Tag Archives: Politics

Trump Suggests He’s Like Jesus As Hearing Over Porn Star Payment Begins

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Donald Trump on Monday embraced the idea that he’s kind of like Jesus Christ, as he attended a court hearing for his upcoming criminal trial over hush money payments made to an adult film star with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair.

The comparison came courtesy of Truth Social, where Trump’s account shared a message purportedly sent to him by a follower.

“It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you,” the message reads, suggesting that Trump’s $468 million fine for decades of financial fraud is on par with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

The message then points to Psalm 109, a verse that the Christian right has embraced as a fairly ominous political rallying cry.

The stanza ends: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

“Thank you again for taking the arrows intended for us. We love you,” concludes the message that may or may not have actually been sent by a fan of the former president. (It wasn’t filled with WORDS IN ALL CAPS and random uses of quotation “marks”, so it could indeed be authentic.)

Trump responded by calling the sentiment “beautiful”.

Trump’s legal team is seeking to further delay the hush money trial, originally scheduled to begin March 25, after additional evidence from an earlier federal investigation came to light.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan already postponed the trial 30 days. Trump’s lawyers have asked for 90.

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Tory MP Says Government ‘Should Be Ashamed’ Over Treatment Of WASPIs

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A Conservative MP has criticised the government over its handling of the group known as the WASPIs, saying it “should be ashamed”.

Backbencher Tim Loughton called for action after a major report – released last week – found the government should compensate those women impacted by changes to the state pension age.

He told Times Radio “a lot of women” in the Waspi group – Women Against State Pension Inequality – have suffered” due to this incident.

The Waspi campaign is made up of women born in the 1950s who were impacted by increases to their state pension age (from 60 to 65) so it was equal with men’s.

The change happened between 2010 and 2018. Many say they were not adequately informed about the shift, and so ended up losing out on several years of their state pension.

According to Waspi, more than a quarter of a million women have died since the campaign began.

Loughton said: “A lot of women have suffered over a long period of time, and many of them have died in quite tragic circumstances, which is why we need recognition for what they’ve gone through.”

“I think they [the Department for Work and Pensions] should be ashamed. The government has got to take note,” the Tory MP – who used to co-chair an All-Party Parliamentary group on the issue – said.

“The Ombudsman clearly found the DWP were guilty of maladministration, that they’ve not properly communicated these changes with a great number of women.”

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published its second report into the issue on Thursday, and found those affected were not adequately informed – and therefore need an apology and payouts.

But during Sunday morning media rounds, neither the Conservatives nor Labour committed to compensating those impacted.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the issue was “genuinely more complicated” than other schemes were compensation was now being handed out, adding: “There’s no secret vault of money.”

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds said, “those women deserve respect, that’s the most important [thing],” but did not make any promises.

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Rishi Sunak Corrected By Community Notes On X 25 Times, Report Finds

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Rishi Sunak has been publicly corrected on 25 different occasions for his misleading posts on social media, according to a new report.

The research, conducted by pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain and first reported by The Independent, also found that the Conservative Party is almost five times more likely to be corrected than Labour.

Best for Britain came to that conclusion by comparing the number of community notes added to posts on X (formerly Twitter) from the prime minister, cabinet ministers and the official Conservative account to their opposition counterparts.

What are community notes?

Community notes are a feature in the social media platform which were added in January 2023 to allow other X users to add context or clarifications to posts.

Users who sign up to be “contributors” can add notes to posts offering different points of view. If enough of these notes are rated as helpful by fellow contributors, it will appear below the post in question as a community note.

According to X, “community notes aim to create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts”.

How many times have the Tories and Labour been corrected in this way?

Best for Britain found 73 community notes attached to government accounts in total, compared to 15 from official opposition accounts.

Twenty-six of those posts were attached to the Conservative Party’s official account, and 25 were from the PM who vowed at the start of his premiership to lead with “integrity, professionalism and accountability”.

In the first week of January, Sunak was rebuked three times for posting misleading claims about clearing the asylum backlog, suggesting tax was cut, and claiming responsibility for halving inflation.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer has accrued four community notes in the same period while the Labour account has seven.

David Lammy was the only shadow minister to receive more community notes than his counterpart, David Cameron – Lammy has two, while the foreign secretary has none.

The group’s CEO Naomi Smith said the findings “shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially in an election year where lack of trust can feed dangerous populism”.

“A government that the public can’t trust to act with integrity and transparency – both essential for liberal democracy – is a government that shouldn’t be in power,” Smith continued. “We need a general election and our polling shows that the public want it now.”

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Kuenssberg Skewers Chancellor Over Economy Claims: ‘Sounds Like You’re In A Parallel Universe’

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The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg told Jeremy Hunt “it sounds like you’re in a parallel universe” after his recent claims about the cost of living crisis and the economy.

