UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[Dave from down under]

Rishi Sunak has conceded defeat

[Reality Check]

Jacob Rees-Mogg got bounced handily by Labour. Icing on the cake.

I think Labour is going to beat the exit polls.

[Dave from down under]

From ABC news

Rishi Sunak: 'Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner'

Emily Clark profile image
4m ago
By Emily Clark
Because Rishi Sunak held onto his seat in North Yorkshire, he made a speech at the declaration.

He used that moment to concede Labour had won the election.

Here is more of what he said:

"The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.

"Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner with goodwill on all sides, that is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.

"The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight, there is much to learn and reflect on and I take responsibility for the loss.

"To the many good hardworking Conservative candidates who lost tonight despite their tireless efforts, their local records of delivery and their dedication to their communities, I am sorry.

"I will now head down to London where I will say more about tonight’s result before I leave the job of prime minister to which I have given my all. I will then return here to my family’s home.

"And I look forward to spending more time with you all in the weeks, months and years ahead."

[keith]

No word on whether Sunak will step down as leader?

Do party rules require a leadership spill after the election?

[Reality Check]

No word on whether Sunak will step down as leader?

Do party rules require a leadership spill after the election?

I don't think the rules require he leave but after this bloodbath he will be gone. He is being blamed for calling an early election.

[Reality Check]

Around 11 Tory cabinet ministers lost their seats.

[RTH10260]

The Guardian live webpage on the elections

648/650 seats declared

+/- figures based on 2019 results modelled to new constituency boundaries. If a seat’s boundaries did not change, +/- figures based on defending party at dissolution

*326 seats needed for an overall majority. A working majority requires a lower number as certain MPs do not usually vote

Labour 412 +214
Conservative 121 -251

Lib Dem 71 +63
SNP 9 -37
SF 7 0
Others 7 +4
DUP 5 -3
Reform 4 +4
Green 4 +3
PC 4 +2
SDLP 2 0
Alliance 1 0
UUP 1 +1

[RTH10260]

PS. Nigel Farage has after nine attempts has gotten a seat again

[p0rtia]

[Uninformed]

The seesaw of UK politics has at last swung after 14 years; polarisation is such a bane along with apathy - only 60% of the electorate bothered to vote.

Pleased to see the back of the odious Rees-Mogg who has said he will not stand again but I’m sure he will at the least continue to be a pain in the arse one way or another.

The Reform party achieved 14% of the vote but won only 4 seats (the first past the post electoral format does seem to have at least one advantage), including Nigel Farage becoming an MP. No doubt he will now become an even more prolific provider of simplistic sound bites for our increasingly shallow media.

Although the tone of government policy will undoubtedly change I’m not sure what can be achieved without radical, large scale, and expensive national investment - as ever where’s the money.

As you can tell, I am not exactly rejoicing at this result. I am by nature left wing and am pleased, but my opinion of the UK’s probable future is, at least at present, extremely gloomy. I suppose there’s no pleasing me - where’s my unicorn?

[pipistrelle]

What do you all think of Keir Starmer?

[Mr brolin]

What do you all think of Keir Starmer?

Ahhhhh....... Well...... He's not Jeremy Corbyn.... other than that...... Tony Blair Light with about 12.5% of the charisma...

[Uninformed]

What do you all think of Keir Starmer?

He appears to be a well informed capable administrator/organiser with an almost total lack of charisma. I view this as quite a good thing but the media won’t - think of the polar opposite of Boris.

I believe he is more socialist than he has portrayed himself, mainly because he is also a pragmatist/realist who understands the dire state of the UK. I am unsure of his true attitude(s) towards a number of international issues as until now he has been quite guarded in what he says.

Now that the Labour Party has such a stonking majority I think one of his major challenges will be whether he can control the “extremists” on both wings of the party (herding cats) who will attempt to impose their policies - there are so many new MPs it is difficult to gauge how much of a problem this will be once the honeymoon is over.

[Dave from down under]

PS. Nigel Farage has after nine attempts has gotten a seat again

But Labour has a clear majority

Farage can be ignored/mocked

[Mr brolin]

The other stark change of fortunes one is that the Scottish Nationalists have taken a serious spanking, from 43 to 9. The fever/drug dream of independance doesn't seem to have helped them this time around.

As for Farage, his relevance is measured (by himself) in column inches, clicks and soundbites. As a sitting MP he will be able to do the monkey in the zoo faecal fling on a regular basis without having to actually deliver on anything. The subsided bars at the House of Commons will, I am sure, also be a particular draw.....

[Reality Check]

Ahhhhh....... Well...... He's not Jeremy Corbyn.... other than that...... Tony Blair Light with about 12.5% of the charisma...

