Section: UK

The Davis Downside Dossier is one of our most popular pages but not everyone agrees that we have the balance right. An anonymous respondent has tried to add a few upsides.

Andy Brown, Green Party councillor on Craven District Council, reviews the recent speech from Sir Keir Starmer and regrets the lack of leadership on issues like Brexit and how to bring progressive parties together to achieve their aims.

The government’s sponsored advertising campaign to promote the ‘opportunities’ of Brexit features a tiny importer of sustainable clothing and a Japanese technology company that paid virtually no tax but managed a dividend of £85 million.

Today, bus drivers at Go North West in Manchester go on strike in protest at the ‘fire and re-hire’ policy that has seen them forced to accept new contracts with worse conditions. How did we get from transport workers being heroes to villains, in ten short months?

England’s adult social care system has long been in need of reform but successive governments have struggled with how to design and in particular fund a system that provides quality care, is fair and is palatable to the electorate.

Charlie McCarthy looks at the reality of opening schools, with personal testimony from a teenager affected and professional evidence from the scientific community, to show just how how difficult both home schooling and reopening schools are.

Jon Danzing explains why it’s easier to complain about fake adverts than fake news; newspapers can get away with presenting inaccurate information and are not often held accountable.

The finish line appears to be in sight but the prime minister is right to dig in for the last few hard yards and he must now also ensure that his chancellor and backbench MPs stand with him to provide the support and clarity that is required to guide us through a difficult year ahead.

Natalie Bennett discusses the importance of having a ‘good’ financial sector, not just a ‘big’ one. She points out that competition usually means someone loses, and instead suggests that a strong, secure financial sector means that everyone wins.

We’ve been patient, as the numbers of disenfranchised voters have grown. We’ve watched from a distance as major decisions about the future of the UK have been made without our involvement. Decisions that affect us deeply. It’s time to give us the voice we’ve so long been promised, and in time for the next general election. Even if the government might not like what we have to say.

As the pandemic continues to inflict untold misery on families and communities in this country, the true cost and scale of the economic impact is becoming more apparent. It comes on the back of years of austerity, and decades during which the welfare state has been gradually eroded. Perhaps it’s now time to revisit the aims and principles that led to its creation, and look again at the Beveridge Report.

Steve and Tim discuss the deep fake behind the recent Mars space mission and the relative cost of the UK’s test and trace programme.

After years of claiming Britain is being ‘stifled’ by EU regulations that need scrapping, a government task force headed by Iain Duncan Smith to identify such rules, doesn’t even have the repeal of any of them as one of its objectives.

Charlie McCarthy looks at the new agency, Aria, which will attempt to maintain British influence in scientific innovation. He explains how it could allow the government to fulfill its ‘levelling up’ agenda, depending on where the new HQ is located.

The Church of England should lead by example, including delivering more truly affordable homes on its own land, to help solve the housing crisis, says a landmark report published today by the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community.

Alexander de Pfeffel seeks advice from the Gardeners’ Question Time panel and audience on his tunnel plans. “Visionary British infrastructure gardens have a great future, if only the woke gardeners, with the greatest respect to our friends and partners on the panel, weren’t so obsessed with making their doom-laden predictions that plants need to be cared for, fed, watered, protected from harsh conditions and warmly held in a loving lefty embrace if they are to survive.”

Sir Ivan Rogers, former UK permanent representative to the EU, spoke yesterday of his optimism that the UK will eventually seek a closer relationship with the EU again. But he maintained this is not on the government’s agenda at all at the moment. Instead, he foresees a “bumpy” short-term future of “spiky” relationships.

Charlie McCarthy explains Boris Johnson’s anticipated ‘big bang’ method of allowing children to return to school. He lays out the concerns from scientists and some school staff that he is rushing the process, perhaps risking an increase of the R number.

At some stage, Starmer is going to have to acknowledge the damage that Brexit is inflicting to businesses, to a range of sectors such as the arts, and to different parts of the country. Some industries like fishing will never be the same. If, as he said today, this is a call to arms to diagnose the condition of Britain, then he has to recognise the symptoms and treat them – and that includes the negative impacts of Brexit.

Lord Frost is appointed to cabinet as his disastrous trade deal starts to look like the greatest bargain of all time – for the EU. They get the jobs and tax revenues in exchange for ‘giving’ us what we already had, sovereignty. It is a slap in the face for Britain.

The conclusion should be obvious. We need a heavy rethink about how we treat wildlife and how we obtain our food. Not just because this is the morally right thing to do, but because our current consumption models are putting lives at risk. Sooner or later there will be another pandemic. Sooner is more likely than later. Once again it will spread easily across the planet via mass plane travel.

One other sinister and covert weapon used against trade unionists is now getting some attention: the extent to which the police and security services have mounted surveillance and undercover operations against trade unionists and political activists since the 1960s.

Winning from Opposition is hard. Labour is entirely right to face towards the future and to have a laser-like focus on winning votes. But it should recognise that giving Johnson space to create a narrative that says the pandemic caused all the harm and Brexit is our ticket to a bright new future will only harm Labour’s chances.

Jake Berry’s new plan is just Thatcherism 2.0, and won’t help the Northern Research Group keep their seats. Thatcher is still broadly hated in the North – is Berry heading for the same fate?

London’s position in the global league table of financial centres has slipped further with a new survey showing just a third of senior executives believing that the City will be a leading hub in five years’ time.

Digital identity cards are supposed to confirm who we say we are in specific contexts. Now the government wants to revise its guides and link up our personal information in ways that allow information to be shared by various organisations wanting to check our personal details.

Flipping ‘eck – it’s Pancake Day today, so let’s use ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs before the beginning of Lent and 40 days of fasting leading to Easter. Well, that’s the tradition, which goes back for centuries.

Education specialist Sheila Smith denounces the mistake of unnecessarily leaving the Erasmus+ scheme after Brexit. “From the little we know so far, Turing focuses only on higher education. It shows a poor understanding of the years of quality, rigour and development behind Erasmus+.”

A significant part of the £1,750 bill for UK citizens returning from a list of 33 high risk Covid-19 countries will go to G4S for security services it has been revealed.

Isabel Ralphs unpacks the gendered impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and talks to one new mother who is helping to fight for much-needed change.