By Graham Vanbergen: In a pretty short period, Britain has gone from what many considered an international laughing stock with its decade-long Tory Party psychodrama and Brexit breakdown into the calm waters of something that looks like … well, normal Britain. Meanwhile, America, France, Germany, Italy and five other European countries are infighting with their own political extremes. China, the Middle East and many parts of Africa are in or heading for war (hot wars, cold wars, civil wars or trade wars), or a desperate attempt to fight the effects of climate change or the world’s highest numbers of displaced people in human history – that are migrating. Then, of course, there is what is now termed the ‘meat-grinder’ that is the bloodbath going on with Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. It is, if nothing else, quiet here in Old Blighty for once. That said – it appears Britain is to become an enemy of Trump’s America with our new self-inflicted calmness, having elected the political opposite of what might be coming next from the USA. It won’t just be the disintegration of so-called ‘special-relationship’ – it will be much worse.
As for Donald Trump, we should get one thing right: he was a victim of a shooting in a country he has been inciting to violence for years. Trump is neither a martyr nor a hero – he is a cause. The stakes appear to be getting higher in democracies all over the world, where people feel let down – and all populists do is raise the temperature.
Our summer this year might not be glorious – but at least we are not in a drought or a heatwave lasting longer than two days. Supply chains are delivering most of what we need, and, more importantly, irrespective of your worldview – Britain has its head down and is now looking to repair our dalliance with populism – which, let’s be fair, dramatically failed. It is, however, fixable (ish) by all accounts. I am optimistic that enough adults with a plan have turned up.
New PM Starmer has got off to a good start but left some gaping holes in his plan for the country ahead in the King’s Speech. An AI Bill was promised in the Labour manifesto. Reforming the House of Lords beyond an age limit and removing hereditary peers is much needed but then so is ending the two-child benefit limit as we head for population decline – all of which seem like no-brainers.
Then there are votes for 16-year-olds. Years ago, I was against this idea, but seeing what the over 80s vote for today (right-wing, populist, Brexiteering, Reform supporters), a counter-balance is needed – and 16 to 18-year-olds are better equipped to make a decision about their future than people who are statistically unlikely even to make it to the next parliament.
In the list below, we move from stories in the news you might have missed from the UK to further afield. Enjoy!
72 Per Cent of Women Prison Officers Sanctioned For Inappropriate Behaviour
OpenDemocracy reports that nearly 100 prison employees in England and Wales have faced disciplinary action, including 63 who were fired, for inappropriate relationships with inmates since 2017.
Inappropriate relationships include those that are sexual or otherwise “blur” the lines between staff and prisoners, as well as those that violate boundaries – for example, by giving one inmate favourable treatment.
More than half of prison officers have spent fewer than five years in the job – a decade ago that figure was just 11.3 per cent. The impact of austerity measures means there are also fewer staff members in English and Welsh prisons today than in 2010, despite the prison population rising by 4,000 to 84,000 since then.
New prime minister Keir Starmer described the state of prisons as “shocking”, saying the crisis is “even worse than I thought it was”.
Surprisingly – women working in men’s prisons received 72% of the total sanctions handed out for inappropriate relationships with prisoners in the past five years.
Reform needs Reforming
Reform UK fielded swathes of super-anonymous ‘phantom candidates’ in the 2024 General Election – potentially netting the party hundreds of thousands of pounds in extra public cash, or ‘Short money’ and hiking its national limits – Byline Times reported.
Voters across the country have raised concerns with the Electoral Commission about Reform parliamentary candidates with no online presence and blank website pages, leading to suspicions that some may not even exist. Byline Times also received dozens of reports of Reform candidates who were nowhere to be found during the election.
Unbelievably, the Electoral Commission says it is powerless to investigate, which was stripped of its powers by the Boris Johnson government.
Tom Brake, former Liberal Democrat MP and director of Unlock Democracy, said; “If it looks as though the law was broken, police investigations must follow and prosecution by the CPS. And if the police and the CPS have no appetite for pursuing any case, it might be time to look again at the Electoral Commission’s prosecution powers.”
Mercy for Mercer?
The former veterans’ minister is potentially facing a prison sentence after his application to withhold the names of those who told him about alleged special forces murders was rejected by the Afghanistan Inquiry’s chairman.
Sir Charles Haddon-Cave’s ruling on Thursday quoted from the British Army’s values and standards by saying: “Integrity requires moral courage to do what is right, even when it may not be popular.”
Mr Mercer repeatedly refused to hand over names of “multiple officers” who told him about allegations of murder and a cover-up during his time as a backbench MP while giving evidence to the probe in February, the London Economic reports.
Head-Scratching School Funding Problem
While important, early decisions by the new government on teacher pay and school funding are likely to be eclipsed by the longer-term challenges associated with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – (SEND) funding and support writes the IFS.
The system covers some of the most vulnerable children, who face significant challenges accessing education.
Numbers have grown by an astonishing 60 per cent since 2015. Partly as a result, funding directed at high-needs has grown by £3.5 billion since 2015, taking up nearly half of the total growth in school funding over the same period.
