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☆ UK: Assisted dying bill introduced in House of Lords
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

London CNN —An emotional, accelerating campaign to allow assisted dying for terminally ill adults in Britain has reached parliament, with activists hoping the country will become one of few to legalize the process. Opponents of legalization have argued that those small figures represent a limited appetite for assisted dying in the UK, but there are other pressures at play too. But some among the country’s lawmakers, who will ultimately decide the fate of the assisted dying law, say there is more to consider. For Starmer, the assisted dying bill has the potential to disrupt those intentions. But legalizing assisted dying wasn’t in Labour’s manifesto or in its King’s Speech, limiting the opportunities for it to ever reach MPs.

Persons: Bill, “ I’ve, ” Charlie Falconer, ”, Ellie Ball, Alistair Thompson, Falconer, Esther Rantzen, Wiktor, Rantzen, ” Rantzen, Paola Marra, “, Rachael Maskell, ” Maskell, Marieke Vervoort, CNN “ I’ve, Keir Starmer, –, wouldn’t, wasn’t, ” Falconer Organizations: London CNN, Labour, CNN, Publishing, BBC, Health, Social Care, Labour Party Locations: Britain, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Oregon, England, Wales, Westminster, Dignitas

Farage’s Reform UK party attacked the Conservative Party on its failure to bring down rates of legal and illegal migration. He won Clacton on a massive swing towards Reform UK, picking up 21,225 votes to the Conservatives’ 12,820. He pledged to “challenge the general election properly in 2029,” and promised to turn his rhetoric toward the Labour Party as it enters government. In many seats around the UK, Reform came second to Labour. Farage said the “Labour government will be in trouble very, very quickly and we will now be targeting Labour votes.

Persons: Nigel Farage, Britain’s, Donald Trump, Farage, ”, Euroskeptic, Keir Starmer, It’s, ” Farage, Labour –, upended, Rosa Prince, Conservative Party ”, ” Prince Organizations: CNN, Reform, Brexit, UK, Farage’s Reform, Conservative Party, Conservatives, European Union, Clacton, Labour, Labour Party, Conservative, Politico Locations: Britain’s, Ukraine, Europe

☆ Anatomy of a Landslide
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-05 | by ( Josh Holder | Lauren Leatherby | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Vote share for the Conservatives dropped all over the country SCOTLAND NORTHERN IRELAND ENGLAND WALESAnatomy of a Landslide Support for the Conservatives plummeted, propelling the Labour Party into power. ... they lost almost half to Labour ... 372 seats Labour 412 ... and 60 to the Liberal Democrats Labour 200 Reform 4 S.N.P. Labour won a landslide with just a third of the vote0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Vote share Seat share Labour won almost two-thirds of seats with just a third of votes. Seat Vote Green 0 20% 40% 60% Vote share Seat share Labour won almost two-thirds of seats with just a third of votes. 29.4 15.5% 2019 2024 Lib Dem 9.3 7.7% 2019 2024 Green 3.4 11.1% 2019 2024 Reform 2.8 11.3% 2019 2024 Next youngest constituencies 33.9 38.1% 2019 2024 45.3 24.0% 2019 2024 10.9 10.9% 2019 2024 2.3 6.1% 2019 2024 3.2 17.2% 2019 2024 Older constituencies 25.6 32.4% 2019 2024 49.2 26.4% 2019 2024 12.5 13.7% 2019 2024 2.5 5.4% 2019 2024 2.0 16.4% 2019 2024 Oldest constituencies 20.6 25.9% 2019 2024 55.1 30.3% 2019 2024 13.5 15.9% 2019 2024 2.9 5.7% 2019 2024 0.6 16.3% 2019 2024 Source: Age data from the Office for National Statistics and Scotland Census Note: Constituencies are bucketed by median age.

Persons: Nigel Farage, Farage’s, — Organizations: Conservatives, WALES, Labour Party, Scottish National Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Scottish, Liberal, Conservative Conservatives, Conservative, Liberal Democrats Labour, Liberal Democrats Lab, National Government, Conservative Party, Center, Conservative Labour, Left Green Labour, Green Party, Green, Office, National Statistics, Reform Locations: SCOTLAND, England, postindustrial, Midlands, North, United Kingdom, Britain’s Parliament, Scotland

☆ In Britain, Shockwaves From Israel-Hamas War Are Jolting Domestic Politics
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Inside Britain’s Parliament, lawmakers jeered, booed, and stormed out of the House of Commons to protest the speaker’s handling of a vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The chaotic scenes in London last week captured how Israel’s war in Gaza is reverberating far beyond the Middle East. In Britain, political parties and the public are not actually that divided over how to respond to Gaza; a solid majority back a cease-fire. The governing Conservative Party seized on anti-Israel comments made by a Labour Party parliamentary candidate to accuse Labour of failing to stamp out a legacy of anti-Semitism in its ranks. Labour pointed to disparaging comments by a Tory lawmaker about London’s Muslim mayor as evidence of simmering Islamophobia among Conservatives.

