Oh dear. This definitely isn't going to sit right with a lot of people if true

Starmer refuses to rule out signing away other overseas territories

QuoteSir Keir Starmer has refused to say whether he would rule out giving up the Falklands Islands and Gibraltar after agreeing a deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Asked to guarantee that no other British overseas territories will be signed away under Labour, the prime minister did not comment.
Instead, he referred to a deal to retain the US airbase on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago. He said: "The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base, hugely important to the US, hugely important to us.
"We've now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday."

The Chagos islands were fair enough, but we'll see what he does. That could be a "game ender" for him if he's actually serious about not ruling it out

He shouldn't be condemned and not saying he's bad for this, ust hope he can right the ship and do what people hope of him so he doesn't end up in trouble

Quote from: Borg Refinery on Today at 09:28:27 AMInside the wealthy donors bankrolling the Tory leadership candidates

Related: Firm who ran blacklist for workers donates to Tories since 2001

There has been a blacklist of workers since well before 2001. At least as far back as 1919. Blacklisting was made illegal in 2009. However that has not stopped it.

Quote from: Borg Refinery on Today at 09:36:30 AM

They will become even more unpopular with their own, if this 2bn foreign aid budget cut gets passed: Link, there's already a rebellion over it..

I would have thought cutting the foreign aid budget would be popular.

Vote share north of the border:

They will become even more unpopular with their own, if this 2bn foreign aid budget cut gets passed: Link, there's already a rebellion over it..

Inside the wealthy donors bankrolling the Tory leadership candidates

Related: Firm who ran blacklist for workers donates to Tories since 2001

Interesting article in the BBC. Only tangentially related.

BBC

QuoteA former cabinet minister's challenge to a parliamentary probe that found he broke lobbying rules has been dismissed by European rights judges.

Owen Paterson quit Parliament in 2021 in the wake of a report that found he had breached its rules while working a paid consultant for two firms.

In a legal challenge launched the following year, the ex-Tory MP argued the inquiry was procedurally flawed and had breached his human rights.

But this has now been thrown out by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

In its ruling, the court said the investigation had been conducted properly and was necessary to uphold Parliament's internal rules.

Ex-Tory MP Paterson takes UK to European court
What did Owen Paterson do?
Mr Paterson was found by Parliament's standards commissioner to have broken Commons lobbying rules in approaching ministers and officials on behalf of two companies paying him £100,000 a year on top of his MP's salary.

His case then hit the headlines after Boris Johnson's government helped block a vote to endorse a 30-day suspension recommended by the committee of MPs that enforces Commons conduct rules.

The government later U-turned and said it would allow a vote, with Mr Paterson resigning during the enormous political row that followed.

The suspension was later approved retrospectively, with Mr Johnson's handling of the scandal widely seen as a factor in his eventual downfall the following year.

Mr Paterson, a leading Eurosceptic who has previously campaigned for the UK to break away from the ECHR, subsequently applied to the court to challenge the lobbying report, arguing it had breached his rights to privacy and a family life.

At the time, his lawyers said the "irony" of him appealing to the court given his political views was "not lost", but he had "no other choice, as the government has yet to meet its promise of repatriating human rights law to Britain".

Quote from: Unlucky4Sum on October 05, 2024, 11:06:26 PMI said no such thing.

I wonder why you asked the question in the first place. All the ONS is doing is comparing databases. Deaths and and covid vaccination records.

Not really on topic but very tangentially related to Lab's private schools reforms with VAT:

10,000 fewer children in private schools ahead of Labour's VAT raid

QuoteSeventy per cent of school leavers should go into higher education, accor�ding to a blueprint for university reform published on Monday.

The new target outstrips Tony Blair's ambition for 50 per cent to continue their education post-18 and is accompanied by pledges to boost the number of students from poorer backgrounds.

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, has published a detailed document promising substantial changes in return for more government funding. The body wants a rise in the £9,250 tuition fee and an increase in teaching grants. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is drawing up plans for tuition fees to rise in line with inflation.

About half of young people go into higher education at present and the document, written by leading figures in education and politics, calls for this to rise to 70 per cent, including lower-level courses than full degrees. It also wants to increase the numbers from poor backgrounds from 30 to 50 per cent by 2035. The document states: "Government and universities and colleges in Eng�land should work together to ensure that by 2040, 70 per cent of the population achieve tertiary attainment at level 4 or above by the age of 25, up from 48.6 per cent currently."

Times

That's an overly ambitious target, 48.6% sounds reasonable for now, why not improve the standards so there's a very, very high pass rate among those who currently do go - and a 99% pass rate at secondary and college level first?