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Top story: Budget still austere in the wrong direction, say critics
Hello, it’s Warren Murray with the news from near and far.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has declared that “austerity is coming to an end” as he delivered a big-spending budget that was quickly criticised for providing tax cuts for the better off while doing little for low earners.
Hammond confirmed that he will bring forward to 2019 the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to increase the income tax personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher-rate threshold to £50,000 – handing an income tax cut of up to £860 a year to higher earners. He declared “universal credit is here to stay” but met demands to cushion it with a £1,000 a year increase in the work allowance claimants can earn before their benefits are clawed back. The measures have been immediately criticised as doing little for those on low incomes while the Office for Budget Responsibility says the spending promises throw into doubt the chancellor’s pledge to balance the nation’s books by 2025.
As part of a package pumping an additional £15bn into the economy next year, the chancellor announced short-term giveaways on everything from defence spending to potholes. One of only a handful of revenue-raising measures is a £400m-a-year levy on larger tech companies such as Google, Facebook and eBay. PFI and PF2 contracts, under which private companies provide public services and infrastructure, are to be abolished after a string of costly disasters including Carillion’s collapse. On Brexit, Hammond said: “When our EU negotiations deliver a deal, as I am confident they will, I expect that the ‘deal dividend’ will allow us to provide further funding for the spending review. The hard work of the British people is paying off.” Here is how some of those people can expect to fare.
In reply, Jeremy Corbyn said: “Far from people’s hard work and sacrifices having paid off, as the chancellor claims, this government has frittered it away in ideological tax cuts to the richest in our society.” There will be further scrutiny in the Commons today. The Resolution Foundation’s Torsten Bell said: “Tough times are far from over. The chancellor has set out plans to spend almost all of a very significant fiscal windfall on extra spending for the NHS … But unprotected departments are still on course for spending cuts into the 2020s – averaging 3% between 2019 and 2023.”
Khashoggi fiancee speaks out – Hatice Cengiz has said Saudi authorities must not be allowed to cover up the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, with whom she was making preparations to marry. “I believe that the Saudi regime knows where his body is,” said Cengiz through a translator at a memorial event in London. “This is not only the demand of a fiancee, but a human and Islamic demand, from everyone, every nation.” Cengiz criticised the response from some countries including the US: “President Trump should help reveal the truth and ensure justice be served. He should not pave the way for a cover-up of my fiance’s murder. Let’s not let money taint our conscience and compromise our values.”
Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee hits out at Trump – video
Cengiz, who accompanied Khashoggi to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October and raised the alarm when he failed to come out, said: “If only I had known what would happen, I would have entered the consulate myself and stood in front of the murderous crew. If only I had known … I would have done everything to stop him entering that building. We never imagined such a level of barbarity, cruelty and evil.”
Spy claim Briton on bail – Matthew Hedges, the British academic accused by Dubai of spying, has been released on bail, the Foreign Office has confirmed. Hedges, 31, spent nearly six months in jail after being detained in May at the end of a trip to the UAE. He denies the spying allegations and his family has said he was doing research for his PhD. The BBC reported Hedges had been fitted with an ankle bracelet and told to stay in the country until a court appearance on 21 November. The Foreign Office said: “We are monitoring developments closely and have made the Emirati authorities aware of all our concerns. We continue to do everything we can for Matthew and his family.”
Actor testifies over ‘King Leer’ claims – The actor Eryn Jean Norvill, who is at the centre of accusations against Geoffrey Rush, has claimed the actor “deliberately” touched her bad in front of an audience during a 2015 stage production of King Lear, and said she felt “trapped” and “frightened” by the Oscar-winner’s behaviour. Rush is suing Sydney’s Rupert Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph over its coverage of Norvill’s claims. Speaking for the first time since the story was published, Norvill said: “I felt shocked … I guess I was confused. I mean, Geoffrey, I considered Geoffrey a friend. I felt belittled and embarrbaded and I guess shamed.” The actor was questioned about text messages she had sent to Rush that contained badually suggestive puns, and how they seemed to remain on good terms. She told the court she felt unable to speak up about his behaviour because of his star power within the production. “Everyone else didn’t seem to have a problem about it … I was looking at a room that was complicit, my director didn’t seem to have a problem with it so I felt quashed in terms terms of my ability to find allies.”
Trump ‘stokes immigration fears’ – Donald Trump is to deploy more than 5,200 troops to the border with Mexico in what a rights organisation described as an abuse of the military. A caravan of several thousand Central American migrants has been moving slowly north since mid-October and is now in southern Mexico. They are still 2,000 miles by road and weeks away from reaching a US port of entry, where most are expected to seek asylum as the law allows. Trump said on Twitter: “Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” Mexico has cracked down on migrants attempting to cross its own porous southern border. One man died after he was hit with a rubber bullet, while helicopters aimed their downdraft at people trying to wade across the Suchiate river on the Guatemalan border as Mexican marines hailed them to go back.