The chancellor made headlines after he posted on X on Friday that £100,000 is not “a huge salary” after mortgage costs and childcare.

His colleague, minister Andrea Leadsom, also caused a stir this week after she claimed the cost of living crisis had ended now inflation is down.

The presenter of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg then pointed out that private rents are up 9% since 2023, council tax for band D up 5.1% since 2023 and petrol prices up 2.3p since January 2024.

After reminding Hunt of these incidents, she asked: “Isn’t there a danger that actually you sound like you’re in a parallel universe?”

Hunt said he was talking to one of his own constituents about paying for childcare in an area where the house prices are averaging around £670,000.

But, the BBC journalist noted: “In your own area, in Surrey, the average full time wage is not even half of that. It’s £42,000.

“So, don’t you think, to many people hearing that, it just sounds completely out of touch?”

Hunt said: “Well, I was talking to one of my own constituents who was saying that, but I do accept that even those people on those higher salaries do feel under pressure.”

He said for the national average salary – those on £35,000 – he reduced their National Insurance contributions, while those on National Living Wage have seen an increase.

Actually, due to fiscal drag – where tax thresholds do not change in line with inflation and rising wages – people will be paying more in tax.

“By the end of this parliament, those people will be worse off,” Kuenssberg said, noting PM Rishi Sunak is still saying the economy is bouncing back.

The chancellor pointed out the Office for Budget Responsibility says we are going to recover to pre-pandemic living standards “two years earlier than previously thought”, saying the “plan was starting to bear fruit”.

Elsewhere, Kuenssberg also asked: “Has the cost of living crisis ended?”

Hunt admitted, “we’ve had a very very tough patch,” but blamed the invasion of Ukraine for driving up energy prices and the Covid pandemic.

He continued: “I think people will welcome the fact that inflation has fallen – but we’re not there yet.

“We need to stick to the course because we need inflation to get down to 2%.

“The thing that will make the biggest difference for families up and down the country is when interest rates falls, and the mortgage rate starts to fall.”

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Ex-Tory Chair Lord Patten Shreds Party For Becoming ‘More Right-Wing And More Unpopular’

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The Conservative’s former chairman has launched a bruising attack on the party for becoming “more right-wing”.

In an interview on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Lord Chris Patten, a former cabinet minister, also labelled Brexit the “biggest disaster in British policy making since the Second World War”.

The Conservative grandee, who has also been an EU Commissioner and the last governor of Hong Kong, was asked about the upcoming general election, and whether there was a chance of a repeat of the 1992 vote, when Lord Patten was the Conservative Party chairman and John Major pulled off a victory despite more than a decade of Tory rule.

He said voters would not give the current government the “benefit of the doubt”.

Lord Patten said: “When asked about my experiences of being party chairman of the Conservative Party, and what the relevance is to my views on things today, I make initially the very important point that I was chairman of the Conservative Party when there was one.

“And I think what we’ve seen over the years, is the Conservative Party becoming more right-wing, as it becomes more right-wing, it becomes more populist, as it becomes more populist, it becomes more unpopular, as it becomes more unpopular, it becomes more right-wing.

“And I think what it does in the process is lose something which won John Major the election 1992.”

On Brexit, Lord Patten said: “What nobody is allowed to say is that Brexit was a bloody disaster.

“And you hear politicians, even ones I quite respect, talking about the difficulties in the economy because of the war in Ukraine, and the effect on oil prices, the effects on the economy of Covid.

“What neither of those issues are ones where to use an awful social scientist’s word, we had agency. So, you can perfectly well say that was bad luck for the government. But Brexit we did ourselves. And it was the biggest disaster in British policymaking I think since the Second World War.”

He went on: “I’m 79, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of us re-joining European Union in my lifetime. .. but I do think there are better ways of organising our relationship with our biggest market, and we should do them, and we shouldn’t when we try to do them, be put off by tabloid headlines’.

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Who Are The ‘Waspi Women’ And Why Are They ‘Owed Compensation’?

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A scathing report has called on the government to compensate women born in the 1950s who were affected by increases to their retirement age.

Equalising the age at which men and women receive their retirement payouts has adversely impacted thousands of women, and ministers should issue compensation up to around £3,000, which could cost the government more than £10bn, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has said.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Who are the Waspi women?

The so-called Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women have been campaigning for fairer retirement payouts.

A generation of women born in the 1950s have been left out of pocket by changes to the state pension age to equalise it across genders.

The issues are related to the changing of women’s state pension age, which changed from 60 to 65, to match up with men.

Both have since changed to 66, and the pension age for both men and women is set to rise again from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028.

They have campaigned for compensation after arguing many women weren’t adequately informed about the massive shift.

Some are struggling to pay the bills and others are working through ill health.

More than a quarter of a million women have died since the campaign began almost a decade ago, the campaign has said.

