
City of London considered giving Trump award in bid to stop tariffs
The proposal was intended to create an opportunity for the City of London Corporation to advocate for free trade and against tariffs.
However, the Freedom Applications Sub-Committee considered the award 'too controversial' and officially stated that heads of state must serve a minimum of seven years in office to be eligible.
The honour is rarely bestowed upon government leaders and has never been given to a sitting US president; Margaret Thatcher was the last head of government to receive it after 10 years in office.
This potential rejection follows a prior decision not to invite Trump to address a joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament during his state visit, scheduled for 17-19 September.
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The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump rebukes crowd for not applauding ban on transgender women from female sports
Donald Trump scolded a crowd for not applauding his comments on his administration's ban on transgender people competing in women's sports. The US president's 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' executive order was published in February. The order bans transgender women from competing in female sports categories. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has announced it will comply with the executive order. "That's a big deal... It's amazing the way I don't hear any applause for that when everyone feels it... nobody wants to clap it's crazy," Trump said on Tuesday (5 August).


Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Taxman's guilt at being British: Fury as HMRC, which can't even answer your phone calls, allows staff event, held during office hours, discussing the 'Guilt of Being British'
Civil servants working for the taxman has come under fire after holding a seminar on the 'Guilt of Being British'. Staff at HM Revenue and Customs were able to log-in remotely and attend the session during office hours yesterday, prompting a furious backlash. It comes amid repeated criticism of HMRC 's performance, with hundreds of thousands of calls from taxpayers going unanswered every month, customers getting surreptitiously cut off, and general concern from MPs over the 'failing' phone service. Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday night described the session as 'nonsense', and challenged Whitehall aides to leave the service if they were not proud of Britain. The Tory leader told the Mail: 'Is it any wonder the public hate dealing with HMRC, now we learn the staff are being taught to feel guilty about being British? 'In government I fought to remove all this nonsense from the Civil Service. Under my leadership, a Conservative government will ensure public bodies are proud of Britain, not ashamed of it. 'We'll defend our history, not apologise for it. And if that offends the Civil Service's seminar circuit, they're welcome to go somewhere else.' The hour-long 'Guilt of Being British: Listening circle' was run by the HMRC Race Network and held from 11am until midday. It was billed as 'a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British', covering topics including 'the emotional weight of colonial history' as part of the taxman's commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion. According to a post published on the HMRC's intranet, the session promised to 'delve into themes of guilt, pride, and identity, offering space for personal stories and cultural insights'. Workers were told participants would explore 'the duality of identity - balancing heritage and belonging', and the 'emotional weight of colonial history and inherited trauma'. The internal advert said those attending would discover more about 'career challenges faced by South Asian women - barriers, bias and expectations', and learn how 'storytelling and representation help reclaim our narratives.' A dumbfounded Civil Service source told the Mail: 'This example of a work-time staff event pushing a highly divisive anti-British narrative perfectly encapsulates the nightmare that is Civil Service staff networks. 'Those focused on race and trans in particular seem to operate entirely without scrutiny, and attract large numbers of activist staff, intent on pushing their personal beliefs on their colleagues rather than identifying and tackling actual workplace issues. 'This is a total abandonment of the vital principle of Civil Service political neutrality and makes a lot of us very uncomfortable, but if you challenge these groups on their approaches you risk putting a target on your back. 'As is seen in this event, these networks also enable many people to treat the workplace like their personal therapy centres. 'So many of us are getting on with our jobs and we see colleagues holding listening circles to talk about personal traumas - it fosters resentment and damages public trust.' Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Tory Cabinet Minister, added: 'It is peculiar that people who hate their country want to run it. 'Perhaps I should offer a course on why being British is to win first prize in the lottery of life.' Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers are fed up of bankrolling woke staff networks. 'While HMRC quangocrats sit around in circles whining about colonialism, hard-working Brits are being left on hold for hours on end. 'Staff networks should not be funded by taxpayers and they certainly shouldn't be happening during working hours.' It is not known how many of HMRC's more than 60,000 staff attended the remote event. A spokesman for the taxman said it would have been less than 0.1% and had no impact on its call handling ability. Earlier this year a report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee found HMRC answered just 66.4 per cent of customers' attempts to speak to an adviser, well below the target of 85 per cent. It said performance reached 'an all-time low'. Around 40,000 customers were cut off in the year 2023-24 if they were waiting for more than 70 minutes, without an explanation, and no callback option was available. The average call wait time exceeded 23 minutes, with HMRC saying it did not have adequate resources to meet telephone demand from customers. The report said: 'HMRC's already poor service to taxpayers has become even worse. 'The PAC is concerned that HMRC has degraded its own phone services - willing to let them fail, in the hope that people will be forced to go online.' HMRC's most recent monthly performance report, however, shows signs of improvement - 80 per cent of calls were handled in March, while average call time waits were down to 14 minutes and 44 seconds. An HMRC spokesman said: 'Events by staff networks should not be taken as reflecting the views of HMRC. 'An event like this would only be attended by around 0.1% of staff, which would have no impact on our ability to staff our helplines. We have robust processes in place to ensure our phonelines are well-resourced throughout the day.' It comes after the Mail last week revealed the NHS budgeted nearly £2 million for similar staff networks in the health service, many of whom hold 'woke' events for staff. They included an event on 'Embracing Asexuality', a talk on 'Embracing your Afro/Curly hair' and another on 'International Pronouns Day'.


