It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
Drone carrying guns into Canada from US intercepted after crashing into tree
Police in Port Lambton, Ontario, called after device carrying shopping bag of guns flew into tree and operator fled in vehicle
Officers suspect the drone travelled east from Michigan across the St Clair River, which separates the US and Canada.
Police in Canada have intercepted a drone which crossed the border from the United States carrying a shopping bag with nearly a dozen handguns – but only after the pilot crashed the device into a nearby tree.
Officers in southern Ontario were called to a home near the town of Port Lambton, north-east of Detroit, after residents reported seeing a stranger maneuvering a commercial drone.
“Our neighbour had spotted someone in our yard in the middle of the night and he had a remote control,” Christine Ackwood told CTV News. “He wasn’t sure what was going on.”
But the drone operator lost control of the drone and sent it careening into a tree before fleeing in a waiting vehicle.
Police recovered the drone with bucket truck, and that a plastic shopping bag was attached with metal carabiners and electrical tape.
Inside, officers discovered 11 handguns – most of which were weapons prohibited in Canada. One of the images shared by police appears to show the serial numbers of a black handgun had been sanded off.
Eleven handguns were found in a bag attached the drone.
Photograph: Ontario Provincial Police
Officers suspect the drone travelled east from Michigan across the St Clair River, which marks the border between Canada and the United States. But police still do not know who was piloting the drone, and who the illicit delivery was intended for.
Many handguns used to commit crimes in Canada are secreted into the country from the United States. In the past, smugglers have used transport trucks, passenger vehicles and aircraft to evade authorities.
The use of a drone suggests groups could be trying out new strategies, but it is unclear if Friday’s discovery is the first time a drone has been used. The Ontario provincial police service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UK People will starve': South Shields food bank shelves lie empty amid cost of living crisis Volunteers at Lucie's Pantry, in South Shields, are worried they soon won't have food to offer the hungry people who rely on them
Emmaus North East volunteer Stuart Small fears his shelves will be empty before too long
(Image: Emmaus North East)
A South Shields food bank is making a desperate appeal for donations as it struggles to keep its shelves stocked amid rising need.
Volunteers at Lucie's Pantry fear the soaring costs of food and fuel may mean fewer locals are able to afford to donate, while demand for the charity's help increases. The Dean Road food bank, run by Emmaus North East, allows members to pick out a full shop's worth of items for just £3, making it a lifeline for those struggling to feed themselves and their families.
Donations of food, toiletries and household items usually come from locals, as well as charities and businesses. But Stuart Small, who runs the food bank, says he's been taking in less and less over recent weeks.
He said: "At first we had great support and quite a lot of donations coming through but in recent weeks and months donations have been dwindling away. We've got a few tins but if we don't get more donations in soon we are going to end up with people starving in the area.
Stuart is scared of what will happen to those who rely on Lucie's Pantry if the shelves run empty (Image: Emmaus North East)
"I would love to know why donations have dried up, I don't honestly know, the only thing I can think of is if it is to do with these rising costs, the rising costs of food and transportation. We are seeing demand increase because of it: on an average week I get about five new referrals.
"We have people coming in from all walks of life: people in work on low incomes, elderly people on pensions, people with disabilities, people on Universal Credit or Jobseekers' Allowance, you get all walks of life needing help.
"I am worried that things are going to get worse. If I'm seeing an extra five referrals a week that's 20 in a month.
"Quite often we have days when the shelves are almost empty. Receiving more food donations would mean that we could open the food bank for longer hours and help more families and households in need."
As well as offering low-cost food, Stuart said Lucie's Pantry also acts as a 'community hub', helping people overcome challenges and providing extra support such as debt advice.
The 39-year-old knows better than many people how valuable this sort of support can be. In the aftermath of loss of work and a relationship breakdown several years ago, he found himself homeless. He spent some time as an Emmaus Companion, living in accommodation offered by the charity, which allowed him to get back on his feet.
Stuart Small fears the shelves at Emmaus North East may run empty
(Image: Emmaus North East)
He now wants to 'give back' to the community that helped him turn his life around.
"They helped me get back on the straight and narrow, and I offered to run the foodbank. I'm grateful for what they've done for me which is why I'm putting back in to the community," he said.
"When you help people it's absolutely wonderful, I'm there to talk to people and be a support for them, and seeing them get what they need to survive the week is amazing."
Emmaus North East is appealing for fresh, dried, tinned and frozen food as well as toiletries, household items and baby products. Donation drop off points include Lucie’s Pantry, at 430 Dean Road, South Shields the Emmaus charity shop at 22 Market Square, South Shields and the Emmaus charity shop at Unit 5, St James Mall, Hebburn.
Childcare costs for primary school age children are soaring faster than wages, Labour has revealed, as the Party warns that the Conservatives are failing to support families facing a tidal wave of cost of living pressures.