What has happened?

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has been investigating the issue for five years.

On Thursday, it published its second report, which concluded that those affected by the changes were not adequately informed, and should receive an apology and payouts.

The ombudsman has asked parliament to intervene and “act swiftly” to make sure a compensation scheme is established.

The watchdog said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not acknowledged its failings nor put things right for those affected.

The ombudsman’s report has suggested compensation at level four, ranging between £1,000 and £2,950, could be appropriate for each of those affected.

The report stated: “We recognise the very significant cost to taxpayers of compensating all women affected by DWP’s maladministration.

“Compensating all women born in the 1950s at the level four range would involve spending between around £3.5 billion and £10.5 billion of public funds, though we understand not all of them will have suffered injustice.”

What do the Waspi women say?

WASPI chairwoman Angela Madden said it is “simply unbelievable” that to date the DWP had not acknowledged its failings, nor put things right for those affected.

She said: “One of the affected women is dying every 13 minutes, and we just cannot afford to wait any longer.”

What has the government said?

The government is under no obligation to follow the recommendations.

Both the DWP and the prime minister’s official spokesman said the government will consider the ombudsman’s report and respond to their recommendations formally “in due course”.

A DWP spokesman said: “The government has always been committed to supporting all pensioners in a sustainable way that gives them a dignified retirement whilst also being fair to them and taxpayers.

“The state pension is the foundation of income in retirement and will remain so as we deliver a further 8.5% rise in April which will increase the state pension for 12 million pensioners by £900.”

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Andrea Leadsom Suggests Cost Of Living Crisis Is Over As Inflation Fall Has ‘Cheered Everyone Up’

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Andrea Leadsom has suggested the cost of living crisis has “ended” after a fall in the rate of inflation “obviously cheered everyone up”.

On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics revealed UK inflation has fallen from 4% in January to 3.4% last month, the lowest it’s been since 2021.

While the news is significant given that the measure of the growing cost of goods and services peaked at 11.1% in October 2022, a 41-year high, a decline only means prices are going up at a slower rate, they are not falling.

What’s more, the 3.4% figure is still short of the Bank of England’s target of 2%.

Nonetheless, Conservative minister Leadsom was keen to promote the downward trajectory against the backdrop of Tory unrest.

When asked on Sky News about whether the party was now united, Leadsom said instead: “I think what’s really important is we have seen a fantastic drop in inflation today. That’s what’s really important.

“That has obviously cheered everyone up, it’s what we have been working towards is seeing the cost of living crisis end … seeing people able to take more home in their pay packets or in their salaries every day. That’s the critical point.”

When Rishi Sunak became prime minister, he promised to halve inflation by the end of 2023 – and it ended up being the only one of his five pledges he managed to fulfil.

However, economists question whether government’s can sincerely take credit for getting inflation back under control, not least since central banks control the base interest rate that is the key tool to combat price growth, and ministers blamed global factors when inflation spiralled to record highs.

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Rwanda Bill Frustration As House Of Lords Inflicts Seven Defeats On Rishi Sunak

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The government is facing more frustration over its controversial plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda after the House of Lords inflicted more damage on its flagship legislation.

In the latest set of parliamentary “ping-pong”, peers on Wednesday inserted seven amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill in an effort to water down the policy.

It comes after MPs earlier this week removed 10 changes to the bill previously made by the Lords, undermining Rishi Sunak’s hopes to get deportation flights off the ground in the spring.

The defeats mean the legislation is now not likely to pass until after Easter.

The bill, which aims to overcome the Supreme Court’s block on the Rwanda flights, is almost certain to eventually prevail because the unelected Lords can’t overrule elected MPs. But it’s unclear how long the game of “ping-pong” will continue.

Britain and Rwanda signed a deal almost two years ago that would see migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats sent to the East African country, where they would remain permanently. So far, no migrant has been sent to Rwanda under the agreement.

The plan is key to Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” bringing unauthorised migrants to the UK. He argues that deporting asylum seekers will deter people from making risky journeys and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs. Just under 30,000 people arrived in Britain in small boats in 2023.

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What Is The Garrick Club?

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A central London private members’ club has been under the spotlight after its membership list was published in the Guardian newspaper. But what is the Garrick Club, and why is it controversial?

What is the Garrick Club?

The Covent Garden club, named after eighteenth century actor David Garrick, opened in 1831, and is said to have around 1,500 members.

Last week, The Guardian revealed what it describes as “the roll call of (the) British establishment” – a membership list that reportedly includes judges, barristers, MPs, academics, actors and senior figures in the arts.

London’s private members’ clubs are world famous, with some notorious for their men-only rules and strict dress codes. The Garrick is among the best known among scores of clubs across the capital. Other legendary names include Annabel’s, The Groucho Club and the National Liberal Club, with some more political in their membership than others.

