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☆ Britain’s Conservative Party Is Being Held Captive by Bad People - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Geoffrey Wheatcroft | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

At 3 a.m. one day last December, a 78-year-old volunteer for the British Conservative Party was reportedly woken by a call from Mark Menzies, the Conservative lawmaker she worked for. The volunteer, a former campaign manager for Mr. Menzies, paid the sum out of her own savings. Mr. Menzies, who was suspended from the party last month, denies that allegation and others, which include using £14,000 from party funds for personal medical bills. Yet the affair epitomizes a Conservative Party in crisis. Lord Salisbury, Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher led the Conservative Party for more or less 15 years.

Persons: Mark Menzies, ”, Menzies, Rishi Sunak, Mr, Sunak, Lord Salisbury, Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, — Organizations: British Conservative Party, Conservative, Conservative Party, Tories, Conservatives, Labour Party, Tory Locations: England, Wales

☆ Rishi Sunak’s Dismal Task: Leading U.K. Conservatives to Likely Defeat
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A few days before Britain’s Conservative Party suffered a stinging setback in local elections on Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recorded a short video to promote some good news from his government. In the eight-second clip, Mr. Sunak poured milk from a pint bottle into a tall glass, filled with a steaming dark beverage and bearing the scribbled figure of 900 pounds on the side. “Pay day is coming,” Mr. Sunak posted, referring to the savings that an average wage earner would supposedly reap from a cut in mandatory contributions to Britain’s national insurance system. However partisan her jab, loser is a label that Mr. Sunak is finding increasingly hard to shake, even among his members of his own party. In the 18 months since he replaced his failed predecessor, Liz Truss, Mr. Sunak, 43, has lost seven special parliamentary elections and back-to-back local elections.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, ” Mr, Sunak, He’d, Angela Rayner, Liz Truss Organizations: Britain’s Conservative Party, Labour

☆ Britain’s Conservatives suffer heavy losses in a sign that Rishi Sunak is in real trouble
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Britain’s governing Conservative Party suffered heavy losses in local elections, a sign that they could be in real trouble when the country holds a general election at some point later this year. It also means that if a general election were held tomorrow, the opposition Labour Party would almost certainly win power. What these results don’t tell us is when the general election will take place. Conservatives are divided on when they think Sunak should bite the ballot bullet. Others think Sunak should look toward the end of the year, as it allows the most time for things to improve.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Sunak, Rwanda –, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Johnson, Truss Organizations: CNN, Conservative Party, Labour Party, Conservative, Labour, Reform, Conservatives Locations: Rwanda

Britain’s Conservative Party suffered striking early setbacks on Friday in local elections that are viewed as a barometer for how the party will perform in a coming general election and a key test for the embattled prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Only a minority of the results had been announced by early Friday, but already the signs were ominous, if not unexpected, for Mr. Sunak’s Conservatives, who have trailed the opposition Labour Party by double digits in national polls for 18 months. The Conservatives have lost more than 120 seats so far, including six in Hartlepool, in northeast England, where the Conservatives had made inroads after Brexit but have more recently lost ground to the resurgent Labour Party. Labour also won a special election for a parliamentary seat in Blackpool South, a seaside district, in a huge swing of votes away from the Conservatives, who had held the seat but narrowly missed finishing third, behind Reform U.K., a small right-wing party. The previous Tory member of Parliament, Scott Benton, resigned in March after becoming embroiled in a lobbying scandal.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Scott Benton Organizations: Britain’s Conservative Party, Sunak’s Conservatives, Labour Party, Conservatives, Labour, Blackpool, Reform Locations: Hartlepool, England

☆ What is the Rwanda Policy? U.K.’s Plan for Asylum Seekers Explained
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Megan Specia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After a prolonged battle in the courts and in Parliament, Britain’s Conservative government secured passage of legislation on Monday that is intended to allow the country to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. The legislation is intended to override a Supreme Court ruling last year that deemed the plan to send asylum seekers to the African nation unlawful. The judges ruled that Rwanda was not a safe country in which refugees could resettle or have their asylum cases heard. The Rwanda plan, which has become a flagship policy of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a time when his party’s approval ratings have floundered, now seems closer than ever to becoming a reality. But critics say it raises profound questions about the rule of law and the separation of powers in Britain, and could impact thousands of asylum seekers.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, “ Organizations: Conservative Locations: Rwanda, Britain

☆ UK ‘non-dom’ tax status, explained
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“Those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share,” UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt told parliament Wednesday. ‘Colonial concept’The non-dom regime is an “archaic colonial concept,” which determines a person’s tax status based on their “intended” place of residence, said Arun Advani, an economics professor at the University of Warwick. The opposition Labour Party had previously said it would abolish the non-dom regime if it came to power, and spend the money raised on the National Health Service. Yui Mok/Pool/AFP/Getty ImagesMurty has since renounced those advantages, citing the “British sense of fairness” and the “distraction” her tax status posed to her husband, who was serving as the UK’s finance minister at the time. But in November 2022 Hunt defended the “non-dom” status.