Speaking to the National Association of Headteachers on the 30th April, Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, will warn that for too many families the cost of after-school clubs is more than parents earn in that time, meaning children are denied enriching opportunities which build on classroom learning by teaching resilience and social skills.
New Labour analysis shows that the cost of a week of after-school clubs has risen faster than average weekly wages over the last five years, with parents spendingmore on after-school clubs than on their weekly food shop.
A decade of Conservative governments have squeezed school budgets forcing headteachers to strip back extracurricular activities such as breakfast and after-school clubs, with recent polling showing a fifth of primary schools are making cutbacks.
To boost children’s social development after the pandemic isolation, Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan would give all children access to breakfast clubs and after-school activities for free, boosting children’s wellbeing post-pandemic, and support working parents juggling childcare around the school day.
“Childcare costs are spiralling but wages simply aren’t keeping up, putting yet more pressure on families facing a cost of living crisis.
“The Tories are doing nothing to help families now. Instead, they’ve made it worse with fifteen Tory tax rises and twelve years of neglect, forcing schools to cut back on clubs and activities for children.
“Labour’s Children’s Recovery Plan would give every child access to before and after-school clubs, and we would put money back in families’ pockets with a windfall tax on oil and gas producers, saving working families up to £600 off their energy bills.”
Weekly cost of after-school clubs has risen faster than weekly wages:
2018 (£)
2022 (£)
Change (£)
% change
A week’s after-school clubs
56.82
66.75
9.93
17%
Average weekly wages
483
556
73
15%
Source: Cost of after-school clubs: Coram 2018/2022
Source: Average weekly wages: ONS 2018/2022[tab 3, AWE regular pay]
Parents face average price rises of nearly £400 per child:
£9.93 [cost increase] * 38 [weeks in average school year] = £377.34
“The government is forcing schools to cut back on staff, support for pupils, and activities that enrich the school day.”
“A quarter (25%) of primary school senior leaders also report that they have had to cut trips and outings, and 20% sport and extracurricular activities. In the wake of a pandemic that deprived many children of experiences outside the home, access to these activities and experiences has never been more important.”
Cost of living crisis worsening as shop prices rise at fastest rate in more than a decade
The British Retail Consortium said growing shop prices reflect the impact of energy costs, the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 lockdown in China.
By Alexa Phillips, news reporter Wednesday 4 May 2022
Shop prices increased at their fastest rate in more than a decade last month, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.
Retail prices went up from 2.1% in March to 2.7% in April, according to the BRC-NielsenIQ price index.
This was the highest annual rate of inflation it recorded since September 2011.
The figures will increase the pressure on Boris Johnson to do more to address the cost of living crisis, coming just a day before the local elections.
Heen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: "The impact of rising energy prices and the conflict in Ukraine continued to feed through into April's retail prices.
Food prices grew by 3.5% in the year to April, up from 3.3% in March.
But the increase slowed slightly for fresh food, from 3.5% in March to 3.4% in April, which Ms Dickinson attributed to "fierce competition between supermarkets".
"Global food prices have reached record highs, seeing a 13% rise on last month alone, and even higher for cooking oils and cereals," she said.
"As these costs filter through the supply chain, they will place further upward pressure on UK food prices in the coming months.
"Retailers will continue to do all they can to keep prices down and deliver value for their customers by limiting price rises and expanding their value ranges, but this will put pressure on them to find cost savings elsewhere. "Unfortunately, customers should brace themselves for further price rises and a bumpy road ahead."
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at research firm NielsenIQ, said consumers are likely to curb their spending habits in response to growing inflation and rising living costs, like energy bills.
The Bank of England has warned that inflation - which reached 7% in March - could exceed more than 8% this year.
"With food retailing no longer immune to these pressures, supermarkets are reacting by cutting the prices of some everyday grocery products," he said.
Prices for products other than food went up by 2.2% in the year to April - the highest rate since records began in 2006.
This compares with an increase of 1.5% in the year to March.
Ms Dickinson said furniture, electricals and books are seeing the biggest surges.
"This has been exacerbated by disruption at the world's largest seaport, following Shanghai's recent lockdown," she said.
Fact-Checkers Find Boris Johnson's Good Morning Britain Interview Wanting
Susanna Reid noted researchers would "go through your answers with a fine-tooth comb".
Near the beginning of Boris Johnson’s tricky interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, presenter Susanna Reid warned the PM: “There are fact checkers at every stage of every interview who will go through your answers with a fine-tooth comb.”
Which is exactly what the independent FullFact website did. Having run the rule over three of Johnson’s answers, to put it charitably, they found him wanting.
Freedom passes
In one of the stand-out moments, the prime minister was challenged over the cost of living crisis hitting many people across the country.
Reid told Johnson about Elsie, a 77-year-old widow, who has seen her energy bills rise from £17 a month to £85 a month.
“To cut down on spending, Elsie has now resorted to eating one meal a day. She’s 77-years-old. She’s losing weight,” Reid said.
“She gets up early in the morning to use her freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home. What else should Elsie cut back on?”
