Controversial FIA statute changes voted through

Controversial changes to the statutes of Formula 1's governing body the FIA have been passed by members despite a warning the organisation is in a "dark period of democratic backsliding".Austria's national motoring club, the OAMTC, criticised the statute changes in a letter to the FIA World Council for Automobile Mobility and Tourism (WCAMT) sent on Wednesday before Thursday's vote at the FIA's General Assembly in Macau.The letter criticised FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's leadership and urged members not to vote for changes proposed by Ben Sulayem - and revealed by BBC Sport last month - on the basis that they "risk further contributing to the erosion of the FIA's reputation for competent and transparent governance".However, members voted for the amendments by 83.35% to 16.65%.Amendments to the ethics code were voted through even more comprehensively, with an 88.83% majority.The result came despite support from the UK, Belgian, Portuguese and Swiss representatives for Austria's suggestion of a postponement so the FIA could conduct a "proper review and analysis" before making a decision on whether the changes were appropriate.An FIA spokesperson described the result as a "resounding majority" however it has not yet responded to a request for comment on the OAMTC letter.The OAMTC letter adds that recent actions of Ben Sulayem "are inviting comparisons with the excesses of political leaders intent on deconstructing the checks and balances that come with responsible governance".And it hints at the prospect of a legal challenge, on the basis that the changes were "endorsed by (FIA) world council meetings that were not properly constituted, having intentionally excluded elected members from participating and voting".David Richards, the MotorsportUK representative on the world council, was among those members barred from a meeting in March in a dispute with Ben Sulayem over refusing to sign a revised confidentially agreement. The OAMTC is led by Oliver Schmerold, who last year voiced his opposition to previous statute changes passed at the last General Assembly in December, describing them as "not good governance" and "not good in terms of checks and balances". The letter says of the proposed changes:Extending the deadline for potential candidates to declare "is intended to discourage opposition".Removing the rule requiring 21 of the 28 members of the world motorsport council to be different nationalities "is intended to stack the WMSC with supporters rather than encourage diversity of opinion"Aligning the terms of office of the audit, ethics and nominations committees with that of the president "would blatantly reduce the independence of oversight bodies"Removing the right to approve or dismiss up to four senate members from the senate and giving it to the president "self-evidently weakens the ability of the senate to perform its oversight functions, including and especially oversight of the president himself.Ben Sulayem's first term of office ends this December and he is so far the only candidate to have confirmed he is standing for election. Rally legend Carlos Sainz has said he is considering running but has not made a final decision.The letter accuses Ben Sulayem of reneging on his promises during his election campaign in 2021 to ensure "governance structures are compliant with best practices".And it says he has implemented none of the "critical changes" that were recommended by a review and audit of the FIA's governance structure commissioned from McKinsey in 2022.It highlights a series of changes that have eroded accountability at the FIA, including:Limiting the power of the ethics committee, saying "ethical enquiries can - in effect - be suppressed" because of the concentration of oversight into the hands of the FIA president and president of the senate.The eradication of the post of compliance office following the sacking of Paolo Basarri from that position last yearCentralising decision-making power with the FIA president and president of the senateThe imposition of contracts that require FIA personnel to pay a €50,000 fine if they breach confidentiality terms, and the power of the leadership on its own to determine whether this should be paid and why "without having a hearing, time frame, right of appeal or any definition of what confidentiality means".