Persons: Jeremy Hunt, ” Hunt, Arun Advani, Advani, Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty, Yui Mok, Murty, Hunt, “ I’m, ” Organizations: London CNN, Britain’s Conservative, Revenue, Customs, London School of Economics, Political Science, University of Warwick, Labour Party, National Health Service, Britain's, Getty, BBC Locations: United Kingdom, Britain, India, Buckingham, London

Italy is even going outside the EU to establish links with the United Kingdom to crack down on unwanted arrivals. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was blunt about how far Europe's leaders still are from reaching a consensus before they met in Granada, Spain. Orbán, who has pushed back against EU policy repeatedly and taken a hard-line approach against migration, said that he won't sign off on any deal at any point in the foreseeable future. He went as far as to compare the situation to being “legally raped” by Hungary's fellow EU members. “The agreement on migration, politically, it’s impossible — not today (or) generally speaking for the next years," Orbán said.

Persons: Viktor Orbán, Orbán, “, Mateusz Morawiecki, Ursula von der Leyen, ”, Roberta Metsola, ” Metsolas, Giorgia, Rishi Sunak, ___ Wilson, Raf Casert, Ciarán Giles, Colleen Barry, Vanessa Gera, Danica Kirka Organizations: European Union, EU, International Organization for Migration, Giorgia Meloni, della, The Times Locations: GRANADA, Spain, Brussels, Hungary, Poland, Italy, United Kingdom, Granada, Syria, Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine, Lampedusa, London, Africa, El Hierro, Senegal, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Warsaw

LONDON (AP) — British regulators on Wednesday approved new oil and gas drilling at a site in the North Sea, a move environmentalists say will hurt the country’s attempt to meet its climate goals. The U.K.'s North Sea Transition Authority said it had approved the Rosebank Field Development Plan, “which allows the owners to proceed with their project.”Britain’s Conservative government argues that drilling in the Rosebank field, northwest of the Shetland Islands, will create jobs and bolster the U.K.’s energy security. One of the largest untapped deposits in U.K. waters, Rosebank holds an estimated 350 million barrels of oil. The field is operated by Norway’s Equinor and the U.K. firm Ithaca Energy, which say they plan to invest $3.8 billion in the first phase of the project. The government says it still aims to reduce the U.K.’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

Persons: ”, Norway’s Equinor, Caroline Lucas, Rosebank, Rishi Sunak’s, Sunak, Claire Coutinho Organizations: —, Transition, Conservative, Ithaca Energy, Green Party, Energy, Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Locations: North, Shetland, Ukraine

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Wednesday that he’s delaying by five years a ban on new gas and diesel cars that had been due to take effect in 2030, watering down climate goals that he said imposed “unacceptable costs” on ordinary people. U.K. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 46% from 1990 levels, mainly because of the almost complete removal of coal from electricity generation. The government had pledged to reduce emissions by 68% of 1990 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050. Automakers, who have invested heavily in the switch to electric vehicles, expressed frustration at the government’s change of plan. Ford U.K. head Lisa Brankin said the company had invested 430 million pounds ($530 million) to build electric cars in Britain.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Sunak, ”, Boris Johnson, backtrack, Prince William —, Will McCallum, Lisa Brankin, Richard Burge, Tara, Hargreaves Lansdown, Clee, Sadiq Khan, Alok Sharma, Peter Cox Organizations: —, Conservative Party, Former, United Nations General Assembly, Greenpeace, Ford, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Britain’s Conservatives, Labour, London’s Labour, BBC, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter Locations: New York, Britain, London Uxbridge, Glasgow

☆ Families Cut Adrift by Concrete Crisis in U.K. Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Megan Specia | More About Megan Specia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It’s been kind of in free fall really,” said Ms. Burness, 47, of how the week has played out. “And how much longer will it be?”By Thursday morning, Ms. Burness and her husband, who both run their own businesses, were juggling parenting duties and their jobs, unable to find specialist child care at short notice. On Friday, the school said classes would resume the following week, but added that some rooms would be inaccessible and adjustments would have to be made. Britain’s Conservative government has faced acute criticism since the announcement last week that more than 100 schools would have to close buildings because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC, a bubbly, lightweight material known to pose a risk of sudden collapse. The crisis intensified after it became clear that senior government officials had ignored repeated warnings about the material, with a former Department for Education official accusing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of refusing to rebuild more schools while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, despite being told of a “critical risk to life.” (Mr. Sunak said it was “completely and utterly wrong” to hold him responsible for the funding shortfall.)

