Author: LoveWorld UK

The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic despite mounting concern over the Omicron variant. Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to raise rates from the historic low of 0.1% to 0.25%, judging that pressure from surging inflation outweighed the risks to the economy from the new variant. Official figures showed inflation hit 5.1% in November amid soaring energy prices and global supply chain bottlenecks, hitting a rate the Bank hadn’t expected to be reached until the spring. The MPC has an official inflation target of 2%. However, the rate…

Shaun Bailey has stepped down from an official role in the London assembly after a photograph emerged of him joining a throng of people for a “raucous” party amid the Covid lockdown in December last year. The Conservative candidate for London mayor earlier this year stood aside as chair of the police and crime committee, a statement from the assembly’s Conservative group said. It said that Bailey “does not want an unauthorised social gathering involving some former members of the London mayoral campaign team last December to distract from the committee’s important work holding the mayor of London to account”. However, it…

Marcelo Bielsa offered no excuses for Leeds’s 7-0 humiliation by Manchester City, their joint heaviest defeat in the club’s 102-year history, the manager admitting this was the “worst result” of his four years in charge. The defeat leaves Leeds with 16 points after 17 games and, adjusting to three points for a win, only in 1930‑31 have they had fewer at this stage of any league campaign (14). Two goals from Kevin De Bruyne and one each from Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, John Stones and Nathan Aké meant Leeds matched their poorest margin, set previously when losing 8-1 against…

Any further measures to limit the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus would lead to a recall of the House of Commons for a vote, the cabinet minister Grant Shapps has said. After disquiet among backbenchers over plans for vaccine certificates led to a rebellion by 99 Conservative MPs on Tuesday, Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he believed the precautions now in pace would be enough to keep Omicron under control. But he said: “If more measures were required … then of course the house would be recalled and those measures would be put to the house. But I don’t…

Sajid Javid and his top health advisers were today accused of scare-mongering after clarifying that gloomy models do estimate that 200,000 Britons could be catching Omicron every day. The Health Secretary last night told MPs that daily Covid infections were thought to have breached the 200,000 mark. But his comments, made in a statement discussing the threat of Omicron, sparked immediate confusion over whether the figure was relating to the virus as a whole, or specifically just the super-mutant variant. Department of Health insiders last night told The Telegraph that Mr Javid was correct to imply Omicron cases had hit 200,000 a day.…

Passenger railroad operator Amtrak said Tuesday it will suspend its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees and no longer expects service disruptions in January. Amtrak Chief Executive Bill Flynn said in a memo obtained by The Epoch Times that employees who aren’t vaccinated can get tested instead. Fewer than 500 Amtrak workers are unvaccinated, he said. Informing Amtrak’s decision was a recent federal court order that “halted the enforcement of the executive order for federal contractors” which caused the firm to reevaluate its policy toward vaccine mandates, Flynn wrote. It means Amtrak will revert back to its original vaccine mandate that it announced in August, which…

Bookmakers have made the Liberal Democrats the favourites to win this week’s North Shropshire byelection, odds that if reflected in Thursday’s vote would deliver a significant fresh blow to Boris Johnson’s authority. Lib Dem campaigners stress that the result is hard to predict, given variables such as turnout and the number of Labour and Green supporters who decide to vote tactically. But the party says it is “neck and neck” in the usually ultra-safe Conservative seat, which was held by Owen Paterson in the 2019 election with a near-23,000 majority and has been Tory for all but two of the last 190 years. The byelection was…

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy and will not be selected for Wednesday’s match against West Ham, throwing the striker’s future at the club into doubt. Mikel Arteta dropped Aubameyang from the squad that beat Southampton on Saturday over returning late from a trip abroad and the manager afterwards refused to take questions on the player’s status as club captain. But it was far from the 32-year-old’s first such offence and, as Arsenal made clear in a statement on Tuesday, Arteta’s patience has run out. “Following his latest disciplinary breach last week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will no longer be our club captain, and will…

The government is launching what it says will be “common sense” reforms to the Human Rights Act that will “restore confidence” in the legal system. The proposals commit to staying within the European Convention on Human Rights, despite pressure from some Conservatives to leave the treaty. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says the plans will prevent a right to family life being abused by foreign criminals. Critics warn the final measures could be muddled and unnecessary. What is the Human Rights Act? The Human Rights Act was introduced more than 20 years ago and it sets out in law a set…

On Monday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News there were 10 individuals in hospital with the new Omicron variant. Dominic Raab then said there were 250, but later told the BBC there were nine. Officials say there are in fact still 10. There are currently 10 people in hospital with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 – not 250, as Dominic Raab told Sky News. The deputy prime minister later told the BBC that there were nine people in hospital with the variant. But officials have clarified that Mr Raab “misspoke” on both occasions by getting his figures wrong, and that there…