Johnson said he did not want Elsie to cut back on “anything”, before adding: “Just to remind you, the 24-hour freedom bus pass was something I actually introduced.”
Aside from the strange boast about Elsie’s bus pass, his ownership of the policy is not exactly as he presented it.
The pass has a history going back to the 1980s, which predates the creation of the position of directly elected mayor.
The fact-checkers said: “As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson did change the Freedom Pass so it applied 24 hours a day on most services, although he did not introduce it originally.
“Following a bailout deal between Transport for London and Mr Johnson’s government in 2020, it no longer functions 24 hours a day.”
Economic growth
Johnson’s claims the government had powered to a strong economic position after emerging from the Covid pandemic caused another flashpoint.
“That is what we are achieving,” he began. “It’s because of the steps this government took during the pandemic to get us out of the pandemic in a strong way.
“With the fastest economic growth in the G7.”
Reid interjected: “Okay, we’ve heard you say this before.”
And Johnson fired back: “Well, you’ve just told me I haven’t been on your programme for five years, so you can’t have heard me.”
Reid argued: “But I do listen and watch all your other interviews.”
Away from the back and forth, FullFact suggests the claim is misleading. It says:
“According to the latest data, the UK had the highest growth in 2021 among G7 nations. However this is partly due to a technicality concerning how the UK measures GDP, which increased the apparent scale of both the fall and the recovery. The UK’s economy has shrunk by about 0.4% since the start of the pandemic, making it the fifth best performing among the G7 nations.”
Council tax
The prime minister said that for lower council tax people should vote for Conservative in Thursday’s local elections.
“When it comes to delivering better value for services, lower council tax...you should vote for Conservative councillors on Thursday,” he said.
In parliament last week, Johnson noted that Conservative-controlled Westminster Council has lower council tax than Labour-controlled Islington and Camden, saying: “That is the difference between Labour and Conservative across the country.”
FullFact pointed out the picture is less clear cut than that.
The Conservatives have tended to compare band D rates to claim their councils charge less than Labour authorities – and using this measure, single-tier Tory areas in England charge less than the average in Labour areas.
Single-tier Conservative councils in England actually charge more per household, and regardless like-for-like comparisons are extremely difficult to make.
“There are many reasons why council tax might vary between Conservative and Labour areas, reflecting the different services those areas need to provide,” says FullFact.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a humiliating interview on Good Morning Britain, when asked about his honesty as well as his lack of support for people struggling with the cost of living crisis.
Johnson was slammed for being ‘tone deaf’, ‘narcissistic’ and ‘out of touch’ given his responses.
During the interview, host Susanna Reid read out an email she had received from a 77-year-old pensioner Elsie, who is a widow and lives in a council house. Elsie receives a pension of £170 a week while her energy bills have risen from £17 a month to £85 a month – costing her an extra £816 a year.
Susanna said: ‘To cut down on spending, Elsie has resorted to eating one meal a day. She’s losing weight, she’s 77.
“She goes to the supermarket at the end of the day to buy yellow sticker discounted items. She gets up early in the morning to use her Freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home.
“What else should Elise cut back on?”
The prime minister said he didn’t want her to cut back on anything, but went on to boast that he ‘introduced the freedom bus pass’.
Reid replied: “So Elsie should be grateful?”
Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “It is utterly shameful that pensioners have no choice but to sit on the bus all day to avoid racking up heating bills at home, or are left shivering in blankets and only eating one meal a day.
“For Boris Johnson to respond by boasting about the London bus pass reveals just how out of touch this narcissistic Prime Minister is. The simple truth is Boris Johnson has just imposed the biggest real terms cut to the pension in 50 years and charities like Age UK are warning this will be a year of hell for Britain’s retirees.
“A vote for Labour on Thursday is a vote to send the Conservatives a message they can’t ignore about why we need a windfall tax to provide real help to families facing the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis.”
The prime minister also conceded that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £9bn would fail to help all people struggling with their bills as inflation and rising food and energy prices clobber households.
Asked if he was honest, Johnson said he does his ‘best to represent faithfully and accurately what I believe.’
Elsie ‘disappointed’ with Boris Johnson’s response, says Susanna Reid
Reid challenged the PM about the 77-year-old’s financial predicament and increasing energy bills on GMB
According to Reid, Elsie’s gas and electricity bill has soared from £17 to £85 a month.
A 77-year-old woman who has only one meal a day and travels on buses during the day to keep her household bills down was “disappointed” with Boris Johnson’s response to her plight in an interview with Good Morning Britain, the show’s presenter Susanna Reid has said
The prime minister was challenged by Reid about Elsie’s financial predicament and increasing energy bills on the ITV programme. Johnson, the former London mayor, replied: “The 24-hour freedom bus pass [allowing free bus travel for over-60s in London] was actually something that I actually introduced.”
