UK News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Vaughan Gething to be Wales' next first minister

2 hours ago

Vaughan Gething is set to be Wales' next first minister after narrowly winning the Welsh Labour leadership election with 51.7% of the vote.

Mr Gething, who will become the first black person to lead Wales, beat his rival Jeremy Miles, who took 48.3%.

He was congratulated by UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

But Plaid Cymru expressed "deep concerns" over donations from a controversial waste company in Cardiff.

Mr Gething's campaign was marred by headlines about £200,000 of cash from Dauson Environmental Group, owned by a man that had twice prosecuted for environmental offences.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-68500807

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Vodafone and Three agree UK merger to create biggest mobile player worth £15bn

Wednesday 14 June 2023 12:46

A deal that would create the country's biggest mobile phone operator has been struck by Vodafone and the owner of Three UK, CK Hutchison.

The new combined group, which will comprise only their respective UK operations, will be majority-owned by Vodafone with 51% of the equity.

The merger, if approved by regulators, will create a group with a combined 27 million mobile customers.

It would mean that BT-owned EE would lose its number one position in the market by customer numbers. The merger would also see the combined group overtake O2.

But the Competition and Markets Authority is likely to be concerned that the proposal will lead to weaker competition.

https://news.sky.com/story/vodafone-and ... n-12899033

More on this:-

Three UK boss piles on pressure for Vodafone merger approval

Mar 21, 2024 12:35pm

The U.K. Communications and Markets Authority (CMA) has set March 22 as the deadline by which it should reach a decision on the first phase of its probe into the proposed merger of Three UK and Vodafone UK — in other words, by the end of this week.

As the CMA indicates, it is by no means certain that a decision will actually be announced by or on this date. However, it seems likely that the two merging partners will soon find out if they will face a more in-depth merger investigation that could last up to 32 weeks.

As they wait, both Vodafone UK and Three UK have availed themselves of the opportunity to hammer home, repeatedly, the message that they will struggle to survive as standalone operators in the face of competition from two large, converged rivals: BT/EE and Virgin Media O2.

Vodafone, for instance, has warned several times that its ambitions for a speedy rollout of a standalone 5G network will be hampered if the merger is not permitted to go ahead — even though it seems that Scotland would not get full 5G SA coverage until 2034 even with the merger.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/three ... r-approval

[Time_Traveller]

Bill to ban trophy hunting imports back in front of MPs

4 hours ago



Plans for a ban on the import of animal hunting trophies will return to the Commons later.

The body parts of lions, elephants and zebras killed for sport would no longer be allowed into the UK under a new law proposed by Labour MP John Spellar.

This is the third attempt to get such imports outlawed, following a Tory manifesto commitment in 2019.

But critics say UK MPs should not interfere, as paid-for hunting finances efforts to combat poaching.

Up to 25,000 animal parts have been brought into the UK as hunting trophies since the 1980s, according to the database of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68626052

[Time_Traveller]

Rwanda trips by UK ministers and officials have already cost over £400,000

Fri 22 Mar 2024 16.34 GMT

Sending ministers and officials to Rwanda has cost the government more than £400,000 before a single deportation flight has taken off, figures show.

Ministers have spent a total of £413,541 on travel in the two years since the policy to send asylum seekers to Kigali started to be developed.

The total, calculated by the Labour party, is based on government transparency releases. It includes trips by senior government officials and a succession of ministers and home secretaries including James Cleverly, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel.

This week it emerged that Cleverly spent £165,561 on chartering a private jet for a one-day trip to sign a new treaty with Rwanda in December. The cost of the flight was published in a transparency document on Thursday.

The shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock, said: “Having clearly decided that committing £600m of taxpayers’ money to the Rwandan government for just 300 refugees wasn’t insulting enough, it now emerges that three home secretaries have blown hundreds of thousands of pounds on their various publicity stunts in Rwanda. This government’s enthusiasm for wasting taxpayers’ money knows no bounds.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ver-400000

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

Oh dear.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate ... =108392563

(she got cancer)

[Time_Traveller]

About damn time. It's the 21st century and we still have an unelected upper chamber.

This would be a huge change!

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Keir Starmer: I will abolish House of Lords to ‘restore trust in politics’

Sat 19 Nov 2022 19.30 GMT

Keir Starmer will abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a new elected chamber as part of plans to “restore trust in politics”, the Observer understands.

In a sweeping constitutional overhaul, the Labour leader has told the party’s peers that he wants to strip politicians of the power to make appointments to the Lords as part of the first-term programme of a Labour government. Starmer said that the public’s faith in the political system had been undermined by successive Tory leaders handing peerages to “lackeys and donors”.

It is understood that Labour will hold a consultation on the composition and size of a new chamber as well as immediate reforms to the current appointments process. Final proposals will be included in the party’s next election manifesto.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... n-politics

More on this from Plaid Cymru: -

Carmen Smith: Youngest peer's job is to 'lead' efforts to 'get rid' of House of Lords, Plaid Cymru leader says

Friday 22 March 2024 00:28, UK



The job of the youngest peer in the House of Lords will be to "lead" efforts to "get rid" of it, Plaid Cymru's leader has said.

Baroness Smith, 28, of Llanfaes officially took her seat in the Lords on Wednesday.

Her party's leader Rhun ap Iorwerth told Sky News she would be front and centre of his party's efforts to end the "undemocratic, unelected House of Lords".

"While it exists and Welsh decisions are taken there, while it has influence on legislation that affects Wales, it is simple. We have to be around the table," he said.

Mr ap Iorwerth, 51, was speaking before the party's two-day spring conference in Caernarfon, which begins on Friday.

https://news.sky.com/story/carmen-smith ... s-13099275

[Time_Traveller]

Bahrain state fund takes full ownership of supercar-maker McLaren

Friday 22 March 2024 08:19, UK



Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund has completed a deal to take full ownership of McLaren Group, one of the most revered names in British manufacturing, after years of negotiations to put the company on a stable long-term footing.

Sky News understands that McLaren will announce later on Friday that the recapitalisation of the supercar manufacturer and Formula One team shareholder has been concluded.

The deal will pave the way for McLaren to pursue a technology partnership with a global automotive giant that could also involve Mumtalakat offloading a minority stake in the Woking-based company.

In a statement issued to Sky News, Paul Walsh, McLaren's executive chairman, said the deal would strengthen the company's governance and ownership structure.

"This will further enable us to focus on delivering our long-term business plan, including investment in new products and technologies, whilst continuing to explore potential technical partnerships with industry partners," said Mr Walsh, the former Diageo chief executive.

https://news.sky.com/story/bahrain-stat ... n-13099706