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Reuters

27 minutes ago

• Reuters

UK could boost growth by radically reshaping the Treasury: Peacock

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - UK finance minister Rachel Reeves insists higher economic growth is her top priority, but the government's current plan to address the country's chronically low investment is unlikely to be ambitious enough. What may be needed is a structural rethink of the finance ministry itself. Reeves has adjusted her fiscal rules to allow for an extra 113 billion pounds of investment over five years, while remaining committed to ensuring debt falls as a proportion of national income within five years. In the UK government's latest spending plan unveiled last week, she started to allocate the extra capital to areas including defence, housing, transport infrastructure and a new nuclear power plant. Even so, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent fiscal watchdog, UK capital spending will climb to a peak of 3.9% of GDP in 2027/2028 but then fall back in the following two years, continuing a limp public investment record stretching back to the global financial crisis. Reeves is searching for other growth levers, including deregulation and increased UK investment by British pension funds. Additionally, the government is seeking to streamline planning laws and taking steps – albeit small ones – to rebuild trade relations with the European Union. But the government is fundamentally hamstrung by its fiscal rules. Departments are currently required to go cap in hand to the finance ministry to learn what they can spend and then undergo frequent check-ins to see if the fiscal position has deteriorated, which could lead to spending cuts or tax rises. This is not a system that will produce a viable long-term growth strategy. The International Monetary Fund – not known for being a fan of unfettered state spending – said last month that the UK should consider taking a more pragmatic approach to avoid having to change policy too often. The IMF suggested minor breaches should not require instant corrective action and that assessment of the rules should be done no more than once a year. But something more radical is likely required for Britain to break out of the low growth, low productivity loop it has been trapped in for almost two decades. Over this period, debt as a proportion of GDP has almost tripled while the national tax take has held steady, suggesting that part of the problem might be with the way the finance ministry operates. The machinery of government needs recalibration to focus more systematically on productive investment that can ultimately help to drive debt down over time. Reeves is trying on this score. She has asked the OBR to assess the long-term impact of capital spending decisions to determine whether they could improve public finances. She is also changing the Treasury's "Green Book" rules that dictate approval of capital projects, shifting from a narrow cost-benefit analysis to an assessment of the impact on broader strategic goals such as lifting poorer regions of the UK. However, a fundamental issue remains. The Treasury still wields huge influence within the UK government, and when growth falls short, the impulse is typically to tighten the fiscal screws, thereby worsening growth prospects. The Institute for Government, a UK-based think tank, has argued that the economic heft of the prime minister's team needs strengthening as a counterbalance. EU nations – Germany, Spain and the Netherlands among others – have both a finance ministry and a separate, growth-focused economy ministry at the heart of government. Calls for a dramatic change in the Finance Ministry are growing. Maurice Glasman, who heads "Blue Labour", a campaign to reverse what it says is the Labour Party's abandonment of working-class communities, advocates abolishing the Treasury, scrapping fiscal rules and pursuing heavy infrastructure investment. While Glasman's prescription has little chance of being implemented in full, his ideas could gain influence within a government threatened by the rise of Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party, which is targeting traditional Labour voters. Recent opinion polls have given Reform UK 27%-32% public support compared with 22%-24% for Labour. Ensuring public finances do not spiral out of control is, of course, critical for any government. And less oversight by the Treasury could result in wasted taxpayer money spent on unproductive investments that appeal to the political base. Moreover, the bond market has not reacted well to perceived UK fiscal imprudence in recent years, as demonstrated by the rapid demise of Liz Truss's premiership of 2022. But bond investors are apt to respond more positively to a long-term, investment-led approach to reducing public borrowing, even if it involves some upfront spending. It helps that the UK currently faces less political uncertainty than some of its peers and is in the middle of the pack in terms of developed market debt burdens. Reeves appears to understand that an investment-led structural reset is required to jump-start the UK growth engine. But to make that a reality, the first change may need to be rethinking the relationship between the Treasury and the prime minister's office. The opinions expressed here are those of Mike Peacock, the former head of communications at the Bank of England and a former senior editor at Reuters. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), opens new tab, opens new tab, your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI, opens new tab, opens new tab can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, opens new tab, opens new tab and X., opens new tab

Daily Mail​

31 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Irish village team play incredible line-up of football legends, with Champions League-winning hard man at the back, Everton hero up front and England star in goal

An Irish village football team picked a surprising opposition to play as they went up against a side featuring an incredible line-up of football legends. Ayrfield United FC, a local outfit based in north Dublin, pitted their wits against some of the very best as they faced a Premier League legends side including a Champions League winner, a former England goalkeeper and an Everton cult hero. The likes of Jaap Stam, David James, Jermaine Beckford and Yakubu were all part of the squad to face Ayrfield at their Blunden Drive ground on Saturday afternoon. Yakubu and Beckford rolled back the years as the former Toffees duo led the line and were seen together in a picture posted by one fan on social media. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the user wrote that Yakubu 'scored a vintage Yak goal'. In reply, a second labelled him a 'legend' upon seeing that he made an appearance in the match. Yakubu was remembered fondly for his time in the Premier League, where he scored 95 goals in 252 appearances during spells for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn Rovers. The Nigerian's final season on Merseyside was shared with Beckford, who played for Everton after a lengthy stint at Leeds United. To give as many local players as possible the chance to put their skills to the test, Ayrfield rotated three different line-ups across 30-minute periods against the legends side - who may have been blowing by the end of the 90 minutes. Posting to Instagram after the match, former Manchester United centre-back Stam thanked Ayrfield for being invited to play in the event. The Dutchman wrote: 'Great game. Lots of quality on the pitch with great support from the fans! Very enjoyable to be out there!' In reply, Ayrfield United wrote: 'Jaap you've still got it ya legend. Brilliant to have you here today. Thank you very much for coming'. Further comments of appreciation from fans read: 'What a day! Congrats to all involved'.