Speaking to LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr about her interview on Tuesday with the prime minister, Reid said: “I’ve spoken to Elsie, since the interview this morning with the prime minister, and she says how disappointed she is with what he said.
“Because she says there are people who are even worse off than she is, and there was no answer for them, apart from ‘oh I was the person who was responsible for the bus pass,’ I mean, as if she’s supposed to be grateful.”
Andrew Marr added: “Which is by the way, not entirely accurate itself because it was the London boroughs who brought that in.”
According to Reid, Elsie’s gas and electricity bill has soared from £17 to £85 a month. She has lost weight after reducing herself to one meal a day and shops only in the late afternoons when price-reduced “yellow sticker” items come on sale.
Th prime minister had said to Reid that there were “plenty of things more that we are doing”, adding: “What we want to do is make sure that we have people who are in particular hardship looked after by their councils, so we are putting much more money into local councils.
'What else to cut back on?': Boris Johnson questioned on cost of living crisis – video
“We have the particular payments to help elderly people in particular with the cost of heating.”
Pushed on what Elsie should cut back on, he said: “I don’t want Elsie to have to cut back on anything.”
Johnson added: “The best answer is to help her abate the cost of energy as we are, but also … to make sure there’s a direct cut in her council tax as a result of what we’re doing.”
During the interview, the prime minister also highlighted the winter fuel allowance and other “measures that we’ve put in place to help people”.
He said the government is “making sure that we take the steps now to invest in our energy supply” to “ensure that we have the supply for the medium and the long term”.
Boris Johnson’s ‘out of touch’ comments on cost of living crisis anger Tory MPs
PM’s interview on Good Morning Britain causes concern about party’s performance in upcoming local elections
Boris Johnson’s fumbled defence of the government’s record on the cost of living has exasperated Conservative MPs and sharpened fears about the party’s performance in Thursday’s local elections.
Asked about a pensioner forced to travel around on buses to stay warm and keep heating bills down, the prime minister’s first response was to boast that he introduced free travel for older people. During the interview on Tuesday, he admitted that the government had failed to do enough to alleviate the pain of soaring costs.
Amid growing fears over the impact of the cost of living crisis, the Treasury is looking at whether it can cover some or all of this autumn’s energy price rise from government funds, the Guardian has learned.
01:51 'What else to cut back on?': Boris Johnson questioned on cost of living crisis – video
It is understood that Rishi Sunak’s department has been examining whether to simply absorb most of the cost, rather than offer a discount on bills or a council tax rebate. Sunak is concerned about the inflationary impact of more borrowing – but the option of absorbing some or all of the rise has been considered.
A Treasury source said they “don’t recognise this as policy work being done at this point in time”. A spokesperson added: “Energy bills are capped until the autumn. We won’t know yet what the size of the rise will be given the volatility of prices we are seeing now and it’s right that we wait … [to] decide what the solution should be.”
Thursday’s vote will be the first UK-wide electoral test since details emerged of lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
Tory MPs are braced for losses in London and the south of England as a toxic combination of Partygate and the rocketing cost of living take their toll. MPs in northern England said they are more confident of holding on to local councillors.
In a pre-election interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the prime minister struggled to articulate what help may be available to a pensioner struggling to make ends meet.
Asked about Elsie, a 77-year-old who has cut back on meals and uses buses to stay warm, he responded: “The 24-hour freedom bus pass was actually something that I introduced.” Asked what more Elsie could cut back on, he said he “didn’t want her to have to cut back on anything”.
With concerns about the cost of living a major election issue, some Tory MPs responded with irritation to Johnson’s performance. “The thing with him is, he hasn’t read the script sometimes,” said one. “There are so many positive things he could have said.”
Another backbencher and former cabinet minister said: “It won’t have won us many votes. Boris doesn’t actually care about these people. He basically despises most of the human race, so that makes it quite difficult for him to sympathise.”
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jon Ashworth, said that “boasting about the London bus pass reveals just how out of touch this narcissistic prime minister is”. He added that the state pension had just suffered the biggest real-terms cut in 50 years.
Both main parties are desperately trying to manage expectations before Thursday’s elections, with the Tories warning of as many as 800 losses out of more than 5,000 council seats being contested, and Labour suggesting they could make few gains.
The Conservative peer and elections expert, Robert Hayward, said he projected net Tory losses of 250 to 350 seats, adding: “That will mean one or two headline Labour gains but whether that is good enough for them to be comfortable is a question mark.”
Tory insiders say there are serious jitters about losing the London council of Wandsworth, though Labour said that is unlikely. A senior Tory figure said the area had become more affluent over time, which might usually favour the Tories, but instead it had seen “gentrification with remainers”.
A London MP warned that among middle class, “middle-of-the-road” voters in the south of England, “it’s a Boris problem”.
One senior Lib Dem strategist said the party was looking at possible gains in the new Somerset unitary authority, Oxford, Wimbledon and Woking in the south, as well as Westmoreland and Hull in the north. “We don’t expect significant takeovers of loads of different councils but we hope to see steady progress in the blue seats that are up,” they said.
