The Starlight

Dominic Cummings has published expletive-laden texts, apparently from Boris Johnson, in which the PM calls the health secretary "hopeless". It is the latest salvo in a bitter battle of words between Mr Cummings, the PM's former top aide, and Matt Hancock over the handling of the pandemic. Downing Street did not reject the authenticity of the messages. But the PM's official spokesman insisted Mr Johnson has full confidence in the health secretary. In a 7,000-word blog, Mr Cummings accused Mr Hancock of trying to rewrite history during a select committee hearing last week which was examining how the government has managed various aspects of the crisis. He also took aim at Mr Johnson, claiming he had "lied about failures" during the government's initial response to the pandemic. "If No 10 is prepared to lie so deeply and widely about such vital issues of life and death last year, it cannot be trusted now either on Covid or any other crucial issue of wa...

  MPs will vote on the delaying of lockdown easing in the UK by four weeks MPs will vote on extending emergency COVID-19 legislation in England for another four weeks, while concerned  over rising cases. On Monday, Boris Johnson said that delaying the arranged lifting of restrictions would give the NHS "a few more crucial weeks" to get people vaccinated. Labour has made accusations against ministers of letting the Delta variant in Britain by not strengthening restrictions on travel from India sooner. But it is likely to support detaining an end to lockdown and restrictions, meaning the government will most likely win the vote. Business minister - Nadhim Zahawi - said England had "put in place some of the most stringent COVID-19 border measures in the world". On Monday, the PM announced that the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in England are due to be delayed from 21 June to 19 July. This means pubs, clubs and theatres will have to run with...

DUP leader  - Edwin Poots  - has said he wants to support Irish language legislation, but not necessarily before the following assembly election. Sinn Féin has made suggesions that it may not support a brand new DUP first minister unless such legislation is approved by ministers before the 10th of July. Arlene Foster will resign as first minister later on Monday. Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill will lose her position as deputy first minister because the roles are a joint office. As soon as Mrs Foster resigns, there shall be a seven-day period for the approval of a brand new first minister and a d eputy first minister by Sinn Féin, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Her departure is after six weeks after she was overthrown as the leader of the DUP. Mr Poots said he will chose his colleague - Paul Givan - to become the new first minister. But speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday, Mr Poots said he was not sure whether the nomination would hap...

 The UK and US have an 'indestructible relationship' - Boris Johnson 'The alliance between the US and the UK will be known as the indestructible relationship', Boris Johnson told the BBC after meeting US President Joe Biden for the first time. He says that he had "terrific" talks with Joe Biden, who has gone to Cornwall for the G7 summit of world leaders. The summit will begin later, with vaccines and climate change to be discussed. Mr Johnson had insisted that Mr Biden had not reprimanded him over post-Brexit tensions in Northern Ireland. However, Mr Biden is said to have "deep concern" concerning the situation. The prime minister spoke to the BBC's political editor - Laura Kuenssberg - after having met Mr Biden in Carbis Bay in Cornwall, on Thursday before the G7 summit. The summit will see the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK gathering in person for the first time since the pandemic. Ahead of the meeting, Mr John...

 The UK and EU are keen for compromises concerning Irish Sea Border Checks The UK's Brexit minister Lord Frost has urged the EU to show common sense while in talks about post-Brexit legislation in Northen Island. The Conservative peer is meeting his EU counterpart - Maros Sefcovic - - in London to discuss different ways to reduce disruption at the Irish Sea border. Several delayed border checks are going to start next month, but both sides are calling for each  other to compromise. Mr Sefcovic has warned against "quick fixes" to issues about borders. The UK and EU officials have been in talks over simplifying the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the UK's 2019 Brexit withdrawal deal. This made a trade border between Northern Ireland and the UK  so they can  prevent freight checks along the Irish land border.

