Larry Elliott

1 week ago | msn.com | Larry Elliott

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1 week ago | theguardian.com | Larry Elliott

Financial markets picked up the clear message when Donald Trump cut short his stay at the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies this week. Despite calls from fellow western leaders to de-escalate the crisis, the president’s early return to the White House was taken as a sign that the US is considering joining Israel in its military action against Iran. Trump says he wants Iran’s unconditional surrender. This is where modern summitry came in half a century ago.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Larry Elliott

Sir Keir Starmer is pledging to make Britain “battle-ready” by spending billions of pounds on arms factories, drones and submarines. Rachel Reeves says she will invest £15bn in trams, buses and trains for towns and cities outside London. The announcements by the prime minister and chancellor followed last month’s partial U-turn on the means testing of pensioners’ winter fuel allowance. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking the tough times were over and that money was now no object.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Larry Elliott

Ask any one of the 187 female Labour MPs whether they would have made it to the House of Commons without an education and you would probably get short shrift. Most would wax lyrical about their school days and the teachers who taught and inspired them. Yet the government of which those women make up almost half the total number of MPs is now targeting spending on “education and gender” for cuts in the overseas aid budget. It is beyond depressing.

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Larry Elliott

It’s been billed as the “big Brexit reset”. On 19 May, Keir Starmer’s government will sit down with Brussels in a fresh negotiation of UK-EU relations. In fact, discussions have reportedly already begun. And while some of the issues under debate are post-Brexit priorities – deepening defence collaboration for instance – issues such as cross-border trade and youth mobility visas will also feature.