Latest news with #Left-wing
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sadiq Khan's London is crumbling. Reeves may have just sealed its fate
Rachel Reeves knew the Conservatives would condemn her spending plans in the strongest terms they could conjure up. The same goes for the Liberal Democrats and Reform. What she might not have expected was the strength of opposition from within her own party. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and one of Labour's most high-profile figures, issued perhaps the most cutting criticisms. From crime to transport to housing, the newly knighted veteran of Left-wing politics laid into the Chancellor's schemes. 'This spending review could result in insufficient funding for the Met and fewer police officers. It's also disappointing that there is no commitment today from the Treasury to invest in the new infrastructure London needs,' Sir Sadiq said. 'Projects such as extending the Docklands Light Railway not only deliver economic growth across the country, but also tens of thousands of new affordable homes and jobs for Londoners. Unless the Government invests in infrastructure like this in our capital, we will not be able to build the numbers of new affordable homes Londoners need.' The mayor's outburst comes amid signs the capital is crumbling, with crime surging. Without additional support, Reeves risks condemning the city to a future of decline – imperilling a Labour stronghold in the process. Shoplifting jumped by more than 50pc in the capital last year according to police data, a far sharper increase than in any other region. Non-violent thefts such as pickpocketing were up by 41pc. Mayfair, the haunt of the global rich, has attracted a reputation for high-value crime. Indian bosses, for instance, used a meeting last year with David Lammy, the then shadow foreign secretary, to complain about the threat of muggers seeking expensive watches, jewellery and phones. Shopkeepers view the Metropolitan Police as the worst force for responding to crime, according to the British Retail Consortium. Its surveys found one in three Londoners witnessed shoplifting last year. Crime has got so bad that Greggs has moved its drinks and sandwiches behind the counter in five stores, including in London's Whitechapel, Peckham and Ilford, blaming anti-social behaviour. It follows reports of a growing problem with thefts from the bakery chain. 'We've got youths who think it is perfectly acceptable to run through the streets with machetes, we've got people literally walking into shops and taking exactly what they want,' says Susan Hall, a member of the London Assembly and the Conservative candidate for the mayoralty last year. 'The whole social fabric is just disappearing. It is becoming more and more lawless,' she says, noting fare-dodging on public transport is at 'epidemic levels'. The capital's decline is attracting increasing political attention. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, filmed himself confronting fare-dodgers at London stations. Neil O'Brien, a Conservative MP, posted photos of a train carriage covered floor to ceiling in graffiti, saying: A guerrilla group of graffiti cleaners recently publicised their activities on social media, scrubbing despoiled Tube carriages in high-vis jackets bearing the slogan 'Doing what Sadiq Khant'. Rough sleeping in London has doubled since 2021, more than erasing the improvement in the lockdown era. The boroughs of Westminster, Camden and the City of London top the rankings. In the case of Westminster and the City of London, it makes for incongruous scenes of poverty alongside luxury, with homeless encampments opposite the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. Doorways on famed thoroughfares including the Strand and the routes from Buckingham Palace to Parliament are used as shelters for the night. Once-proud Oxford Street, centre of London's shopping district and an international tourist attraction, has declined amid the rise of American candy stores and tat merchants. Officials in Westminster have drawn up plans to revive it. London's unemployment rate of 6.4pc is the highest in the nation, and the fastest-rising. Despite the capital's problems – and the fact London has long been a bedrock of Labour support – Reeves and her colleagues show no signs of trying to make the problem any better. For one thing, the Government is making it harder to take on workers. Higher staffing costs since April's National Insurance tax raid and a sharp increase in the minimum wage are squeezing already cash-strapped restaurants, bars and cafes. London institutions including The Gun in Homerton, Leroy in Shoreditch and Lyle's, which held a Michelin star for a decades, are among scores that have closed their doors in recent months. It adds to fears for London's eroding nightlife scene: around 3,000 nightclubs closed from 2020 to 2023, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). 'We know that London's hospitality is the critical factor in attracting inward investment and making the capital the best in the world to do business so we need the mayor to have the tools on licencing, planning, skills, rates and rents to make a difference,' says Kate Nicholls, chairman of trade body UKHospitality. The economy's woes have hit the housing market, too. House prices across the UK as a whole have risen by 4pc since the start of 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. Yet the average price in London is down by more than 3pc. All of this went unrecognised in the spending review. When the Chancellor name-checked towns and cities across the Midlands and the north of England, as well as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, her comments appeared to rile London's mayor. 