Home
Sir Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, attacked current net-zero policies, saying that ‘any strategy based on either “phasing out” fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail’. Pay review bodies recommended rises for public-sector workers (4 per cent for teachers; 3 per cent for NHS employees) that are higher than the 2.8 per cent budgeted for by the government. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, in applying last month’s judgment by the Supreme Court, said that in places like hospitals, shops and restaurants ‘trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men’s facilities’, such as lavatories, but trans people should not be left without facilities. Resident doctors (junior doctors) in the British Medical Association passed a conference motion calling the Supreme Court ruling ‘biologically nonsensical’.
Marks & Spencer stopped taking online orders and found distribution disrupted as it tried to recover from a cyber attack thought by outsiders to have been launched by a criminal gang, perhaps one called Scattered Spider. The sugar tax imposed in 2018 on fizzy drinks will be extended to milkshakes. Four million children will be affected by a government restriction on the number of branded school uniform items, optimistically intended to reduce costs. A large fire destroyed an electricity substation in Maida Vale, London.
Voters turned out on a sunny 1 May to elect 1,641 candidates for council seats in 24 local authorities in England. The number of people to cross the Channel in small boats so far this year exceeded 10,000, about 40 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in