So who is actually a member of the Garrick Club?

The Guardian claimed the membership list included King Charles, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and Sir Richard Moore, the head of MI6.

Among other names on the members list are actors Matthew Macfadyen, Benedict Cumberbatch and Damian Lewis as well as the chief executive of the Royal Opera House, Alex Beard, and Antonio Pappano, who is now chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Others said to be members include Succession star Brian Cox, former England men’s football manager Roy Hodgson and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler. BBC broadcasters John Simpson and Melvyn Bragg are also members, according to the reports.

What’s the controversy?

The row stems from the fact the Garrick Club excludes women, and its refusal to admit female members despite efforts to change the rules. Women can only visit as a guest of a male member.

In 2015, the Garrick’s membership voted 50.5 per cent in favour of allowing female members but the club rules require a two-thirds majority for a change. This year, members will have a chance to vote again on allowing women.

Critics say they have no issue with men hanging out with other men, but have concerns over a club containing so many influential members, highly concentrated in certain professions.

On Wednesday, Simon Case, Britain’s top civil servant, quit the club just a day after being mocked for claiming he had only joined it to help women become members.

Case was asked by a Commons committee how his membership of the Garrick could be squared with his commitment to making the civil service more diverse.

He said: “My position on this one is also clear. If you believe profoundly in reform of an institution, by and large it’s easier to do if you join it to make the change from within rather than chuck rocks from the outside.

“And by the way, maths is also part of this. Every one person who leaves who is in favour of fixing this antediluvian position, every one of us that leaves means these institutions don’t change.

“I think when you want reform you have to participate.”

Meanwhile, MI6 boss Richard Moore also resigned from the club after facing criticism for being a member against the backdrop of the secret service attempting to demonstrate that it is no longer staffed exclusively by white, male Oxbridge graduates.

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Donald Trump Argues To High Court That He Is Immune From Prosecution In January 6 Case

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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Tuesday made his case to the US Supreme Court that his January 6, 2021, coup attempt was part of his official duties as president and is therefore immune from prosecution.

“The president cannot function, and the presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the president faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office,” Trump lawyer John Sauer wrote in a 67-page brief.

Sauer repeated arguments he and other Trump lawyers had tried previously, including the notion that Trump can only be prosecuted for actions if he has previously been impeached for them by the House and convicted by the Senate.

Trump was impeached by the House over January 6, but the 57 votes to convict in the Senate were 10 shy of the supermajority necessary.

Sauer’s brief states that the lack of previous criminal prosecutions against former presidents for their conduct in office is proof that the legal authority to prosecute Trump for the same does not exist. It did not mention that Trump is the first president in the country’s history to not accept defeat after an election and to attempt to remain in office.

Sauer also repeats the previously tried claim that if Trump is not given immunity, every future president would be similarly at risk of prosecution. “A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future president with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” he wrote.

Trump’s claims have previously been rejected by both a trial court and a federal appellate court. A rejection by the Supreme Court — which many legal observers say is likely — could force him to undergo trial on conspiracy and fraud charges in the January 6 case this autumn, just as many voters are starting to pay attention to a coming election in which Trump hopes to regain the White House.

In that scenario, a parade of onetime Trump aides, possibly including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, would appear on the witness stand almost daily, offering firsthand accounts to the jury and the public about Trump’s actions in the weeks leading up to and on that day, when a mob of his followers attacked the US Capitol to block congressional certification of his 2020 election loss.

Should the high court side with Trump, it would effectively end special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution against the former president over his coup attempt.

According to Smith, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan and the three judges who heard the case on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, it would also effectively allow presidents to commit all manner of crimes in office by claiming that they were carrying out official duties.

“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass,” Chutkan wrote in her December 1, 2023, ruling.

“It would be a striking paradox if the president, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity,” the appeals court judges wrote in their Feb. 6 ruling.

During oral arguments in the case, one of the judges, Florence Pan, got Trump’s lawyer to acknowledge that, under his claim of immunity, a sitting president could order a political opponent to be assassinated by SEAL Team Six and never be prosecuted for it.

Smith’s response to Trump’s brief is due by April 8, and oral arguments in the case are set for April 25. A decision will almost certainly be handed down by the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.

A federal grand jury that indicted Trump last August charged him with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to deprive millions of Americans of having their votes counted.

It is one of four active criminal cases against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. A second federal prosecution is based on his refusal to turn over secret documents that he took with him to his Florida country club upon leaving the White House; a Georgia state prosecution is based on his attempts to overturn his election loss in that state; and a New York indictment accuses him of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star and a Playboy model in the weeks ahead of the 2016 election.

The New York case could go to trial as early as mid-April. If the Supreme Court rules against Trump on his immunity claim, the federal January 6 trial could begin as early as late summer.

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