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The Labour government announced a ‘Plan for Change’ that it refused to call a reset. Sir Chris Wormald was named Cabinet Secretary. In his Guildhall speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said that ‘the idea that we must choose between our allies, that somehow we’re with either America or Europe, is plain wrong’. He said ‘we must continue to back Ukraine’ against Vladimir Putin as something ‘deeply in our self-interest’. With the arrival of another 122 people on 1 December, more than 20,000 had crossed the Channel in small boats since Labour entered office. A group of about 60 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers were brought to Britain from Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands, which the British government is trying to give to Mauritius. The 3,235 foreign offenders freed from jail in the year to March 2022 each committed a further three crimes on average – a total of 10,012 offences, according to the Ministry of Justice. The Office for National Statistics said that, with 484,000 more working-age adults in Britain than it had previously assumed, productivity had fallen by 0.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year, not the 0.3 per cent previously estimated.
The Commons voted for assisted suicide by giving a second reading by 330 to 275 to the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater. Only 23 Conservative MPs voted for the bill; Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, and Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, voted against. Louise Haigh resigned as transport secretary after it emerged that she had pleaded guilty in 2014, shortly before becoming an MP, to incorrectly telling the police that a work mobile had been stolen; she also had dyed red hair. Heidi Alexander replaced her. Andrew R.T. Davies resigned as the Conservative leader in the Welsh Senedd, for lack of support from colleagues, all 15 of whom sit in the Welsh shadow cabinet.
The Queen’s chest infection, announced on 5 November, still prevented her from taking part in outdoor events for the state visit of the Emir of Qatar and one of his three wives. The Prime Minister entertained the Prime Minister of Greece at No. 10 with talk of the Elgin Marbles. Tomato purée labelled as Italian and sold in British supermarkets contains tomatoes grown and picked in China using forced labour, the BBC reported.
Abroad
Russia launched air strikes on Aleppo after the city was unexpectedly taken over by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed Islamist movement regarded by Britain and allies as terrorists. The UN agency Unrwa suspended delivery of aid to Gaza via the main Kerem Shalom crossing after two convoys had been looted by armed gangs. Despite a ceasefire, Israel made air strikes on southern Lebanon and Hezbollah made mortar attacks on a border military base. In Tbilisi, protestors repeatedly took to the street against the rejection of the European Union and siding with Russia by the ruling party, Georgian Dream.
The Yi Peng Three, a 224-metre Chinese bulk carrier, remained anchored in the Kattegat, monitored by Denmark since 19 November, while Sweden asked China to aid investigations into the severing of a 730-mile telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany and a 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden. A Vietnamese property tycoon, Truong My Lan, was sentenced to death for embezzlement unless she returned £9 billion. President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared emergency martial law when parliament was locked in dissension over the budget; but after 190 MPs managed to get into the chamber and unanimously voted against the decree, he lifted it again.
Michel Barnier, the Prime Minister of France, defied the National Assembly to reject him and his budget in a vote of no confidence. The restoration of Notre-Dame was completed, with 1,200 oak trees in the roof. Despite previously saying that he would not do so, President Joe Biden of America officially pardoned his son Hunter, who was due to be sentenced this month on federal gun and tax convictions. Mr Biden visited Angola, where America is sponsoring an 800-mile railway from the port of Lobito to the mines of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. President-elect Donald Trump nominated the banker Warren Stephens as America’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. Fianna Fail won 48 seats in the Irish elections; Sinn Fein won 39 and Fine Gael won 38. The European Commission decided that, at 20,000, there were more than enough wolves in the EU. CSH
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