Richard Littlejohn

1 week ago | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Littlejohn

Reading the headlines about the Army being called in to deal with the Birmingham dustmen’s strike, the memories came flooding back. During the Winter of Discontent in 1978/79 I was the Industrial Correspondent of the Birmingham Evening Mail. When I arrived in Britain’s Second City a year earlier, it was still just about recognisable as the Workshop Of The World. I used to find my way round by factories – or, rather, by picket lines, since half the workforce was on strike at any one time.

2 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Littlejohn

Remember when you could walk into your local corner shop for 20 Weights and a Daltons Weekly and have a natter about the weather with Mr Patel behind the counter? Not any more. These days the convenience store is likely to be as welcoming as Belmarsh prison and the shopkeeper will be stuck behind a bulletproof screen, guarding the till and high-value items such as those overpriced bottles of rot-gut vodka with made-up Russian names.

3 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Littlejohn

Britain did better than Europe in 'Liberation Day' tariffs because of Brexit, Labour toldBy RICHARD LITTLEJOHN FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 20:51 EDT, 3 April 2025 | Updated: 20:52 EDT, 3 April 2025 Ministers were yesterday urged to thank the previous government for 'getting Brexit done', after Donald Trump levied tariffs on UK goods at only half the level imposed on the EU.

3 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Littlejohn

Donald Trump dealt Keir Starmer a gold-plated Get Out Of Jail Free card when he dropped his global tariff bomb. Yes, the UK will have to pay 10 per cent on all exports to the US and is not exempt from the worldwide 25 per cent levy on automobiles. But if Surkeir plays his cards right, those penalties could melt away within months, if not weeks. Short-term pain, for the American consumer as well as British exporters, could rapidly morph into long-term gain.

3 weeks ago | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Littlejohn

The Government is considering using emergency powers to renationalise British Steel and save the Scunthorpe works from closure. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds wants to invoke the Civil Contingencies Act – which was designed for wartime, invasion by a foreign power or an act of terrorism – to take the company back into public ownership. It is a measure of Labour’s desperation after Scunthorpe’s Chinese owners announced plans to close two remaining blast furnaces, with the loss of 2,700 jobs.