By contrast, “red wall” Conservatives are quietly confident of holding on to their council seats. –
In key local council fights – such as Bury, Bolton, Wigan and Hartlepool – which will be seen to foreshadow whether Labour will be able to retake or hold seats at the next elections, Tories described voters as angry with Johnson over Partygate, but unwilling to make the switch to Labour. Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
One Midlands Tory in a newly won constituency seat said: “Logically, we should actually be in a position to make gains, but Partygate and the cost of living are meaning our voters are not reliably turning out. But I’m not detecting people going back to Labour at all.”
A Tory MP in north-west England said they feared that anger towards Johnson was unlikely to dissipate by the next general election, though voters were prepared to keep voting Tory locally because Labour were still seen as the establishment force.
“I think the anger is now a permanent feature. We can, in a sense, get away with it this time because he’s not on the ballot paper. But this is definitely going to be held against us at a general election.”
LinkedIn settles with Labor Department over alleged pay discrimination
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The career-networking service LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages to hundreds of female workers to settle a pay discrimination complaint brought by U.S. labor investigators.
The U.S. Labor Department announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement agreement with LinkedIn to resolve allegations of “systemic, gender-based pay discrimination” in which women were paid less than men in comparable job roles.
The settlement affects nearly 700 women who worked in engineering, product or marketing roles from 2015 to 2017 at the company’s offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California. It includes the time before and after Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.
LinkedIn said in a statement that “while we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government’s claims; LinkedIn pays and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work.”
The settlement agreement says LinkedIn argued that its statistical models didn’t identify pay disparities. The government said its own analysis found significant pay disparities even after controlling for “legitimate explanatory factors.”
The agency said the case was sparked by a routine evaluation by its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Federal laws ban discriminatory practices at companies that contract with the federal government.
Poll shows surge for Alliance but Sinn Fein still in lead ahead of Northern Ireland Stormont election
If polling data is borne out at the May 5 Assembly election, Sinn Fein would displace the DUP as the region's largest party
Jonathan McCambridge
IRISH MIRROR
3 MAY 2022
Sinn Fein northern leader Michelle O'Neill meets members of the public as she canvesses ahead of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections at Kennedy shopping centre on May 3, 2022 in Belfast, Northern Ireland (Image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
The DUP and Alliance Party are neck and neck in second place among voters, according to a new opinion poll ahead of Thursday's Stormont election.
Sinn Fein remains on course to emerge as the largest party, according to the latest Institute of Irish Studies/University of Liverpool/Irish News poll.
The survey of voter intentions has Sinn Fein on 26.6%, slightly down from the previous University of Liverpool poll when it was on 27%.
However, broadly in line with other recent surveys, it retains a significant gap ahead of the DUP.
The latest poll of decided voters has Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's party on 18.2%, down from 20.2%.
If polling data is borne out at the May 5 Assembly election, Sinn Fein would displace the DUP as the region's largest party - a position it has occupied for almost 20 years - and it would be entitled to take the role of First Minister, with Michelle O'Neill the party's likely choice for the job.
However, there is uncertainty over whether a functioning Executive will be formed post-election.
The Executive collapsed in February when DUP First Minister Paul Givan quit in protest over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol and the barriers it has created on the movement of goods between Great Britain and the region.
The DUP has made clear it will not be returning to an Executive before major changes are secured to the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements.
However, the poll has also indicated a surge in support for the cross-community Alliance Party, headed by Naomi Long, which has risen from 14.6% to 18.2%, level with the DUP.
The survey indicates that the Ulster Unionist Party has fallen back slightly to 12.1%, while the SDLP has seen a slight increase at 10.5%.
Other parties account for 14.4% of decided voters.
The poll indicates that 54% of voters for Jim Allister's TUV party plan to give the DUP their second preference, with 24% of DUP voters stating they will do the same for the TUV.
Almost two-thirds of DUP voters (62.8%) will instead give their second preference to the UUP.
That's according to the latest Institute of Irish Studies/University of Liverpool/Irish News poll, conducted ahead of the Stormont election on Thursday (May 5).
However, there is uncertainty over whether a functioning Executive will be formed post-election.
The Executive collapsed in February when DUP First Minister Paul Givan quit in protest over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol and the barriers it has created on the movement of goods between Great Britain and the region.
The DUP has made clear it will not be returning to an Executive before major changes are secured to the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements.
However, the poll has also indicated a surge in support for the cross-community Alliance Party, headed by Naomi Long, which has risen from 14.6% to 18.2%, level with the DUP.
The survey indicates that the Ulster Unionist Party has fallen back slightly to 12.1%, while the SDLP has seen a slight increase at 10.5%. Other parties account for 14.4% of decided voters.
The poll indicates that 54% of voters for Jim Allister’s TUV party plan to give the DUP their second preference, with 24% of DUP voters stating they will do the same for the TUV. Almost two-thirds of DUP voters (62.8%) will instead give their second preference to the UUP.
