Given what we’ve learned and what we know, these very close relations that the prime minister is apparently attempting may not be wise, and the rather sycophantic tone the prime minister took with President Xi at the G20 a few weeks ago may not be very wise in light of what we now.
Jarvis said he did not agree with this assessment. Referring to what happened when David Cameron was prime minister, and he hosted President Xi during his visit to the UK, Jarvis said:
At least [Keir Starmer] least he did not take him to the pub for a pint.
China in the enhanced sphere for FIRS (ie, to subject to to extra checks, because of the higher risk it poses). He said Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, has said the last government was about to put China on the list in this category.
And he said the UK was buying solar panels from China made with slave labour. “Far from challenging China on human rights, it now appears we are turning a blind eye to them,” he said.
In response, Dan Jarvis, the Home Office minister, said FIRS was not ready to go live when Labour took office. He said the plans were “not sufficiently robust”.
As for whether China would be included in the enhanced sphere, he said the Home Office would be setting out its approach to using this sphere in due course.
China, he says the government’s position is to challenge where it must, compete where it has to, and cooperate where it can.
He says the details of the foreign influence registration scheme (FIRS) will be set out in the new year, and the scheme will come operational in the summer, he says.
China will start imminently.inspired by the version in Estonia and he claimed it would cost £41bn. Truss reportedly described this as a “great idea”, but even she drew the line at implementing.
As well as cost, another disadvantage with flat taxes is that they do not allow scope for exemptions – like the one farmers have enjoyed from inheritance tax.
the SIAC [special immigration appeals commission] decision. It is also why an order extending my anonymity up to the point of determination of the appeal process was granted.
I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as “taking blind shots at a hidden target”.
On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.
The political climate has changed, and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this. When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.
I am an independent self-made entrepreneur and I have always aimed to foster partnerships and build bridges between East and West. I have dedicated my professional life in the UK to building links between British and Chinese businesses. My activities have played a part in bringing hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the UK.
I built my private life in the UK over two decades and love the country as my second home. I would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.
Conservatives will reverse the tax changes if they get back into government. She said:
You are the families that work day in day out. Your children are on the farm as soon as they can squeeze a pair of wellies onto their feet. You are the families that this Christmas Day will be having your fun and enjoying Christmas Day, but you’ll also be out on the farm, feeding livestock, making sure that everything is ticking over whilst everybody else is enjoying the Christmas lunches that you and our farmers have produced. You are the families that continue working well beyond retirement age, because that’s what farming is. It’s not a job. It is a way of life. It is a vocation.
Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron also spoke. He said:
The narrative that is put out there is that these are wealthy, wealthy people who should be paying inheritance tax like everybody else. And that’s a complete nonsense when you understand the reality of life … the typical farmer in my community is sitting on a farm that may be worth millions of pounds, and typically they will be earning significantly, significantly less than the minimum wage.
English devolution white paper.Prince Andrew as a way to gain access to the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang, Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker report.
Rayner is now taking questions.
Q: Mayors want powers over post-16 education. What will happen if mayors want powers you are not willing to give them?
Q: How can I explain to people what this will mean to voters?
Q: Some mayors want fiscal devolution – things like a tourism tax. You are not offering that. Could that change?
Rayner is answering all three questions together.
She says Whitehall will have to give a good reason if it is refusing requests for new powers from mayors.
On taxation, she says mayors will have more flexibility over who they use council tax receipts.
She says she has never seen a more “scary’” group than what she calls “the pride” of Labour mayors. She says they are sharing information.
She says she expects them to demand more.
UPDATE: Rayner said:
There is kind of a theme here of ‘wow, that is great, but we want more’, which is even better.
It is evolution as well as revolution and you have seen that some areas where we have got combined authorities have gone much further because they have been able to do that, and we want to push that.
This white paper and the bill that we will be putting forward will be a default for devolution, so Whitehall would have to give a good excuse as to why they wouldn’t give those areas the devolution.
We want to make sure we do that whether it is the post-16 skills or any other element.
Rayner says, as well as extending the number of mayoral authorities, she wants to give them more powers.
Rayner says having the right powers in the right place (the goal of the devolution plans) can revive faith in democracy.
She praises initiatives already taken by Labour metro mayors, including Oxford Street regeneration in London, the train service in Liverpool, buses under local control in Manchester, and clean energy jobs in the East Midlands.
She says the last Labour government introduced devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
But in England devolution has been a patchwork, she says. She goes on:
Under the Conservatives, devolution has often meant creating a patchwork of individual deals benefiting some parts of the country while other parts have missed out.
Well, no more. With our Plan for Change … it’s time for a completely new way of governing, one that unites public and private sectors, at all levels of government, business, and unions and the whole of civil society.
Rayner says in future devolution “no longer be agreed by the whim of a minister in Whitehall. It will now be default in our constitution”.
Ultimately, our aim is mayoral devolution over areas of genuine strategic scale, and to create strategic authorities as a new tier of local government to give our cities and regions a bigger voice.
And, if local leaders cannot agree on a mayoral model, Whitehall will impose one, she says.
So I will legislate for a new power of ministerial directive which will allow central government to not heads together and create strategic authorities where local leaders cannot agree.
Angela Rayner starts by saying this is a moment that people have been waiting for for a long time – “the turning point when people and places across England finally begin to take back control over the things that matter to them”.
Source: theguardian.com
