City to get ‘bonuses early’ and PM ‘backs thought police’
Many newspapers reported on Rachel Reeves’ maiden Residence Speech, the current chancellor’s annual address to the City of London, which she delivered on Thursday evening. The British “Financial Times” said that Reeves urged the City regulator to allow financial service providers to take greater risks, saying that the rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis were “too excessive” and were harming economic growth. The newspaper said the comments were part of Reeves’ attempt to “reassure City dignitaries that she has a growth strategy”.
i said Reeves also backed a proposal that would allow bankers to collect their bonuses after a five-year extension, rather than the eight years some currently have to wait. The newspaper added that Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey also spoke out, making a “political intervention” in Britain’s relationship with Europe, saying “the consequences of Brexit” were damaging the economy.
More than 250 unpaid carers are at risk of criminal prosecution after inadvertently racking up debt through overpaid benefits, The Guardian reports. The newspaper said up to a fifth of carers’ allowance claimants were penalized for breaching the income cap, with just £1 a week above the cap meaning the full benefit had to be paid back. A total of 15,000 care workers are said to be affected, with 50 of them ordered to pay back at least £10,000. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, himself a carer for his teenage son, has reportedly called for a halt to repayment demands until a review is carried out.
Metro reports that consumer group Which? has filed a lawsuit against Apple. Accused that the tech giant is “ripping off” customers of its iCloud storage service. The group accuses Apple of forcing the service on customers and making it difficult for them to use alternatives, the newspaper said. Apple said in a statement that its customers are not required to use iCloud and said it would “vigorously defend” any legal claims against it.
Children are among thousands of people being investigated by police for non-criminal hate incidents (NCHI), The Times reported. NCHI is “an incident that is believed to be… motivated, in whole or in part, by hostility or prejudice against people with specific characteristics.” The newspaper said police documented an incident involving two middle school girls who said another student smelled “like fish.” It added that non-criminal classroom incidents should not be recorded and quoted a spokesman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as saying guidance on the issue was being reviewed.
For the third day in a row, The Daily Telegraph visited columnist Alison Pearson’s home over a now-deleted social media post. Pearson said police told her she was being visited for a “non-criminal hate incident.” But Essex Police said an investigation was launched earlier this month under the Public Order Act with Pearson, who was understood to be involved in inciting racial hatred. Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson wrote in the newspaper that states should not “suppress” free speech “unless the speech is intended to incite violence, or is so inflammatory that it is likely to do so.”
Critics said the increasing number of NCHIs being recorded was a “waste of police time” and called on the government to “police the streets, not Twitter”, the Daily Mail reported. The newspaper quoted Downing Street as saying that “it is important that the police are able to obtain data related to such incidents” and that “it is appropriate and necessary to do so to help prevent serious crimes that may occur in the future.”
A Daily Mirror headline called for new laws to “stop plastic surgery cowboys”. The newspaper said it launched a campaign after a mother died and hundreds of patients were injured after plastic surgery was performed by unlicensed doctors.