The future eaters – Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, bringing about an emergency that threatens civilisation, experts are warning. A major WWF report involving 59 scientists from across the globe finds that vast and growing consumption of food and resources is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society depends for clean air, water and everything else. Destruction of natural habitat, much of it to create farmland, is the biggest cause of wildlife losses, followed by killing animals for food. The oceans are mbadively overfished, toxic chemicals are killing wildlife, and global trade is spreading invasive species and disease. The world’s nations are working towards a meeting of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020 when new commitments to protect wildlife will be vital. Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF, says: “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.”
WWF report warns annihilation of wildlife threatens civilisation – video
Butter nonsense – Heart experts are warning that people are putting their health at risk because of unscientific claims about cholesterol and statins. The arguments are attractively simple: eat fat, avoid carbs and you won’t need tablets to lower your cholesterol. The idea has caught on despite a wealth of scientific evidence that a diet high in saturated fats raises the body’s level of “bad” LDL cholesterol – which is implicated in heart disease – and that the benefits of taking a daily statin pill far outweigh the risk of side-effects. “The claims that blood LDL cholesterol levels are not causally related to cardiovascular disease, which is really in the same realm as claiming that smoking does not cause cancer, are factually false,” says Professor Rory Collins, an Oxford University epidemiologist. Dermot Neely, a clinical biochemist and founder trustee of the Heart UK charity, says: “We’re very concerned whenever these messages result in people stopping a statin that they were prescribed after their heart attack. As a result of that, many will probably be readmitted with another heart attack down the line.”
Admission of blame – A popular Tokyo garden lost a fortune in ticket sales because one of its attendants was afraid of being shouted at by foreigners. “I don’t speak any other languages and I got scared when a foreigner began yelling at me a long time ago,” said the man, now in his early 70s. Before being found out he let an estimated 160,000 people enter the Shinjuku Gyoen national garden without paying, costing the environment department at least 25 million yen (£173,000). He was docked 10% of his salary, according to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, and asked to take retirement, as well as offering to return about 300,000 yen from his retirement bonus.
Lunchtime read: Wimpy Kid author’s plea to parents
“If there is one lesson I’d like kids to take away from my stories, it is that reading is fun.” The author Jeff Kinney is back with The Meltdown – the 13th instalment in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. “Greg [the main protagonist] is a kid who’s not living up to his potential,” Kinney says. “He’s bright but a bit lazy, and a lot of kids can relate to that … Kids like to read about somebody who is having it a little bit worse than they are. They feel like they are in on the joke.”
Jeff Kinney and his character Greg Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Photograph: Antonio Olmos
Kinney highlights the importance of audiobooks and of reading to children as often as possible, especially if they are reluctant. When being read to, reluctant readers can see that reading is pleasurable. “Books uniquely teach empathy because they allow the reader to see life from a different point of view,” says Kinney. “This is a time, especially in the US, when empathy is in short supply, so I really hope I’m doing my job and turning kids into readers.”
Sport
Riyad Mahrez’s early goal was enough for Manchester City to see off Tottenham on a Wembley pitch scarred by the NFL game played there a day earlier, but it was Raheem Sterling’s performance that caught the eye. Afterwards, Mahrez dedicated his goal to Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, describing the death of the Leicester City owner as personally “heartbreaking”. In Leicester, players were united in their grief on the bleakest of autumn days. Lewis Hamilton has revealed that the death of his grandfather before the Mexican Grand Prix, where he won his fifth world championship, gave him a real appreciation of his upbringing and the crucial role in it that his father played.
It is precisely 30 years since English rugby first turned to Will Carling for fresh inspiration, and sporting history is repeating itself with the 52-year-old to join Eddie Jones’s backroom team as a leadership mentor. Arsenal are surfing a wave of confidence after posting their second-least convincing result of the Women’s Super League season against Bristol City: a 4-0 win. And the Australian Cricketers’ Association has called for the immediate lifting of the bans being served by disgraced players Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who have already been “punished enough” for their roles in the ball-tampering scandal.
Business
Further efforts by the Chinese government to bolster the country’s slumping stock markets helped put a floor under shares across the Asia-Pacific overnight. The measures include encouraging more firms to buy back their own shares, boosting prices and driving more mergers. The main bourses, bar Hong Kong, were in positive territory. At home the FTSE100 will open down a smidgen while the pound is at $1.28 and €1.125.
The papers
It is all about the budget today. The Guardian’s splash is “Delivered: a budget of tax cuts and spending to shore up May”. The front page also features Angela Merkel announcing her retirement from politics.
Guardian front page, Tuesday 30 October 2018.
The Times calls the budget “Hammond’s giveaway gamble”, the Telegraph says “Taxpayers handed Brexit bonus” and the i reports “Hammond eases up on the big squeeze”. The Sun is thrilled with what it has dubbed “The Halloween budget”, going with the headline “No tricks … just treats”. The Mail says the budget represents a move away from austerity and towards a “Phil-good factor!”. The splash in the Express is “Tax cuts for 32m”. There is some negativity around the budget. The FT says “Hammond’s giveaway clouded by Brexit” and the Mirror labels the budget “A great con job” under the headline “Is that it?”
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