'I have heard the concerns of my honourable friends the members for Mid Cheshire, and for Rossendale and Darwen, and the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, that past governments have under-invested in towns and cities outside London and the South East. They are right,' Reeves thundered as she revamped investment rules to boost spending elsewhere in the country. While Reeves meant the comment as a signal that investment was being rebalanced at long last, Sir Sadiq took it another way. 'The way to level up other regions will never be to level down London,' he said. 'I'll continue to make the case to the Government that we must work together for the benefit of our capital and the whole country.' Reeves disputed his argument, noting rising police spending and a four-year £2.2bn fund for Transport for London, which runs public transport and the main roads. The Treasury called it 'the largest multi-year settlement for London in over a decade'. Hall says the dispute is evidence of a split at the heart of the governing party, shattering Left-wingers' hopes that a Labour Government and mayoralty would herald a tide of new funding for London. 'Sadiq Khan has been completely shut out,' she says. Sir Sadiq won a third term in last year's election with a commanding lead over Hall, taking the lead in nine of the 14 London Assembly constituencies. Yet he came away with less than half the votes cast, on a turnout of 40pc. A split in Labour and dissatisfaction with the state of the capital raise the possibility his grip on power may not be unshakeable. Reeves' snub may not be just a disappointment for London – it could be a blow to the hopes of re-election for the city's Labour mayor too. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Scroll.in
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Rush Hour: 4 die after falling off Mumbai local train, Assam to push back more ‘foreigners', & more
We're building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. Support Scroll's studio fund today. Four persons died after falling off a suburban train near Mumbra in Maharashtra's Thane district. Thirteen others have been injured, of which two passengers are reported to be seriously hurt, according to a surgeon at the district hospital. The incident took place on fast train tracks between Mumbra and Diva. A spokesperson for the Central Railways said that the accident was suspected to have taken place as passengers travelling on footboards in trains in opposite directions 'got entangled'. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Railways have initiated an inquiry into the cause of the accident. About 37.62 lakh passengers travelled on Mumbai suburban trains operated by the Central Railway in 2023-'24, while 27.24 passengers travelled on trains operated by the Western Railway. Last year, Mumbai's suburban train network recorded 2,468 deaths, or more than six fatalities every day. Read on. The Assam government has pushed back 303 'foreigners' and will continue to do so under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader further claimed that another 35 will be expelled once floodwaters recede. 'The Supreme Court clearly said the illegal expulsion act is valid and if the government wishes, they can expel the foreigners without going to Foreigners Tribunals,' Sarma added. The chief minister's remarks in the Assembly came two days after he claimed that persons declared foreigners were being 'pushed back' to Bangladesh under a legal framework. The Supreme Court, while hearing the challenges to Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, had said that 'there is no legal requirement for the Assam government to always approach the judiciary in order to identify foreigners', Sarma had said on Saturday. Read on. An additional superintendent of police was killed after an improvised explosive device allegedly planted by suspected Maoists went off in Sukma district. Two police officers were also injured in the explosion. The incident took place on the Konta-Aerobora road near Dronda village when Konta Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Girepunje, Sub Divisional Officer of Police Bhanupratap Chandrakar and Station House Officer Sonal Gwala were patrolling the area by foot. During the patrol, Girepunje accidentally stepped on the explosive device, which triggered the blast. The officers were patrolling the area ahead of a country-wide strike called for on Tuesday by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said that Maoists were committing 'such cowardly acts' as they were frustrated by the continuous success of security forces against Left-wing extremism. Read on. A collective of 114 scientists, researchers and practitioners has called for suspending all construction and related activities on the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh. They argued that resistance to the project by local communities reflected a grounded understanding of its 'ecological, cultural, and socio-political risks'. The collective said that in the past, displacement often led to long-term socio-economic disruption, and compensation mechanisms rarely accounted for aspects such as land-based identity and customary rights. They noted that the site of the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project fell in Seismic Zone V, which the highest risk category for earthquakes as per the Bureau of Indian Standards. The Siang river flows into Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet, and is the main tributary of the Brahmaputra. The river is the site of the proposed 11,000 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, touted to be India's largest dam. .