The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Keir Starmer's plan will send back just 0.2 per cent of illegal migrants – it's pathetic – but I've got tips hapless PM
HOLD the front page! This is it! The Government has at last discovered a way to sort out our illegal migrant crisis. Sir Keir Starmer has struck a deal with the French. Yay. There will be a one-in, one-out system for illegal migrants arriving in rubber boats from France. So that's great, isn't it? For every migrant we send back to France, the French bung us one who has filled his forms in properly in return. So how on Earth is that going to reduce the numbers arriving here? By definition, it won't. And what's more, we're paying for it all. The UK taxpayer will foot the bill. And that's because the Prime Minister has the negotiating skills of half a grapefruit. Asked how many migrants this will see us sending back to France, the Government started looking at its shoes and humming a tune. Off the record they will hazard at a figure. It will be somewhere in the region of 50. Yes, 50. Just to give you the full picture, an estimated 25,000 have already arrived in the UK from France this year. So Sir Keir is proposing to send back just 0.2 per cent of the illegal migrants. Triffic, huh. And the deal only lasts for a year. It's not going to act as much of a deterrent, is it? Can you imagine the migrants being told: 'Well, OK, you can try to cross the Channel in that dinghy if you must. But I have to tell you, Asif, when you get to England you stand only a 94 per cent chance of being allowed to stay. Bear that in mind!' It would be laughable were it not so utterly, mind-blowingly, pathetic. Loophole in PM's swap plan means the more bogus an asylum seeker is, the less chance we have of kicking them out The truth is the Government's intention to 'smash the gangs!' hasn't worked and never was going to work. 'Smash' one gang and another will pop up to take its place. But it would be refreshing, at least, to hear Starmer and his pet Moomin, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, admit at last that the policy was bloody stupid and has failed just as everyone predicted. And so this is what we've got in its place. One-in, one-out. Brilliant. Starmer's hokey-cokey vision of controlling migration. The truth is that Yvette and Surkeir know full well that this is going to make not the slightest difference to the numbers arriving here from the Middle East and beyond. It is a silly and costly performative gesture, nothing more. The Government knows that the public is infuriated by the sheer numbers of asylum seekers arriving every day. It is a public sick of immigration, full stop. And the Government is losing masses of votes to Reform UK as a consequence. 4 Especially in the red wall seats of the north of England. But also in Kent and Essex. So it thought it had better do something. And this is what it came up with. Here's a tip, Starmer. First, stop using hotels to house all those who come. Put them in tents somewhere cold. Second, make it clear that EVERY asylum seeker who arrives here illegally will be automatically barred from ever getting the right to remain here. And then send those who do come to somewhere remote and inhospitable but under British dominion, so the lawyers can't carp. Such as Rockall, or St Helena, or South Georgia. But don't hold yer breath. With this lot in charge, it will never happen. KEIR'S NOT IN CHARGE WE are no longer being led, as a country, by Sir Keir Starmer. Now, you may think this is a good thing, by and large. Until you consider who is actually leading us. Yes, it's Richard 'Plank' Burgon and his lefty mates. The decisions which Starmer has been taking for the past three months are likely not those he would wish to make. They have been imposed upon him by the left-wingers on his backbenches. The debacle over the recognition of Palestine, for example. And the surrender over welfare benefits. Both obvious indicators of change of regime. And it has all happened because Sir Keir, with his majority of more than 170, has a spinal column the consistency of Butterscotch Angel Delight. What the hell were we thinking last summer? Why did we do it? Oh Lord, forgive us for our stupid mistakes. DANES WILL GO WILD FOR FEEDING TIME AT THE ZOO A ZOO in Denmark is asking for donations of 'unwanted pets'. This is so it can feed them to the big cats. They're a bit short of raw meat, apparently. The Danes will euthanise the pets first, which I think is a bit of a disappointment. I think feeding time could be a big draw. 'And now entering the lion enclosure is Fiver, a rabbit owned by six-year-old Inge Svenson. Let's see how long he lasts. The record is 8.5 seconds. Can Fiver beat that?' THE kinder, gentler, Left? I don't think so. Teacher Simon Pearson had more than 20 years' experience but was sacked after an internal investigation found his online posts could bring Preston College into disrepute after he said the jailing of Lucy Connolly was an example of two-tier justice. Connolly is the woman jailed for 31 months for saying horrible things about asylum seekers. Pearson made it clear he believed Connolly's comments were 'obviously wrong'. He just objected to the sentence – as many do. Sacked for holding an opinion which differed from that of the idiots who run the college. CAMDEN Council is considering banning meat and fish from its various canteens. In future, all meals and snacks will be entirely 'plant-based'. So what will happen is that the entire staff will soon be hobbling around with joint deficiencies, anaemia as well as stunning the locals with gusts of fabulously bad breath. But at least Camden is saving the polar bears and stopping the world from catching on fire. Never mind what the workers would prefer to eat – sod them! That's the left-wing way. REEVES IS SO TAXING THE worst Chancellor we have ever had is about to sting you for some more dosh. Rachel Reeves has been backed into a corner. She knows she needs to raise money. 4 But she has been stopped from cutting benefits by the idiots on the left. So now she's pondering a wealth tax. That means the flood of high-achieving people leaving the country will turn into a deluge. We'll all feel the pinch. You'll get stung for more if you try to sell a home, or buy one. Stung for more when paying for the nice things in life. She'll have you paying more for your children's education. Taxed if you save for a rainy day. Everything aspirational will be taxed. A YOUGOV poll out this week suggests that 45 per cent of us wish for immigration to reduce to zero. And for a substantial number of those who have come here recently to be sent back. Those are remarkable figures. After having been lied to about immigration for year after year, the public is at last waking up and letting its views be known.