The Assembly election uses the single transferable vote system of proportional representation, which gives voters the opportunity to rank other parties in order of preference after selecting their first choice.
– The poll was based on the responses of 1,270 people surveyed between April 16 and 26. It was conducted by Social Market Research Belfast and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1.
BP pledges to invest £18bn in UK energy as huge profits spark fresh call for windfall tax
BP has pledged to spend £18billion in Britain over the next eight years as it looks to fight off calls for a one-off windfall tax.
The commitment came as BP posted a record £5billion in underlying profit for the first three months this year, far ahead of analyst expectations of £3.6billion, and its best quarterly performance for 14 years.
The firm also announced it would hand £2billion back to investors in the form of a new share buyback – a significant boost to the nation's pension funds.
BP posted a record £5bn in underlying profit for the first three months this year, far ahead of analyst expectations of £3.6bn, and its best quarterly performance for 14 years
With calls for a windfall tax on energy companies growing louder, BP outlined its spending plans, including money for North Sea oil and gas as well investments in wind power and electric car charging points
Chief executive Bernard Looney said: 'We're backing Britain. It's been our home for over 110 years, and we've been investing in North Sea oil and gas for more than 50 years.'
He added: 'Our plans go beyond just infrastructure – they see us supporting the economy and skills and jobs in the communities where we operate. We are all in.'
BP also said it expected to pay £1billion in taxes for its 2022 North Sea profits, on top of around £250million that it has paid annually in other taxes in the UK in recent years.
Analysts said the investment plans were 'savvy' and probably enough to head off the threat of being hit by a windfall tax.
Neil Wilson, analyst at Markets.com, said: 'Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng have been calling on energy giants to invest more in the UK.
'I think this shows BP was listening.'
But others were more sceptical amid a cost-of-living crisis that has gripped the UK and left millions struggling to pay their bills.
Jenny Owen, analyst at AJ Bell, said: 'BP's profit and cash flow is being artificially inflated by the war in Ukraine, and ordinary people are already paying the price through much higher household bills.
'Shouldn't BP, with its broader shoulders, share the burden?'
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said BP's bumper profits 'reinforce the case' for a levy. He added: 'With so many people struggling to pay their energy bills, we should have a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in the North Sea who have made more profit than they were expecting.'
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to cave in, stating that a windfall tax would discourage investment in the UK and would cost jobs.
He said: 'If you put a windfall tax on the energy companies, what that means is that you discourage them from making the investments that we want to see that will, in the end, keep energy price prices lower for everybody.'
BP's numbers were boosted by high oil and gas prices over the period, with Brent Crude rising from $78 per barrel at the start of January to $107 per barrel by the end of March.
As a result of a surge in the prices, the company's oil and gas trading division was a stand-out performer, generating a whopping £1.3billion profit over the quarter.
Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria noted that seeing strength in both oil and gas trading divisions was rare, adding: 'BP has previously reported exceptional gas trading and exceptional oil trading, but not both at the same time.'
While BP posted its best underlying profit since 2008, once the £20billion cost of abandoning its 19.75 per cent stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft following the invasion of Ukraine was taken into account, it made a quarterly loss of £16.3billion, the biggest in its history.
But investors shrugged off the loss and shares rose 5.8 per cent, or 22.7p, to 414.25p
Russia business burns BP, while revenues soar amid UK cost of living crisis
04-May-2022 CGTN
British energy giant BP plunged into a huge net loss in the first quarter of this year after it decided to exit Russia over the country's invasion of neighbor Ukraine.
The loss after tax stood at $20.4 billion USD (19.4 billion euros) following BP's decision in February to pull its 19.75-percent stake in energy group Rosneft, ending more than three decades of investment in Russia.
"Our decision... to exit our shareholding in Rosneft resulted in the material non-cash charges and headline loss," BP CEO Bernard Looney said.
The group wrote off wrote off $25.5 billion USD, owing to the break with Rosneft.
That wiped out the benefit of surging energy prices, fueled by fears of tight supplies following the invasion by significant oil and gas producer Russia. Surging revenues amid crisis
BP revenue jumped 40 percent to $51 billion USD in the first quarter from a year earlier.
Amid growing calls for a windfall tax on energy firms to help consumers who are facing surging fuel prices, BP said it expected to pay up to 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion USDF) in taxes in Britain on its 2022 profits.
BP did not say how much British tax it paid in 2021, but its 2020 tax report showed it paid $263 million USD in UK tax that year.
Surging prices have been contributing to the biggest squeeze on household incomes since at least the 1950s, putting pressure on the UK government to come up with support for the poorest, particularly those who cannot afford soaring energy bills.
A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) oil platform is seen in the North Sea, around 100 miles east of Aberdeen in Scotland.