The Print
03-06-2025
- General
- The Print
Bastar's forest, land belong to its residents, security camps to become thing of past: Deputy CM
'Youth have to understand what the current government of Chhattisgarh and the Centre have been doing to deal with it. You (youth) have the great power of social media in your hands, any news spreads like a wave among you. I request you to use your social media power for these things,' he maintained. Sharma, who holds the home portfolio, noted, 'Youth should know what Maoism is, where it started and how it started. They have to understand these things.' The Deputy Chief Minister made the remarks while speaking on the issue — 'The ugly face of Maoism – from Beijing to Bastar' — at an event organized at Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Auditorium in Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar district, an official statement said. Jagdalpur, Jun 3 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma on Tuesday urged youth to understand what central and state governments have been doing to stamp out the menace of Left-wing extremism and contribute in eliminating the ideology of the outlawed CPI (Maoist). The youth of Bastar will help end the Maoist ideology with their efforts and push for development. Security forces will always be there for their protection, the release quoted Sharma as saying. He said in 1989, a massacre was carried out at Tiananmen Square in Beijing because some youths had demanded democracy. Sharma said, 'Maoists want to form a government with the barrel of a gun. They want to form the government by killing democracy. They want to form the government like they have formed in China. They want to subjugate the people in the same way.' Referring to the opposition, he said, 'There are some people who travel from here to there, saying that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ji's government, (CM) Vishnu Dev ji's government are taking action (against Naxalites) so that resources of Bastar are handed over to someone. 'They are trying to spread big lies. I want to tell you that the intention of Chief Minister is very clear — water, forest and land of Bastar belong to Bastar, to the youth of Bastar, to the people of Bastar. Development of Bastar will be on the Bastar model. It will be done according to Bastar,' he asserted. Sharma said in the coming years, there will be no need for security camps in Bastar. Once Naxalism is eliminated, these camps will become centres for collecting, processing and marketing forest produce. PTI TKP RSY This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Demonising Thatcher may backfire for Keir
Faced with a new challenge in Reform UK's surging support in the polls, Sir Keir Starmer has turned to an old strategy: attempt to invoke the spirit of the 1980s, and call on tribal Labour loyalties in the fight against Thatcherism. In his speech today, the Prime Minister framed Britain's politics as a two-horse race between Left and Right. Where he differed from his predecessors was in defining this as a choice between Labour and Reform, dismissing the Conservatives as 'sliding into the abyss'. Nigel Farage will surely be delighted; it is a coup for Reform to be described by the Prime Minister as the de facto opposition given its status as outsider. It is this status, also, that seems to have dictated Sir Keir's line of attack. While the Tories can be held to their record, part of Reform's appeal is its lack of one. Mr Farage and his colleagues, having never governed, are untainted by the policy failures of the past 28 years. As such, Sir Keir has attempted to pin upon Reform the mantle of a Tory revival: the old enemy with a new face. All the old warnings were wheeled out. Mr Farage would 'spend billions upon billions upon billions' in 'an exact repeat of what Liz Truss did'. Reform's leader had no understanding of what it was like to grow up 'in a cost of living crisis', and would use 'your family finances … as a gambling chip on his mad experiment'. And while Sir Keir had 'protected those jobs' threatened by US tariffs, Mr Farage would not have. Supporting Reform, in other words, was supporting the pit closures, or their modern equivalents. No doubt the poll tax would have been trotted out had fiscal profligacy not been the theme of the day. The language may well appeal to Labour's base, and it would be unsurprising if jabs over the NHS and other invocations of Left-wing shibboleths follow. The general public may be less perturbed. While Reform has a great deal of work to do before its policies are a serious prospectus for government, observing as much is unlikely to be a killer blow from a man whose time as party leader has been defined by a series of screeching U-turns. A dose of genuine Thatcherism would probably do Britain good, and it is to be hoped that the Tories as well as Reform will embrace this spirit. Despite Sir Keir's jibes, he has done little to shift the country off an unsustainable fiscal course, and raised incentive-sapping taxes that destroy economic activity. By the next election, portraying his opponents as 'Thatcherites' may prove an own goal. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Germany offers to host Harvard ‘exile campus'
Harvard University could establish an 'exile campus' on German soil in response to Donald Trump's attempts to purge the institution of alleged Left-wing tendencies, Berlin's culture minister has suggested. This week, the US president tried to block the US's oldest university from enrolling any more international students by ordering his embassies to pause student visa interviews. It followed efforts to cancel the university's funding after it refused to remove diversity policies. Wolfram Weimer, Germany's culture minister, told Bloomberg News: 'I suggest that Harvard University establish its own exile campus in Germany. Our country stands for freedom of art and the press, for quality of studies and openness, discourse and diversity.' Students from Harvard were 'very welcome' in Germany, Mr Weimer added. He gave no concrete details of his proposal, but his office said that if his idea was considered a good one by Harvard then 'the respective departments concerned will discuss [it] in close coordination with each other'. Markus Blume, the Bavaria state education minister, backed the plan, saying: 'With its top universities, Bavaria has an outstanding offer for all students in the world.' He added: 'Our arms are open.' Mr Weimer last week described Mr Trump's measures against Harvard as a 'heavy blow against academic as well as artistic freedom'. He added that it 'shakes the transatlantic relation, which is built on shared values'. Andreas Gran, a professor at Frankfurt's International School of Management, said any foreign students who could not get into Harvard because of the US president's actions 'should be admitted to us – academic freedom applies here'. Karl Lauterbach, the former German health minister and a Harvard alumnus, also encouraged students to come to Germany, saying: 'We offer excellent opportunities and prospects after graduation.' Germany, however, is no stranger to clashes over academic freedom, with the last government's education minister having drawn up lists of lecturers to defund after they signed an open letter in support of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Prof Margarita Tsomou, a speaker from Krisol, an academic freedom network, told The Telegraph that Mr Weimer's proposal was 'highly hypocritical since he applies the exact same justification of anti-Semitism accusations as Trump for restructuring culture politics in Germany'. Mr Weimer's proposal was not welcomed by everyone. An MP from the far-Right AfD party wrote on X: 'The German government wants to make Germany the world centre of Islamism and anti-Semitism.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