BreakingNews.ie

an hour ago

• BreakingNews.ie

How anti-immigrant activists tried to 'weaponise' Carlow incident with misinformation

Misinformation around a recent shooting incident at a Carlow shopping centre was "weaponised" by anti-immigrant activists and facilitated by social media algorithms, according to a researcher who monitors far-right activity in Ireland. On Sunday, June 1st, a 22-year-old man discharged a firearm inside a supermarket at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre, and later died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Advertisement He was the sole fatality in the incident, and the only other injury was a minor leg injury suffered by a girl who fled the scene in the ensuing panic. Within an hour, misinformation and conspiracy theories were rampant on social media. Far-right activists made a number of claims, including that seven people had been killed in the incident and that it was a terror attack. An hour and a half after the incident, Derek Blighe, the founder of the nationalist and immigration-focused 'Ireland First' party, posted on X: "Unconfirmed Reports of a mass shooting in Carlow, apparently 7 people including a child have been shot." He also shared a Facebook comment suggesting a nine-year-old had been shot. Advertisement The Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) is an organisation that is focused on helping communities to counter "hate and division", as well as far-right mobilisation. In an interview with H&CC research and communications lead Mark Malone said: "Claims from the likes of Derek Blighe, from Gavin Lowbridge (who runs the OffGrid Ireland account on Twitter spaces), they were framing the incident as a terrorist shooting related to their own anti-immigrant politics. This was all within a time period that allowed for no verification, and susbsequently what transpired was most of it was utter nonsense." Mr Malone also mentioned anti-immigrant activist Philp Dwyer, who drove to the scene in Carlow to film. "It was telling that Philip Dwyer was travelling back from an anti-migrant demonstration in Clonmel, heard there was something happening and landed up in Carlow, he describes himself as a 'citizen journalist'. Advertisement "He was quick on the scene. What he was pitching was 'I don't see any Irish people here, I don't see any white people here', literally after he interviewed a white Irish woman. "He's repeating these kinds of false narratives, openly lieng to the auidence, anyone can see the contradictions in what he's saying. I guess that's part and parcel of not being accountable to anyone, you can lie, contradict yourself, without consequences. "It's not like the base or his followers are interested in accuracy or truthfulness, it's more about virality and emotional content. The repetition of frames and narratives they want to push, regardless and completely independent of reality." He added: "Also telling was his approach to the Fire Service and An Garda Síochána at the scene. He started filming them and asked for information about the injuries, number of fatalities. The people on the ground probably didn't know what the details were at the time, and were reluctant to make any specific statements to a guy who evidently wasn't a journalist, was just some guy standing with a phone demanding information. When they made it clear they could not provide the information, Dwyer quickly moved to just verbally abusing them." Advertisement Mr Malone also pointed out that anti-migrant activists are often spreading misinformation with the aim of creating fear and division so that they can monetise it. They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "Content that creates fear or posits a 'this is what happened' in an emergency situation, spreads fast. "If you have a blue tick and your account is monetised, you can get money for views on your content. "Derek Blighe and Philip Dwyer rarely post anything without asking their followers for money. Advertisement "Content that rallies emotions like fear, anger and disgust often leads to people sharing something without critically thinking or examining it. "This is why we often see false rumours about sexual violence or child abductions as a way of priming people to be afraid of Ipas centres. "They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "There's no clarification or removing posts afterwards, they move quickly from spreading false information, claims that the shooter was a migrant or that it was an Islamic attack, when it became clear that this was an Irish person involved, they just stopped." An Garda Síochána posted regular updates about the incident, including one which clarified the gunman was a white Irishman. 'Frenzied misinformation' Mr Malone said this route made sense given the "frenzied misinformation" spreading online, however, he said it is unlikely to make any impact with those who follow the activists. "There was a small pause before they returned with 'why are they saying it's a white man?' "In fact it is actually their own cycle of disinformation and propaganda which forced An Garda Síochána to make that statement. "The number of statements from gardaí that day was rare, but it was needed to limit the spread of this frenzied misinformation online. "There are pros and cons, it's understandable why gardaí approached it that way given the rapid response of reactionary voices trying to frame it in a particular way. However, regardless of what is put out the far-right will still find ways to weaponise, argue, twist, misrepresent. "Those that are interested in pushing fear and division will continue to do so, the problem is they're allowed to lie, spread misinformation, be racist, incite violence and fear, without pushback. They're allowed to amass large followings and raise income from social media platforms even when they're clearly breaking the terms and conditions of the platforms themselves." Mr Malone recently published research into the violence in Ballymena , and identified a Facebook group that was actively encouraging people to attack individuals' homes. He pointed to this as an example of how social companies need to do more to target misinformation that poses real life danger to people. "We can see that in the context of Ballymena where we reported a Facebook page being used to organise pogroms on a street by street basis, Meta