/Reuters/Andy Buchanan/pool/File Photo
In a quarter dominated by the tragic events in Ukraine and volatility in energy markets, BP's focus has been on supplying the reliable energy our customers need
- Bernard Looney, BP CEO
The energy giant said it planned to invest up to 18 billion pounds ($22.5 bn) in Britain until 2030 on producing oil and gas, wind power, an electric car charging network, and other projects.
Looney told Reuters this meant Britain would receive 15 - 20 percent of BP's global investment budget, up from about 10 -15 percent, adding that just over a quarter of the amount invested would go on oil and gas projects.
Energy prices in Britain have hit record highs this year, leading to repeated calls from the opposition Labour Party for a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to help pay for support for people struggling with energy bills.
Rampant inflation, years of Conservative Party cuts to welfare payments, and stagnant wages have led to a cost of living crisis for many Britons, particularly those in low-income households.
People protest about the rising cost of living during a demonstration outside Downing Street in London. /Reuters/Peter Nicholls//File Photo Britain's upcoming 'midterms'
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to do more to tackle the rising cost of living, with the issue center-stage at local elections this week.
But he again rejected calls for a one-off windfall tax on major energy companies, BP and Shell, and others, to offset soaring bills that have squeezed household incomes.
Voters go to the polls to elect new councils in much of England and Scotland, and Wales on Thursday, with the results seen as a referendum on Johnson's premiership.
Opposition parties have been focusing on eye-watering price hikes for food and heating, claiming many people were now facing a choice between one or the other.
In an interview on ITV, Johnson was told about a 77-year-old viewer who said she was now only eating one meal daily because her energy bill had risen so much.
She reportedly now spends the day traveling on buses - using a so-called "freedom pass" which gives pensioners free travel in London - to stay out of her house and keep her bills down.
Johnson, a former London mayor, responded: "The 24-hour freedom bus pass was actually something that I introduced."
BrewDog boss James Watt has launched a charm offensive to restore morale in the company by handing out shares and introducing a scheme to distribute profits among staff.
The Aberdeenshire firm will give shares worth about £120,000 to 750 employees and launch the first ever profit sharing scheme for all bar workers as it looks to move on from a rift that led to accusations against the chief executive’s style of management.
He will hand over nearly a fifth of his stake in the business, representing 3.7 million shares or a 5% shareholding, to salaried employees.
The near-£100 million share award will be worth about £30,000 a year over four years to each eligible employee, based on the most recent fundraising, which valued BrewDog at about £1.8 billion. Salaried staff and the firm’s army of “equity punk” investors own 25% of the company.
The process will see Mr Watt’s stake reduce from 24.2% to 19.2%, while the profit sharing scheme will be the first of its kind in the hospitality sector, allowing 1,500 hourly-paid bar staff to share half of the earnings from each bar, unveiled as part of a wider growth plan laid out by the group.
BrewDog, which is headquartered in Ellon, said that based on last year’s numbers it would pay out an extra £3,000 to £5,000 on top of each bar worker’s salary.
The moves come almost a year after a group of former workers accused the company of having a “toxic” culture in an open letter alleging the business was built upon a “cult of personality” around its founders, Mr Watt and Martin Dickie.
Mr Watt has denied the allegations, including further accusations made against him in a BBC documentary and has lodged a complaint against the broadcaster.
Former Asda chief executive Allan Leighton was brought in last year as chairman to help beef up governance ahead of an IPO. However, Mr Watt now concedes the group is unlikely to float in the next 12 months given the market uncertainty.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
UK Socialite James Stunt accused of being part of £266m money-laundering operation Katie Dickinson, PA Tue, May 3, 2022,
The socialite and former husband of heiress Petra Ecclestone, James Stunt, has gone on trial accused of being part of a £266 million money-laundering operation.
Stunt is one of eight defendants charged with money laundering involving depositing cash in the account of Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield.
Prosecutors say the cash was brought into business addresses owned or managed by the defendants between January 2014 and September 2016.
Opening the case to jurors at Leeds Cloth Hall Court on Tuesday, prosecutor Nicholas Clarke QC said it was “blindingly obvious this was criminal cash”.
The court heard the money was carried in sports bags, carrier bags and holdalls in hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time – and all paid into the bank account of Fowler Oldfield.
Five defendants from Fowler Oldfield – Greg Frankel, Daniel Rawson, Paul Miller, Heidi Buckler and Haroon “Harry” Rashid – all say the prosecution cannot prove that any of the cash was criminal property.
The other defendants – Stunt, Alexander Tulloch and Francesca Sota – say they “don’t know whether it was”, Mr Clarke said.
He told jurors: “The prosecution say this is nonsense… Each of them must at the very least have suspected that the source of the money was criminal in origin – it could not have come from a legitimate source and no legitimate source has ever been identified for it.”
The prosecution say cash from “a lot of criminal activity” was collected together and taken to Fowler Oldfield in Bradford, West Yorkshire, sometimes via businesses in London.
Mr Clarke said: “These defendants then hid its origin by washing it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold.”
