Future Timeline

Fri 23 Sep 2022 19.53 BST

Liz Truss has scrapped the national security council and merged it with two Boris Johnson-era foreign policy committees in a structure that Labour warned risked diluting the government’s security focus.

Created in 2010 under the coalition, led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, to better coordinate security policy after the disaster of the Iraq war, the NSC is now to be replaced by a broad eight-strong foreign policy and security council (FPSC).

The NSC brought together senior ministers with spy chiefs and the head of the armed forces to focus on security matters and continued under Theresa May, although it met less frequently when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, said there was a risk that the new committee could become “another Whitehall policy talking-shop”. Britain, he argued, “needs a hard-headed security council ready to act”.

Lord Ricketts, a former national security adviser, said he feared the change would “pull ministers even further towards short-term crisis management and mean that even less time is spent on strategic cross-government thinking – at a time we need that more than ever”.

wjfox wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:27 am Labour has my vote. ✓

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Keir Starmer unveils green growth plan to counter Liz Truss’s tax cuts

Sat 24 Sep 2022 22.00 BST

Keir Starmer will pledge to deliver a new era of economic growth and permanently lower energy bills by turning the UK into an independent green “superpower” before 2030, through a massive expansion of wind and solar energy.

Announcing details of the plan exclusively to the Observer, the Labour leader says he will double the amount of onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power, “re-industrialising” the country to create a zero carbon, self-sufficient electricity system, by the end of this decade.

Starmer says the move – far more ambitious than any green policy advanced by the Tories and the most far-reaching of his leadership so far – would release the British people from the mercy of “dictators” such as Russian president Vladimir Putin over energy bills.

It would also, he says, cut hundreds of pounds off annual household energy bills “for good”, create up to half a million UK jobs, and make this country the first to have a zero-emission power system.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... s-tax-cuts

(Courthouse News) — Census results released on Thursday in the United Kingdom have revealed that Northern Ireland’s Catholic population now outnumbers the Protestant community for the first time in the country’s 101-year history.

According to the data collected last year nationwide, 45.7% of Northern Ireland’s population are Catholic or have a Catholic background. This compares to 43.4% stating they are Protestant or from a Protestant background.

The (polling) data supports the view that the younger generation regard the debate over Northern Ireland’s status as a civil and political question, rather than pertaining to religious identity.

Such a shift is equally noticeable among Northern Ireland’s political parties. The new generation of Sinn Féin’s leadership have proved themselves willing to be far more critical of the Catholic Church’s historic influence over Ireland. Equally, public schisms between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Free Presbyterian Church – traditionally sister organizations both founded by the Reverend Ian Paisley – have become more common in recent years.

In short, Northern Ireland’s complicated and sensitive politics are increasingly hard to simply map onto religious identity. Though the demographic shift announced this week is hugely significant in terms of future political direction, it has also been a long time coming. The more uncertain decline of sectarianism is perhaps of greater importance, as it points towards a polity that can maintain cross-community relations and prevent a return to violence.

(NBC News) The British pound plunged to a record low against the U.S. dollar Monday.

It happened after the British government announced it would cut taxes and invest in industry in order to boost growth.

The pound, historically one of the strongest currencies in the world, fell to as low as $1.04 before bouncing back to approximately $1.07. For most of the past few decades, the pound averaged a price of about $1.50 against the dollar.

While a falling pound will be good for British exporters, traders are betting that the budget, unveiled by the new prime minster, Liz Truss, will lead to higher inflation — and have sent the value of the the country's currency plummeting in response.

Britons were already feeling the impact of the pound's decline before its most recent move. British drivers are now paying $5.45 more on average — equivalent to 5 pounds more — to fill up their cars since the beginning of the year as the pound has steadily fallen, The Associated Press reported Monday.

wjfox wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:57 pm From 2pm, Keir Starmer is giving his first speech at Labour's party conference in Liverpool.