 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has complained to world finance leaders that we cannot continue to use a tax system that’s design was mainly based from the work created in the 1920s. He also explained that the world had high expectations in a G7 meeting in Central London. He was confident of securing a deal with US over a new controversial tax introduced by the British Government in 2020. Last March, England announced a new 2% levy on such revenues from the UK on online services like the internet and Facebook.  By  SN

The health secretary was judged guilty on Friday of a "minor" breach of the ministerial standards code. Lord Geidt, the PM's standards adviser, said Mr Hancock had not been awake that a firm co-owned by his sister had become an approved NHS supplier. He said Mr Hancock should not lose his job over it - a decision Labour says sets a "concerning precedent". Ministers have traditionally been expected to resign when they are found to have broken the ministerial code. The company, which specialises in the secure storage, shredding and scanning of documents, was awarded approved supplier status by NHS in England in February 2019, seven months after Mr Hancock had become health secretary It also won £300,000 of business from NHS Wales this year. Mr Hancock said he had not been involved in the company in February 2019 and "did not know" about its NHS supplier status, so did not think he could "reasonably have been expected to declare it". Lord...

Conservatives have been fined 10,000 GBP by the data Watchdog for sending emails to 51 people about marketing who did not want to receive them. These messages were sent as Boris Johnson in the 8 days following his election as prime minister in 2019. The Conservatives said that they accepted the fine and said that they’d bettered the procedures. It is against legislation to send marketing emails directly, unless the recipient had given their consent for this. Between the 24th of July to the 31st of July Conservatives had sent out over a million marketing emails. The ICO says that ‘some’ of the emails were ‘sent validly’ but the party did not have consent from 51 of the recipients. The Watchdog says that problem was because of the Conservative Party’s failure to transfer records of some who had unsubscribed from the emails when the party had changed their email provider. The director of investigations at the ICO – Stephen Eckersley said that it was ‘really concerning that such ...

  Boris Johnson has expressed "full confidence" in Health Secretary Matt Hancock over claims he lied about protecting care homes from Covid. Dominic Cummings says Mr Hancock misled the PM in March 2020 by promising all residents discharged from hospital would be tested. The PM's former aide says this led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Mr Hancock has denied lying but said he had been clear that it would take time to build testing capacity. "My recollection of events is that I committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospital into care homes when we could do it," he told a Downing Street press conference on Thursday. "I then went away and built the testing capacity… and then delivered on the commitment that I made."                                                              CRE...

 'We've always been straight with people' says Hancock  The health secretary Matt  Hancock has told MPs that the government had always 'been straight with people'. These words are following a claim by Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser of the PM, where he accuses Mr Hancock of lying to his colleagues about dealing with the virus in care homes. But Matt Hancock denies the claim as 'unsubstantiated' and 'untrue'. The labor party asked whether Mr Hancock was a 'liar and a fantasist', and demanded 'full answers' on the government's attempts on protecting care homes.  Mr Cummings says that the health secretary 'should have been fired for least ~15 things, including lying to everyone on multiple occasions in meeting after meetings in the Cabinet Room and publicly', Mr Cummings also says that 'Hancock told us in the Cabine2t Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subseque...

 The first man in the world to get the approved version of the Pfizer Corona-virus vaccine dies of a unrelated disease. The UK has given over 2/3 of adults the vaccine since. “Bill” Shakespeare was a Labour supporter who served as a parish councillor an who was just recognised for his actions by Sir Keir Starmer. His death hasn’t just affected his dear ones but also his beloved party, Labour.  Credit:Wikipedia By SN

                                                                     PHOTO CREDIT TO DOMINIC CUMMINGS Giving evidence to MPs on the handling of the pandemic, the PM's former chief adviser said the UK had failed to "hear the alarm bells" when coronavirus hit other countries early last year. Mr Cummings added that he had cautioned previously that there had to be more planning for pandemics. Downing Street said its main focus had always been to save lives. Mr Cummings is being asked by the Health and Science select committees on the government response to the pandemic. The former adviser told the MPs that "senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short" because of the "public expects during a crisis like this". And he apologised for the "mistakes that ...

The UK economy will experience its fastest growth in more than seventy years while corona virus lock down restrictions are being lifted according to the bank of England. The economy is expected to expand by 7.25% this year, if the government help people regain their jobs.  Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England added that the recovery of finance was “strong”. He assured the government that the surge in economy would bring it back to the original finance before the corona virus started. Fewer job losses will continue to fall as Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in the March budget that the furlough scheme would (of course) continued to the end of September. By SN By SN