He must have something on the ball to have taken Labour from a drubbing in 2019 to huge majority in 5 years. Of course he had help from the three stooges Johnson-Truss-Sunak.

[Sam the Centipede]

The other stark change of fortunes one is that the Scottish Nationalists have taken a serious spanking, from 43 to 9. The fever/drug dream of independance doesn't seem to have helped them this time.

I bumped into a fragment of analysis/speculation by the editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye (Ian Hislop) that voters had severely punished candidates who were associated with corruption or other bad behavior. I don't know how accurate that is statistically. In Scotland, the SNP (nationalists) had various scandals and dodgy dealings hanging over them, so that party's poor results would be consistent with Hislop's conjecture.

Apparently that movement of SNP voters to Labour in Scotland accounted for the entire UK swing to Labour. That is, the Labour vote in England and Wales did not increase; rather the Conservative vote collapsed, by moving to other parties or staying at home (turn-out was lower than usual for a UK general election).

Yet Labour achieved a massive majority in representation. The, ah, mm, magic of a first past the past voting system with tactical voting in play.

[Uninformed]

What do you all think of Keir Starmer?

If you’re interested; a potted biography:

“Keir Starmer: From indie kid to prime minister”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw4y9evzzppo

[keith]

What do you all think of Keir Starmer?

I think his parents did him a disservice.

All I hear on BBC is about someone called Skias Armor.

Took me hours to see a chyron with Sir Keir Starmer spelled out.

[RTH10260]

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[RTH10260]

reminder, this is not EU approved

UK first European country to approve lab-grown meat, starting with pet food
Regulators approve Meatly pet product, cultivated chicken made from growing cells

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Wed 17 Jul 2024 12.35 CEST

Lab-grown pet food is to hit UK shelves as Britain becomes the first country in Europe to approve cultivated meat.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have approved the product from the company Meatly.

It is thought there will be demand for cultivated pet food, as animal lovers face a dilemma about feeding their pets meat from slaughtered livestock.

Research suggests the pet food industry has a climate impact similar to that of the Philippines, the 13th most populous country in the world. A study by the University of Winchester found that 50% of surveyed pet owners would feed their pets cultivated meat, while 32% would eat it themselves.

The Meatly product is cultivated chicken. It is made by taking a small sample from a chicken egg, cultivating it with vitamins and amino acids in a lab, then growing cells in a container similar to those in which beer is fermented. The result is a paté-like paste.

Meatly’s production facility has been approved by the government to handle its cultivated chicken, and it plans to launch the first samples of its commercially available pet food this year. The company says it will then focus on cost reduction and starting to scale production to reach industrial volumes within the next three years. The cost reductions could be done by mixing the meat with vegetables, as is done with other pet foods containing costly animal products.




https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... h-pet-food

[RTH10260]

Failed Rwanda deportation scheme cost £700m, says Yvette Cooper
Home secretary describes Tory policy that Labour has axed as ‘the biggest waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen’

Eleni Courea Political correspondent
Mon 22 Jul 2024 19.17 CEST

The Conservative government spent £700m of taxpayers’ money on the failed Rwanda deportation scheme, which has proved to be a “costly con”, the home secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper described the policy, which was introduced two-and-a-half years ago and sought to send UK asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, as “the biggest waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen”.

She told the Commons that over the course of six years ministers had intended to spend £10bn on the policy, but they never divulged this figure to parliament.

The home secretary said she had formally notified the Rwandan government that the partnership was over and thanked them for working with the UK “in good faith”.

“The failure of this policy lies with the previous UK government, it has been a costly con and the taxpayer has had to pay the price,” she said.

Under the Conservatives, the Home Office refused to set out the full cost of the scheme, though an official letter last year stated it had reached £290m. In a report last spring the National Audit Office estimated that the cost of the policy had surpassed £500m.

Ultimately, just four people travelled to Rwanda voluntarily under the scheme, Cooper told the Commons. “We had often warned that it would frankly be cheaper to put them up in the Paris Ritz – frankly now it turns out it would actually be cheaper to buy the Paris Ritz,” she said.

Cooper said the £700m cost included £290m payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining people and then releasing them, and paying more than 1,000 civil servants to work on the policy.

Labour confirmed it was scrapping the scheme immediately after it won the election on 4 July. Cooper has announced the formation of a border security command bringing together police, intelligence agencies and immigration enforcement to try to stop people smugglers.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... tte-cooper

[RTH10260]

In case you plan to flee the US in 2025

‘Every 14-year-old boy’s dream’: Cumbrian nuclear bunker goes to auction
Potential buyers view property mooted as a music studio, novelty Airbnb or even a hideaway for world war three

Mark Brown North of England correspondent
Mon 22 Jul 2024 18.48 CEST

It’s a property with no windows, no running water and no mod cons except for a phone line. But there is parking, the countryside is phenomenal and when Armageddon happens it could be perfect.