Persons: “, ”, Burness, Rishi Sunak, Sunak Organizations: Conservative, Department for Education

Britain, blanketed by cool, damp weather, has seemed like one of the few places in the Northern Hemisphere not sweltering this summer. Yet a fierce political debate over how to curb climate change has suddenly erupted, fueled by economic hardship and a recent election surprise. The Conservatives successfully used the emission zone plan as a wedge issue to prevail in a district they were forecast to lose. Britain’s Conservative government is now calling into question its commitment to an array of ambitious emissions-reduction targets. Tory critics say these goals would impose an unfair burden on Britons who are suffering because of a cost-of-living crisis.

Organizations: Conservative Party, Conservatives, Britain’s Conservative Locations: Britain, Northern, London, Uxbridge, South Ruislip

☆ Trump and Johnson Were Accused of Breaking Rules. One Lost Party Support.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An angry, aggrieved former leader attacks the institutions he once led for accusing him of flouting the rules and lying about it. And yet, Britain’s Conservative Party has regularly stood up to Mr. Johnson while the Republican Party is still mostly in thrall to Mr. Trump. On Monday, the House of Commons will vote on whether to accept or reject the committee’s findings. The government said it would not pressure Tory lawmakers to vote one way or the other. That sets up a potential repudiation of Mr. Johnson by his party that could go far beyond the token number of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Mr. Trump in 2019 and 2021.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Boris Johnson, Johnson, thrall, Johnson’s, preemptively, Mr Organizations: Britain’s Conservative Party, Republican Party, Conservative Locations: Britain, United States, Downing

☆ Conservative Party Suffers Stinging Losses in England’s Local Elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Stephen Castle | Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Britain’s Conservative Party suffered sweeping losses on Friday in local elections, a stinging rejection of the status quo that raises doubts about its ability to hold onto power after 14 years. The vote for control over hundreds of municipalities, which took place on Thursday across England, was the biggest test of the governing party’s popularity before a general election that is likely to take place in the fall of 2024. It left Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wounded, fracturing the pro-Brexit coalition assembled by one of his predecessors, Boris Johnson, in 2019 and opening a plausible path to power for the main opposition Labour Party. With most of the results declared, the Conservatives lost more than 1,000 seats, while Labour gained roughly 500 and the centrist Liberal Democrats, which surprised oddsmakers as perhaps the best performer, picked up around 400. Another smaller party, the Greens, also made more than 200 gains.

☆ Roald Dahl’s Children’s Books Changed to Make Them More Inclusive
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( David Luhnow | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Cloud Men in Roald Dahl’s book ‘James and the Giant Peach’ were changed to Cloud People in the latest edition. LONDON—The British publisher of Roald Dahl ’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and other children’s books has made hundreds of changes to their texts—altering passages that refer to body weight, race and gender—in an effort to make them more acceptable to contemporary readers. The modifications drew criticism from Britain’s Conservative government as well as some high-profile authors and free-speech advocates. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s spokesman said Monday that “you should not gobblefunk around with words,” using a word coined by Mr. Dahl and used in his book “BFG” that means roughly “to tinker.”

☆ LGBTQ Italians on alert as right-wing alliance triumphs in election
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

BERLIN — The triumph of a right-wing alliance in Italy’s election has raised concern among LGBTQ advocates, who fear nationalist leader Giorgia Meloni could adopt anti-gay policies as prime minister and set back their efforts to boost equality. What is Meloni’s stance on LGBTQ rights? Days before the election, however, a senior member of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) group suggested same-sex parenting was not normal. Despite lagging most of its EU neighbors on LGBTQ rights, a 2020 study by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center found 75% of Italians think homosexuality should be accepted. In the northern city of Verona, Stefano Ambrosini, a gay 28-year-old PhD student, said he feared Meloni’s election triumph could lead to an increase in homophobic violence.

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