first the masks and then a woman being hit

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-Hardman bemoans gender whatabouttery

-Virginia Crosbie on Women2Win

-Iain McWrighter on online nastiness and May going wrong way about dealing with it

-Mark Wallace bemoans rail firms damaging privization

-Badisha scorns pardon for suffragettes and says a lot still to be done

[Dong Zhou]

-Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary, leading review of government spending

-Someone has leaked the regional Brexit forecasts (BBC has them in the article that was meant to be for MP's only. If you live in a Brexit voting area: your screwed. Government may point to this next time MP's ask for such information.

-Government looking at tax loophole for holiday homes

-University minister Sam Gyimah fears intolerance of social media is spilling onto campuses

-Commons Environment Committee looking at fur trade and fake faux fur increase

-May and Hammond meet Japanese investors but Koji Tsuruoka, the Japanese ambassador to the UK, warns they will be unable to stay if UK becomes unprofitable, car manufactures expect free access to EU markets but Japanese firms love working in UK.

-Interest rates unchanged at 0.5% but could rise higher then expected in near future, ups growth forecast for year to 1.8%.

Carney says trade is at a sweet spot but investment held back by Brexit leading to shallowest recovery in 50 years, there isn't much spare capacity so there will be monatry tightening , wages will pick up, people reacting to squeezed incomes rather then Brexit, interest rates won't return to 5% of old, reporting gender pay gap is important (but his talk of need for diversity undermined by Bank of England's own poor record), forecasts need to show their modelling. Quipped “We’ve been making the case [for pickup] for some time. The economy just didn’t co-operate.”

-Nicky Morgan not pleased that government is not willing to publish it's Brexit paper for finical services

-Worst waiting times at major A&E for any January

-Alan Cairnes did his speech in Welsh

-Corbyn hopes for strong action on racism at world cup

-McVey has asked the National Audity office to have a look at Motability

-Culture Committee session with social media heads is first to be broadcast from outside UK (Washington university hosting it)

-Russian embassy tweets "A Russian company spends 72p on Facebook ads: interference, hybrid war, parliamentary inquiry
Soros spends £400K on bringing down UK Government: nothing to worry about"

-Hollyrood not happy that they got Brexit impact papers a day before recess, at very short notice and under heavy conditions

-David Davis says EU paper on transition uses discourteous language and is an act of bad faith, Brexit Comitee was very constructive and solved a lot of issues

-MP's concerned at Melrose takeover bid for GKN


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-John Humphies not pleased when Jo Swinson took him to task for his remarks on Carrie Gracie

-Humza Yousaf says Hugh Gaffney should be suspended

-Rees-Mogg says MP's can't complain about noisy protest given how loud Commons is

-Stephen Hammond backs joining EFTA

-Lord Digby Jones says it is becoming clear no deal is better then bad deal

-Lord King fears debts will lead to next finical crash

-Aaron Banks and Leave.EU urges Kippers to join Tories to shape history

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-Bush wants papers to publish offensive remarks that get people suspended or fired and Rees-Mogg is a genuine contender for power

-Behr says Telegraph has inadvertently fanned the flames of anti-Semitism with handling of Sors story

-Ross Clark on Carney's comments and Brexit forecasts

-Dulcie Lee on what happens when a council runs out of money

-Mark Wallace concerned at local tax rises

[Dong Zhou]

-MP's furious that Bermuda would axe same sex marriage and want government to withhold assent which may not be within government power

-Commons communities and local government committee wants more help for elderly to get and keep housing

-Some unease at the conspiracy way Telegraph/Nick Timothy has reported Soros donating to a Remain group but Mail joining in with conspiracy talk

-95% of councils say they will raise taxes and 93% raise fees on services they provide

-Trinity Mirror buys the Express group

-Barnier warns UK has raised major issues with EU positions, some of which the EU will not move on and so he warns transition deal is not inevitable.

