Two sides have ‘settled’ text of a draft deal to remove some Brexit checks on food and animal product exports to EU The UK and the EU have finalised their deal to remove red tape for food producers and agreed first drafts on joint positions on migration, youth mobility and electricity trading before a summit on 20 November. The draft text of a joint statement has emerged 17 days before the summit, an indication of the consensual state of play between two sides previously at loggerheads during the Conservative government era. Continue reading...
The UK-EU food produce deal: what was agreed and will it affect shoppers?
Source: The Guardian
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The Guardian
UK makes huge aid cuts to Commonwealth nations despite warm words at Chogm summit
Nations in the group fare worse than others, with funding for nature projects especially hard hit even as climate crisis intensifies global need The UK government has slashed overseas aid to Commonwealth countries, the Guardian can reveal, in contrast to the warm words for the group from King Charles and the prime minister, Andy Burnham , this week. Amid sharp cuts in the UK’s aid budget overall, the Commonwealth has fared poorly, an analysis of the most recent and projected aid figures, seen by the Guardian, has shown. Continue reading...
The Guardian
King tells Commonwealth leaders that Britain’s role in slave trade was ‘shameful’ but stops short of apology – as it happened
Speech by Charles marks formal opening of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Antigua Q: Do you think the UK should reconsider Commonwealth membership, given other countries just keep asking us for slavery reparations? Badenoch said she did not agree with that “because most Commonwealth countries aren’t doing this”. China did all sorts of things. It’s not out there apologising. The purpose of the apology is to make us look weak. It is to make this country look weak. And once we start looking weak, then we have every man and his dog making demands and sending us an invoice, which the British taxpayer has to pay. Continue reading...
BBC Politics
King calls slave trade a 'shameful chapter' during Commonwealth address
The speech comes after calls for the UK government to issue a formal apology for Britain's historic role in the trade.
The Guardian
All aboard with Kaptain Kemi, lost at sea on the good ship amnesia
Launching a defence plan on a rusty sloop, and dogged by a UK Iron Dome that never was, the Tory leader has forgotten her party’s 14 years in power HMS Wellington. A decommissioned Grimsby-class sloop from the second world war. A warship that has been moored on the Thames, going nowhere for the best part of 80 years. Today’s venue for the leader of the opposition to explain why the Conservative party hollowed out defence spending throughout their time in office. Sorry. Scrub that. To welcome in a brave new world order. Come aboard the good ship Badenoch. There are times when you wonder if the Tory media team have been infiltrated by Labour HQ. Still, we might as well enjoy it while we can. After a brief introduction from the loyal but dim Lieutenant “Steady as she goes, chaps and chapesses” James Cartlidge, who – for reasons not even he fully understands – is the shadow defence secretary
BBC Politics
Reform UK councillor charged with rape and sexual assault
The Crown Prosecution Service has charged George Madgwick with 35 offences, including 12 counts of rape.
The Guardian
I’d all but forgotten my ‘altercation’ with Nigel Farage. But since he mentions it, here’s what happened | Caroline Voaden
His boorish behaviour towards me typifies the politics of Reform UK: this is a party full of disdain for parliament, its people and its traditions Caroline Voaden is the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon I got an unexpected message last week from a former colleague whom I haven’t heard from in 20 years. I was all over her TikTok, she said, so she reached out to say hi. Such was the furore caused by Nigel Farage bizarrely raising an incident that took place in the House of Commons nearly six months ago that I suddenly found myself trending on social media. That had not been on my bingo card for budget week. I was at home, having just got back from London, when I received a message telling me that Farage had referenced “the incident”. I looked at the footage of his press conference and was completely dumbfounded. Because this “physical altercation”, as he described it, was something I’d