Persons: jeered, Big Ben Organizations: Conservative Party, Labour Party, Labour Locations: Gaza, Israel, London, United States, Europe, Muslim, Britain

☆ What I’m Reading: Eclectic Edition
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Amanda Taub | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” has long been a well-known saying, but now, thanks to this interesting new paper in the American Political Science Review, it’s also political science. The authors investigate whether hostility to immigrants, particularly Muslims, has actually helped to generate support for L.G.B.T.+ rights among otherwise conservative nativist voters. They found that citizens “strategically liberalize” their stance on L.G.B.T.+ rights when they are told that people from an ethnic out-group — for example, Muslim immigrants in Europe — oppose such protections. (Here again, Trump is a useful exemplar: Although he embraced gay rights in the Pulse speech as a cudgel against Muslims, in practice his administration dismantled L.G.BT. protections, including rolling back rules against workplace discrimination and banning transgender people from the military.)

Persons: Bethany Allen, Ebrahimian, Allen, smartly, “, ”, it’s, Donald Trump, Trump Organizations: Science Locations: Beijing, China, “ Beijing, Europe

☆ U.K.’s Arrest of Suspected Spy Fuels Calls for Tougher Stance on China
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Mark Landler | More About Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even by the prolific standards of China’s foreign influence operations, it would represent a sensational case of infiltration. A 28-year-old British man who worked as a researcher deep inside Britain’s Parliament was arrested in March on suspicion of working for the Chinese government. “The Chinese are infiltrating across the board; they go for anything and everything,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. The men, whose identities were not released by police, have yet to be charged, and lawmakers were asked not to prejudice the investigation by naming them. Little has been disclosed about the second man, except that he is reported to be in his 30s.

Persons: ”, Steve Tsang, Little Organizations: Conservative Party, SOAS China Institute, Metropolitan Police, Sunday Times Locations: China, London, Beijing

☆ Boris Johnson’s Comeback Hopes May Be Dimmer Than He Thinks
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is tempting to view Boris Johnson’s sudden resignation from Britain’s Parliament on Friday evening as merely another twist in a serpentine career, a tactical retreat rather than a political epitaph. After all, the language in his 1,035-word statement was defiant and aggrieved, peppered with reminders of the thumping electoral victory that he had delivered for the Conservative Party less than four years ago and pregnant with the possibility that he could do so again in the future. As he has on so many other occasions, Mr. Johnson seemed to be channeling his political hero, Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime leader who was swept out of power in 1945 only to return to Downing Street in triumph six years later. Yet this time, political analysts expressed skepticism about a Churchillian restoration for Mr. Johnson. With little support beyond a rump of hard-core Brexiteers in Parliament, and a British public that has grown weary of the Boris soap opera, they said there was almost no plausible path back to power for him.

Persons: Boris Johnson’s, Johnson, Winston Churchill, Boris Organizations: Conservative Party, Downing Locations: British

☆ U.K. Government Seeks Further Easing of Data Protection Rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Catherine Stupp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

If U.K. data protection law strays too far from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, however, an existing legal deal known as an adequacy agreement between the two jurisdictions could be jeopardized, privacy experts say. Relaxing some data rules could save the U.K. an estimated £12 billion, equivalent to $14 billion, each year, Mr. Rowland said. The U.K. has had two changes of government since data laws were proposed this summer. The EU officials who oversee the arrangement have said they could suspend the system if British data protection laws change too dramatically. The draft data protection legislation would loosen some aspects of the GDPR such as requirements for companies to obtain permission from individuals for their data to be tracked online.

☆ Fact Check-Rishi Sunak’s colour-changing ring binder was not a glitch in the matrix
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Many users have suggested the clip reveals a “glitch in the matrix”, a reference to a conspiracy theory inspired by the Matrix science-fiction film franchise. Believers say people can tell that everything around them is simulated by watching out for errors or glitches in the alien programming – like something suddenly changing colour. The video clip of Sunak was taken from a March 9, 2020, report by Sky News (here) about Britain’s budget plans. But this was a visual effect made to make an editorial point, not a sign of a glitch in any matrix. It involved “just a small colour switch to emphasise the need for a green budget.

☆ Liz Truss Brought Libertarians to Power in the U.K. and Quickly Out Again
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Max Colchester | David Luhnow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—A few days after Liz Truss first was elected to Britain’s parliament in 2010, she visited the Institute of Economic Affairs, a libertarian think tank in a cramped Georgian house a stone’s throw from Parliament in central London. There she met an old college friend, Mark Littlewood , director general of the IEA, and pitched an idea. “Mark, we are going to set up a caucus of free-market MPs,” Mr. Littlewood recalls her saying.

☆ U.K. Markets Turmoil Puts Spotlight on New Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kwasi Kwarteng, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, delivering his budget plan last week in the House of Commons. LONDON— Kwasi Kwarteng was just two weeks into his job as U.K. chancellor of the exchequer when he unveiled a bold plan to reshape the British economy by slashing taxes in what he called “a new approach to a new era.”Skeptical lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament now have a different moniker for the package: the “Kami-kwasi budget.”

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