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-Hancock and Brennan having fun with Matt Hancock app

-Italian MEP Roberto Gualtieri, on EU's Brexit steering committee, doubts UK will have to follow new rules during transition

-Jeremy Lefroy says TV (which he doesn't have), social media and video games are stopping family time and recommends Bananagram as a family game

-Caroline Lucas happy with the cross party report on sexual harassment

-Cardiff Central AM Jenny Rathbone says Carwyn Jones could be replaced this year

-Craig Mackinlay wants a lottery to fund a Royal yacht

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-John Pienaar Brexit can kicked down road

-Bush on the Soros story

-Hardman on local government funding problems

-Anoosh Chakelian spots a flaw in Westminster abuse reforms, Hardman welcomes the training

-Forysth argues government must accept it is party of Brexit and set out vision

-Anthony Browne (sun) on what Brexit could allow government to do

-Ross Clark says demand for government to intervene in Bermuda is an insult to democracy

[Dong Zhou]

-Barnier says he is struggling to understand UK position and is full of contradictions like UK saying there needs to be a way of resolving disagreements then crying foul when EU proposes one, leaving single market and customs union means border checks for Ireland

-Davies says businesses need two years of transition of same terms as now to adjust for Brexit

-A sense we are closer to a Stormont deal but Sinn Feinn will be allowed to transition leadership, smaller parties making clear they feel it is two party talks at moment and they are powerless till it gets widened. May and Vardaker have indicated willingness to come over if would help

-Government promises MSP's have weeks with Brexit papers but the conditions (booking then has to be with UK official) has still left Holyrood feeling slighted

-Dfid looking at it's work with Oxfam after recent scandals with Morduant requesting a meeting

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-Lord Adonis says Cambridge vice-chancellor Stephen Toope should "go home" as British would be willing to take post for less money. One can protest about the wages (350k) but go home?

-Larry the cat snubs Kazuo Okamoto, chief executive of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Europe

-Tobias Ellwood says the recent captured ISIS "Beatles" should go to Hague rather then Guantanamo

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-Bush on Ireland showing Tories living in a Brexit fantasy world

-Forsyth (sun) Brexit cabinet and where we might be headed, Boris reaching out, Ben Bradley

-Paul Barnes suggests we copy French health system

[Dong Zhou]

-Belief that May will make Brexit speech in three weeks with cabinet ministers acting as a build up with Boris starting it on Wednesday but noted Hammond (and Rudd) not speaking

-Morduant says charities will lose funding if they don't cooperate on safe guarding

-McDonnell says taking utilities back into public hands would cost nothing as would borrow to buy, use revenue to cover repay that borrowing while government bonds could be swapped for shares. Also announces working group on how to improve and create co-op's.

-Dr Fox (sun) defends Brexit

-Boris meets government of Bangladesh, praises their work on refugees and declares that Myanmar must find a safe and dignified way for Rohingya Muslims to return

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-Rawnsley urges Commons to seize control of Brexit

-Nick Cohen on Brexit extremism

-Karen Brady (sun) on feminism

-Peter Hitchens says we have equality and rails against praise of suffragettes

[Dong Zhou]

-McDonnell says election would be better then referendum as would decide several issues rather then divisive Brexit

-Boris suggests Myanmar's leaders don't comprehend the full scale of Rohingya refugee crises

-BBC Reality Check on how much aid money goes to Oxfam

-Retail spending in January falls for first time in five years

-Ian Blackford not running for SNP deputy leadership

-Haiti’s ambassador to the UK,Bocchit Edmond, asking for the Oxfam names while Labour and Tories raising questions about Charity Commision

-Patel warns aid scandal may be worse then we think and aid agencies are in denial, accuses Whitehall of ignoring her concerns about this in past (that is being investigated but Whitehall does point to the reforms she put in place on the issue). Andrew Mitchell says Oxfam only gave him partial accounts of the story when he was at Dfid

-Hammond to tour capitals of Europe

-Downing Street indicating it will not cut aid budget but there will likely be pressure from press and some of May's MPs to do just that

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-Henry Bolton expects to win leadership vote, indicates he still loves Jo Marney

-Soubry doesn't think May has majority for kind of Brexit she wants

-David Davies (the Welsh one) and Carolyn Harris say abuse of MP's has got worse

-Nicky Morgan backs lowering voting age

-Marr caught giving Morduant thumbs up for her skill during interview

-Soros says, due to the right-wing media attacks on him, he will give more money to Remain groups

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-D'Ancona worries for the future of British aid to the world's poorest

-Toynbee on Ireland issue will ensure soft Brexit and a list of bad Brexit news

-Kevin Maguire uses HMRC "what your tax was spent on" to show low cost of EU and aid

-Trevor Kavanagh (sun) thinks the big charities face downfall

-Bush says Tories have wrong strategy for culture war

-Shaista Aziz on her time working in aid sector

[Sun Fin]

Just because a charity has been proven to not be perfect doesn't mean we should stop giving, it just means we need to reform the system.

[Dong Zhou]

Just because a charity has been proven to not be perfect doesn't mean we should stop giving, it just means we need to reform the system.