This week will bring the rare sale of a 1958 nuclear bunker in the Cumbrian Dales near Sedbergh.

It was one of about 1,500 Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts built across the UK at the height of cold war fears of nuclear attack. The idea was that three volunteers could live down there for a fortnight, able to measure the fallout after the bombs dropped and broadcast messages to the public.

After decommissioning, most of the bunkers were sold off and are today often sites for mobile phone masts. But on Thursday one will be auctioned online for anyone to buy. It is “secure, dry and in its original condition” and has a guide price of £15,000-£20,000.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/art ... to-auction

[RTH10260]

Historical

Sad last days of Harold Wilson revealed by Cabinet Office archives
Former politicians pay tribute after files show ‘Labour’s most successful leader’ was forced to consider selling legacy to pay for his dementia care

Caroline Davies
Sat 27 Jul 2024 07.00 CEST

Margaret Thatcher described him as “the most skilful of politicians” and Tony Blair thought him “Labour’s most successful leader ever”.

Such elegies on the death in 1995 of Harold Wilson, 79, the twice Labour prime minister who had Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, betray nothing of the reality of his later years – spent in the unforgiving grip of dementia and, it has emerged, forced to consider selling his personal and political papers to meet the heavy and increasing costs of care.

Five years before his death, Thatcher’s government was alarmed at plans to sell Lord Wilson of Rievaulx’s archive for £212,500 (about £700,000 in today’s money) to Canada’s McMaster University, newly released Cabinet Office files revealed this week.

Harold Wilson confessed to secret ‘love match’ while PM, former aide reveals
Read more
Aside from alarm about his collection going overseas – and breaching the so-called 30-year-rule – the files also reveal sadness at “the case of a former prime minister fallen on hard times in this way”.

“I doubt in his full senses, and he wasn’t, Harold would have wanted or tried to sell official papers,” said Joe Haines, 96, his press secretary at No 10.

The truth was that the disease that robbed him of his brilliant mind also deprived him of any real way of making a living once he left parliament in 1983 after almost 40 years.

Harold Wilson described himself as ‘the lad from behind those lace curtains in the Huddersfield house’. Photograph: PA
“He never had much money of his own. Because of his mental condition he couldn’t write articles or make speeches, and his income would have been his pension as an ex-prime minister,” said Haines, who estimates that at the time as a “comparatively small sum”.

“He was given a job by [former Labour MP and late media proprietor] Robert Maxwell, made a trustee of some kind, but it was really only to help him out because, as I knew, his powers were fading in 1976.”



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... e-archives

[RTH10260]

‘Free money’: £4bn lost to fraud and error on flagship HMRC ‘innovation’ scheme
UK tax credits to promote research and development were claimed by a pub for changing its menus and by window cleaners for hanging their buckets

Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Sat 3 Aug 2024 12.03 CEST

A government scheme to champion new research and boost the economy has cost more than £4bn in fraud and error since 2020 after widespread abuse.

The research and development tax credits scheme was designed to help drive world-leading innovation, but turned into what has been described by experts as a “wild west” with huge volumes of dubious claims.

Alleged claims of groundbreaking research included a safer method developed by a window-cleaning firm to hold a water bucket at height; adding vegan and gluten-free options to a pub menu; and redesigning corporate websites. The scheme was described as “free money” by some agents.

New figures published in HM Revenue and Customs’ annual report last week reveal that the estimated cost of fraud and error in the scheme was more than £4.1bn from 2020-21 to 2023-24. HMRC says expenditure on the reliefs in 2023-24 was £7.7bn.

The scale of the abuse of tax credits has emerged as Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, pledges to crack down on tax fraud and non-compliance. Labour hopes to raise £5bn by the end of this parliament by recovering more tax revenues. Tax officials said that the error and fraud in R&D tax relief revealed in the report was “clearly unacceptable” and the public would expect action.

Colin Hailey, a technology tax expert who has given evidence to parliament on the tax reliefs, said he and other advisers were warning about the abuses in the scheme more than six years ago. He said claims were not being properly vetted by HMRC and the increase was driven by agents claiming hefty commissions.

“There was an industrialisation of the claims process with all these advisers saying they were experts and could sort the claims for between 20% and 30% of the value,” Hailey said. “It was the wild west. These advisers were cold-calling firms and saying, ‘you don’t think you’re doing R&D, but we can help you’.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ion-scheme