Councils have reacted to high demand and spiralling costs by taking a harder line on initial applications. However, this is likely to have rationed support to parents with the loudest voices and money to spend on private assessments.
Indeed, 98% of appeals to tribunals are won by parents that make it that far. With costs and funding going up by £700-800 million per year, challenges in the SEND system are a first-order fiscal challenge.
Tory Failure Highlighted
The Resolution Foundation report examined how income growth, poverty and inequality have changed over the last Parliament and since 2010. It does not make for pretty reading. This is because income growth since 2009-10 has been particularly low, with typical non-pensioner household incomes growing by just £140 per year.
Whilst the Tories have been battling it out amongst themselves over membership of the EU, who is more right-wing than the next and showering taxpayers’ cash amongst their donors – they forgot about economic policies that could boost productivity.
Its not like things are getting any better. as the charity states: “Although there is still more data to be released before we can conclusively assess progress up to the 2024 election, it is likely that the 2019-2024 Parliament will have been the worst for income growth since at least the 1950s.”
House Price Growth
The Financial Reporter has published the latest house price data. It sees average UK house price annual inflation at 2.2% in the 12 months to May 2024, up from an increase of 1.3% in April, according to the latest UK House Price Index from the Land Registry.
The average UK house price was £285,000 in May, £6,000 higher than 12 months ago.
Over the past year, average house prices have increased by 2.2% in England, 2.4% in Wales, 2.5% in Scotland, and 4.0% in Northern Ireland.
Of the English regions, annual house price inflation was highest in the Yorkshire and the Humber, where prices increased by 3.9% in the 12 months to May. London was the English region with the lowest annual inflation, where prices increased by 0.2% over the year.
Second Homes Collapse
For many years, having a second home in Britain was a profitable investment or a convenient little luxury for weekends away or summer holidays. Now, after a wave of tax increases, the end of the era of cheap borrowing and the imposition of even more red tape, it seems the second home boom is over.
New figures reveal that the proportion of additional properties purchased – second homes and buy-to-lets – has fallen to a record low, according to figures from Hamptons estate agency. It has hit less than 1pc for the first time, down from 1.9pc in 2019.
And in the five areas with the highest ratio of additional home purchases historically – all of them rural and coastal holiday home areas rather than cities – the proportion purchased has collapsed.
300 Years of Data
The central task for the global economy since Adam Smith’s times has been to provide for an exploding population. Life expectancy has doubled; the global headcount has risen more than ten-fold, yet economic output has increased far faster – growing by 16,700%.
At the time of Smith’s death in 1790, there were one billion people on earth. There are now eight billion, an increase mainly driven by improvements in healthcare and sanitation. Bacterial diseases that were significant killers, including cholera and tuberculosis, have been almost eradicated, and there are many fewer deaths during childbirth. By 2100, the world’s population could reach 11 billion, with much of the growth in Africa and South Asia. The populations of East Asia, Europe and Latin America are likely to level off and then shrink.
Here is the data from 300 years of population, life expectancy, GDP per capita, global emissions, working hours, transistors and microchips, and women in the workplace.
Germany To Halve Military Aid To Ukraine
Germany will halve military aid for Ukraine next year, even with the possibility that Republican candidate Donald Trump could return to the White House and curb support for Kyiv.
Reuters News Agency reports that German aid to Ukraine will be cut to 4 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in 2025 from around 8 billion euros in 2024, according to a draft of the 2025 budget seen by Reuters.
Germany hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with the $50 billion in loans from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets agreed by the Group of Seven, and that funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used.
Say cheese: Japanese scientists make robot face ‘smile’ with living skin
TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters) – Japanese scientists have devised a way to attach living skin tissue to robotic faces and make them “smile,” in a breakthrough that holds out promise of applications in cosmetics and medicine.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo grew human skin cells in the shape of a face and pulled it into a wide grin, using embedded ligament-like attachments.
The result, though eerie, is an important step towards building more life-like robots, said lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi.
Global Deep Sea Mining Code
The future of the ocean floor – and its potential to provide minerals used in electric vehicles – is being debated this week in Jamaica reports Tortoise Media.
The 36-member council of the UN’s International Seabed Authority, which regulates deep sea mining, will negotiate the latest draft of a “mining code” to manage the exploration and extraction of metals like cobalt and nickel, which otherwise have to be mined on land.
At least 27 countries have called for a ban or pause on all deep sea mining proposals, saying it could cause irreversible damage to a little-understood marine environment (Hawaii last week issued an outright ban in its waters), while others have started questioning the economic benefit.
Nuclear Carrots
A picture claiming to show Tesco carrots grown in Chornobyl has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook.
A clearer version of the picture, posted to X (formerly Twitter, as everyone has to point out) in 2020 shows that the label has been digitally drawn over to hide the real production location, while the text reading “Chernobyl” does not curve with the plastic packaging indicating it has been added later.
But as FullFact has written before, this picture has been edited and was originally shared as a joke. However, FullFact decided to cover the story again as clearly many people believe it to be true.
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