There are some that just disagree with the 0.7% aid target and some that have wider issues (bias, the holier then thou attitude so and so forth) with the sector and wouldn't mind it being hit. I wouldn't stop the 0.7 target, might not wish for Oxfam to get government funding till it reforms and takes full responsibility

Morduant has basically used the money threat to force Oxfam to conform and accept the reforms she demands.

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-Government unveils extremist content blocking filter

-Business Committee says not impressed by energy industry and wants price cap brought forward, expects whines but they have failed their customers and brought this on themselves

-Equalities Committee looking at non-disclosure agreements as part of their sexual harassment inquiry, Transport Committee looking at the ending of East Coast Mainline franchise

-Business Minister Andrew Griffiths is in charge of shared leave but he can't take it

-Leadsom gets death threat from Remainer. Hope the pathetic being is found

-Plans to increase Welsh Assembly has been put to public consultation

-Some unhappiness for what Labour considers eligible for equality conferences ie "self define" as women, LGBT+, BAME or disabled

-Sense there will be a fudge of three acts for Irish Language and some measure will be taken to get gay marriage issue through Stormont

-Commonwealth reviewing it's procedures with rumours it is considering who replaces Queen as it's head

-Inflation remains at 3%, was expected to dip slightly, petrol went down but recreational activists kept inflation up. House prices up 5.2%

-DUP base does not see happy at the rumoured compromises on Irish language and Forster has called May's visit a distraction.

- Lady Usher of the Black Rod given her staff of office by Queen

-Harmless white power sent to Palace of Westminster

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-UKIP chair Paul Oakden resigning after weekend's leadership vote, had planned to do it earlier but Bolton had asked him to stay on

-Redwood has questions for forecasters

-Jo Johnson says Transport Department looking at bidding process to prevent future overbidding

-Rees-Mogg not happy with Tory HQ to give local members less say on MP selection

-Lord Hague warns against cutting aid due to Oxfam scandals

-Lib Dems want full inquiry into aid sector

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-Bush on the lessons forgotten about the polls already

-Katy Balls looks to local elections

-Frank Young backs putting marriage in relationship part of curriculum

-Julie Bindel (possibly not suited for workplace) on the Oxfam scandal

-Gabby Hinsliff not surprised at what has happened to Oxfam

-Sean Coughlan on tution fees review

-Kerry Prince wants Labour international elections to use AV

-Fames Frayne warns those opposed to level of aid budget be careful how they handle the Oxfam crises

[Dong Zhou]

-Boris (sun) defends a global Brexit and tries to reach out to Remainers

In speech says Remainers have noble sentiments but Brexit can't be stopped or else people will feel betrayed, he understands why he gets abuse in streets. Brexit Uk would be internationalist and work with EU on many issues, we will continue to be European but we have a wanderlust, says people are worried about EU spouses but what about non-EU spouses? Need more links across Channel then one tunnel to France, even Remainers can't understand most of what EU does or name who is in charge of what. Dodges question about if he will resign if Brexit goes in direction he doesn't want

Umunna says Boris is being as scaremongering and hypocritical as when he used Turkey in EU referendum, Cooper says there is no credibility for Boris after that bus and lacking detail, Hannan says no leaver should feel good that Remainers feel alienated and Boris best person to reach out to them. Dr Woolostan says it set out an optimistic vision but lacked details or any way of dealing with practical problems (she calls it OptimismBias), also suggests using a constituent for his speech was bad form and may have offended Thailand with one joke, business groups not exactly impressed,

-Labour want renters to be allowed to keep pets, ban on foie gras imports, a animal welfare commissioner and an end to the export of live animals for slaughter among 50 other ideas

-Danzuck will not face fraud trial

-IMF says UK needs to do better with productivity with things like more housebuilding, better transport and connectivity in struggling regions, better schooling, companies should invest in R&D

-Junker says it is rubbish the claims he wishes to build an EU superstate

-Grayling on combating Labour and Momentum fake news

-ONS swaps "release days" with job figure on Tuesday each month and inflation on Wednesday due to MP's use of job figures at PMQ's not something it deems helpful


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-Halfon on areas he wants to praise the government

-Jack Sargaent given standing ovation as he uses maiden speech to say he will ensure justice for his father (and manufacturing)


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-Hugh Muir on why Leavers aren't changing their minds

-George Monbiot argues US trade deal involving farming would risk our health

-Bush on Boris failure to reach out