Jurors were told West Yorkshire Police launched Operation Larkshot – an investigation into large amounts of cash being credited to the bank account of Fowler Oldfield collected from three sites – Fowler Oldfield’s own premises, the offices of James Stunt in central London and a new company called Pure Nines in Hatton Garden.
Mr Clarke said substantial amounts of cash were being paid into a bank account of Fowler Oldfield Limited from 2014.
He told jurors they aroused the suspicions of bank staff because “they were of such an amount, on a daily basis, as may come from a Premier League football stadium on a match day or similar size venue or event”.
“They were in volumes that exceed collections from busy high street banks. The payments were getting much bigger in 2016.
“On some days, well over a million pounds in used notes was being paid into the Fowler Oldfield account,” Mr Clarke said.
The account was referred to police, who found that between August and September 2016 daily cash deposits ranged between £787,540 and £2,424,380, with an average of £1,706,823, jurors heard.
The wider investigation discovered that from January 1 2014 until September 16 2016, more than £266 million in cash and unknown deposits were paid into the Fowler Oldfield bank account.
The court heard that after the cash had credited the bank account it was transferred mainly to two Birmingham gold suppliers, Cookson Precious Metals Limited and Metalor Technologies (UK) Limited to buy gold.
Forty six million pounds was also transferred into an account in the name of James Stunt’s company, Stunt & Co Ltd.
Mr Clarke said CCTV footage shows that during August and September 2016, couriers from all over the UK attended Fowler Oldfield with heavy bags of cash.
In one case it was inside two toy boxes wrapped in paper disguised as a birthday present.
The court heard Fowler Oldfield was a small family jewellery company that used to buy, in relatively modest amounts, scrap gold from the jewellery trade which would then be melted down or refined into larger amounts.
But Mr Clarke said: “There was a dramatic transformation as Fowler Oldfield moved from that legitimate trade to becoming a vehicle for very substantial money laundering of criminal cash.
“From the end of 2013, the bank account of Fowler Oldfield began to receive huge sums in cash deposits.
“The significant and marked change in the business of Fowler Oldfield from buyer of scrap gold involving paying out cash to very substantial receiver of cash, the escalation in the turnover of the business, the sheer value of cash involved, the number of Scottish notes among the cash received and the circumstances of its receipt and being counted, are all clear indications that the cash that was being delivered by the couriers had its origins in crime.
“It is obvious from the totality of the evidence, and especially the CCTV recordings, that this was a sophisticated clandestine operation to receive criminal cash in such a way that Fowler Oldfield could then persuade NatWest that it was just part of their ordinary business operations.”
Mr Clarke said the money laundering then “went national” as one of Fowler Oldfield’s directors, Greg Frankel, became a Vice President of Stunt & Co.
“New premises in the south became centres of operation for receiving cash,” he told the court.
“Stunt’s offices are higher up in a tower block and it became more difficult to manage the sheer volume of bags of cash that had to be paid into the Fowler Oldfield account, and there were issues over the security of the collections.
“They then got access to a new company with no history at all, Pure Nines. which could also help in the trade side of legitimising the cash.”
Buckler, 45, Frankel, 44, Miller, 45, Rashid, 51, Rawson, 45, Sota, 34, Stunt, 40 and Tulloch, 41, all deny money laundering. Stunt and Sota also deny forgery.
Stunt married Ms Ecclestone, daughter of F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, in Italy in 2011. They had three children together but divorced in 2017.
Staff at UK markets watchdog to begin unprecedented strike
LONDON (Reuters) - Staff at Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) were poised to strike for the first time on Wednesday as a protracted dispute over pay and union recognition remained unresolved.
The regulator is being revamped to become what Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi has said will be a more aggressive watchdog to tackle scams and misconduct.
The Unite union said the strike follows months of refusals by the FCA to listen to its workforce.
"The action will start with 48 hours of continuous strike action by workers across the financial regulator in London and Edinburgh," a Unite statement said.
"This will be followed by a continuous ‘work to rule’ by the workforce, who will withdraw the regular overtime and additional work they currently do outside of their contractual duties."
Strikes are also planned in June and July.
The FCA employs about 4,000 staff, but a person familiar with the watchdog said that 294 Unite members - accounting for less than 8% of the payroll - have said they are prepared to strike and no significant disruption to operations is expected.
The watchdog has replaced what it considered to be bonuses that had no real link to performance, implementing what is says is a "highly competitive" pay package based on extensive consultation with staff.
"Most colleagues are receiving an average 7% increase in base pay this year and over 12% over the next two years, with an additional one-off cash payment of 4% in May," the FCA said.
"We acknowledge the result of the ballot of Unite members and respect colleagues’ votes and their strength of feeling about some of the changes we have made."
Official union recognition would allow Unite to represent staff in pay negotiations.
The Central Arbitration Committee, an independent workplace disputes body, is considering whether to accept an application from Unite for labour union recognition at the FCA.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Goodman)