said it did not break their terms and conditions. "A lack of serious action by the platforms is a huge issue. While individuals need to be held accountable for what they're doing, these companies have billions at their disposal and are taking no action when their platform is contributing to people being burnt out of their houses. "Look at Facebook in Myanmar, a UN investigation found that Facebook was culpable in the face of a genocide in 2016, almost 10 years later people are being burnt out of their homes in Northern Ireland and it's being openly orchestrated on the platform." While there was no followup violence caused by the misinformation around the Carlow incident, social media played a big role in the Dublin riots in November 2023. Mr Malone said incidents like this are inevitable without serious action from the likes of Meta and X. Recommender systems The H&CC has long advocated for the removal of recommender systems from social media. These algorithms direct people to emotive content, much of which promotes violence and racism. "I think there's the inevitability rather than possibility that something bad will happen and that social media platforms will be playing a significant role in that, we're already seeing it. "That's why we would argue there neeeds to be serious political action around the platforms both in terms of giving clear effect to agreements under the Digital Services Act and the recommender systems. "Those mistruths that are being created as viral content are not just shown to the followers of the people posting it, the algorithms designed by the companies are there to recognise highly engaging emotional content and to spread it as far and wide as possible. "That's where anti-immigrant influencers are able to utilise the way the platforms work to spread their content, which has no factual basis to it. "There is probably a trade off being made given the amount of taxes the companies bring in, but you cannot relegate safety within our communities to the demands of platforms." He said "greater political will" is needed to address the negative impact of social media companies and their recommender systems. "Another striking thing is the number of times and the speed at which platforms can get access to the Government in terms of demanding meetings and how often those meetings are held behind closed doors, with ministers or Dáil committees. "These platforms are supposedly being held accountable, but these meetings are normally held outside of public scrutiny. That needs to end." Tánaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Micheál Martin have spoken out against the prominent use of tricolours at anti-immigrant and far-right demonstrations, which have been become more widespread in Dublin, Cork and towns across the country in recent years. Mr Malone said this attempt to link far-right ideas with Irish history is imported from similar movements in Europe, the UK and the US. People wave tricolours at an anti-immigrant protest in Dublin city centre "Much of what we hear coming from the mouths of the anti-immigrant movement in Ireland are reactionary British ideas with an Irish accent. "I'm not saying there has not been anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland before, but it's very clear that the modus operandi, the phrases, the language and discourse, has a much greater relationship with English fascism and British nationalism than it does with any historical Irish nationalism or republicanism that has existed. "This handing out of flags is well funded and centrally organised, trying to create a specific asthetic, this myth that these movements that have existed since around 2016, and coalesced around Covid, that they have some sort of lineage going back to 1916, they cleary don't. "In our research of their communications since 2016, they are primarily with British nationalists and English fascists. It's clear to us why the likes of Tommy Robinson and others are retweeting this stuff. They share the same world view, the flag is just a prop to share this false link to 1916. "In the North, the anti-immigrant activisits are mobilising around the term 'Love Ulster', here it's 'Love Ireland'. The importation of islamaphobia. "The raison d'etre of these movements is lifted from international spheres. They are even looking to forge alliances with fringe loyalists. "What we're seeing is some of the key actors in anti-immigrant mobilising have very extreme politics; white supremacy, neo nazi, islamophobia. "There is a distinction between people who are maybe fearful of difference, that's not an abnormal experience many people have that, but when we see people explicitly pushing white supremacist politics. Not just going to marches but live-streaming, actively organising people in local communities to stoke fear. "Propogating this myth that there is this link to historical Irish republicanism, part of what we want to do in our work is to smash that myth." 'A small minority with a large megaphone' Mr Malone said the far-right in Ireland is "still a small minority with a large megaphone provided by social media". He pointed to the "complete rejection" of anti-immigrant candidates in the recent general election, but warned that moving political discourse further to the right could still occuer. He said this is something politicians should be aware of, and made particular reference to human rights concerns over recent deportation flights from the State. Ireland Facebook being used to coordinate racist attacks i... Read More "We've already seen the Minister for Justice doing this macabre tweeting about deportation. The National Party won't be complaining about that. "We're seeing stories of people being deported after turning up for their regular calls to the Garda station which they're meant to do as part of their terms and conditions, committing no crimes and following up on what they're being asked to do, and yet they're being lifted and put on deportation flights. "Potentially the desire to shape numbers is affecting how people are being arrested and then deported, that is a concern. "Even though the organised far-right is very small, the impact it can have on the mainstream parties can be significant. It's the role of all of us to remind them, look at Europe where centre right parties take the clothes of the far-right... they get a hiding at the ballots."