Tories and Labour

Image copyright PA Media Image caption MSPs have been meeting in a near-empty chamber on increasingly infrequent occasions MSPs have voted to give the Scottish government emergency powers to deal with the coronavirus crisis.Ministers agreed to drop controversial plans to hold more trials without juries during the virus lockdown.But other…

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 there was much talk that the real heroes were firemen rather than hedge fund managers. That talk soon disappeared, and Americans’ indulgence of plutocrats continued as normal. This warns us about clapping for carers: it might prove to be a brief emotional spasm with…

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Amid the first nationwide school closure in modern British history, 10 Downing Street this week published a list of “key workers”: those deemed “critical to the Covid-19 response” in a bid to ensure that the country continues to function during the pandemic.  The list consists almost entirely of public sector and…

Winning New Format for Question Time As Guido revealed earlier this week, the BBC’s flagship debate programme Question Time was to go ahead last night without an audience for the first time in its 41 year history, as well as spread out panellists demonstrating social distancing. What resulted was one…

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Prime Minister's Questions has taken place in a half-empty House of Commons, after Labour and the Conservatives told MPs not scheduled to raise a query with Boris Johnson to stay away.Amid fears over coronavirus spreading at Westminster, the government asked politicians "respectfully" to "adhere to this advice".Labour urged its MPs…

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UK15:45 GMT 15.03.2020(updated 18:04 GMT 15.03.2020) Get short URLIn the run-up to the UK election in December 2019, Russian hackers were unfoundedly accused of leaking documents on negotiations between Britain and the US, which were used by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the election campaign.In an article published in The…

Some of the commentary on the Budget suggests that had Labour won the general election, a new chancellor would have presented a similar financial and economic package: focusing infrastructure spending on roads, neglecting to fix Universal Credit, failing to lift working people out of poverty and deprioritising investment in green technologies. Counterfactuals…