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Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Britain can't afford another spendthrift chancer in Downing Street
Nigel Farage believes in fairies. That was the only conclusion I could make, a year ago, after taking a list at the hopeless Christmas list of policies that made up Reform's manifesto. I half-suspected it had been doodled on the back of a fag packet after a particularly hearty afternoon at Boisdale. It was all too good to be true: lifting income tax thresholds to £20,000 while cutting NHS waiting lists to zero suggested Reform's leader takes the Bourbon approach to Trussonomics. Bond market chaos loomed, if Sir Humphrey hadn't packed a confuddled Farage off to The Red Lion first. But flush with his local election success, Farage claims he wants to get serious. With the fourth-place Tories of little consequence, today's big speech sought not only to flesh out Reform's prospectus, but to outflank Labour, punching at the chasm between Starmer's parsimonious chancellor and his austerity-phobe backbenches, appealing to those immiserated by Rachel Reeves's performative fealty to the OBR. The Red Wall – je vous ai compris! Having already committed to nationalising Britain's steel industry, the Damascene conversion of this lifelong Thatcherite to social democracy en route to Number 10 continued with a pledge to reinstate the winter fuel allowance to pensioners and to scrap the two-child benefit limit. On top of this, Farage committed to introducing a new transferable marriage tax allowance on the first £25,000 they earn – on top of his retaining his commitment to hiking the income tax threshold. Never one to downplay his ambitions, Farage couched his speech in civilisational terms. The UK's collapsing birth rate represents 'an existential crisis for our country'; Reform will 'do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them'. Yes, he admitted, it will all be a little expensive. But isn't it worth it to get Britain bonking? Farage has alighted upon a grim fiscal dilemma. Spending on the elderly is surging just as the old-age dependency ratio – the number of potential workers per pensioner – is collapsing. Without more babies, Britain's economy will become even more dependent on human quantitative easing – the mass importation of migrant workers to fill the human shortfall. That is an outcome that few Reform voters would greet with enthusiasm, even if they were staffing their care homes. Yet Farage's solutions are just as shallow as last year's manifesto's. Evidence suggests that the two-child limit hasn't reduced birth rates. Questions as to how this largesse would be funded cued Farage's usual waffle about scrapping migrant hotels, net zero and DEI. Sounds splendid. But will tearing down a few pride flags really fund the £50 billion plus blackhole these policies would create? Rather than break from the past, Reform would only hasten our rush towards national bankruptcy. Farage is a useful tribune – a lightning rod for the frustrations of voters fed up with both old parties. But on today's evidence, he has a long way to go before he has a serious plan for government. Britain can't afford another spendthrift chancer in Downing Street. If Farage really is serious about tackling our existential challenges, he needs better policies than this.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
'I wanted to make an October crisis film meets Alice in Wonderland'
The Quebec director of the animated film Death Does Not Exist, brings it to Cannes Death Does Not Exist director Félix Dufour-Laperrière is grappling with an existential crisis that many of us looking out in the world today will find relatable. The Quebec filmmaker says he holds onto the "very strong social democratic beliefs" that defined him when he was "young and very intense." But today he's a father of two, and, for the sake of self-preservation, can't be as outspoken about his ideals when looking out at a world that is becoming violently inhospitable to so many different communities. "I first and foremost, want to protect my kids," says Dufour-Laperrière, on a Zoom call with CBC Arts. "But I wish that they lived in a livable world that is open to all." This nagging contradiction, or "paradox" as Dufour-Laperrière refers to it, is at the heart of the Archipelago director's latest feature premiering in the Director's Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday. The hand-drawn animation, in which colours painted on paper lend rich texture to the lush and often abstract digital landscapes, follows a young activist named Hélène confronts the same existential dilemmas haunting the filmmaker — albeit in a much more "intense and romantic way" as Dufour-Laperrière puts it. His film is about French-Canadian radicals willing to take violent action. Hélène is part of an armed collective who target an obscenely wealthy elderly couple at their fortified mansion. During a chaotic shootout with their target's security detail, Hélène backs out, leaving her comrades to die and instead embarks on a dreamy, soul-searching journey. She's haunted by her friends and her targets, alongside a little child and an older woman, all challenging her to consider the consequences of her actions and inactions, weighing the comfortable but meaningless life she could lead as the world crumbles around her or the way she will alienate everyone close to her in pursuit of a higher but costly ideal. "The film is about two impossibilities," says Dufour-Laperrière, "the impossibility of violence first and foremost but also the impossibility of the status quo. Once you put violence in the world you don't control the consequences. And yet how can you live when the status quo is not possible. It's a tragic tale about two impossibilities meeting." Death Does Not Exist doesn't address any specific political, social or global conflicts we're living through today, a narrative choice perhaps stemming from the very cautiousness the film is confronting. Though the question Dufour-Laperrière asks, through his characters, throughout the film can easily be posed to any of the most pertinent calamities today, especially since the abstract imagery is suggestive of so much: wealth inequality, food insecurity, the climate crisis and armed conflict are all there. The project actually began with a real historical reference point. "I wanted to make an October crisis film meets Alice in Wonderland in contemporary Quebec," says Dufour-Laperrière, referencing the violent 1970s conflict when militant separatists in Quebec kidnapped a British trade commissioner and murdered Quebec minister Pierre Laporte. Those incidents pushed then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to invoke the War Measures Act, allowing for a military occupation and mass arrests. The October Crisis was the subject in Gilles Groulx's critical and confrontational documentary 24 heures ou plus. Dufour-Laperrière counts that film as an aesthetic and thematic influence, alongside Groulx's political coming-of-age drama The Cat in the Bag. He even cast Barbara Ulrich, who starred as seductive and restless young Montrealer in The Cat in the Bag, as the elderly wealthy woman confronting the young radical Hélène in Death Does Not Exist, achieving a circularity that's both eerie and poignant. For Dufour-Laperrière, invoking Canada's past is a way of reminding that radical violent action isn't a foreign concept. "Violence is happening everywhere in a lot of countries," he says, "and we're surprised in the Western world when it emerges." "I wanted to reflect on these issues, this radicality, but in modern days with a different crisis — social but ecological too — and mix it with a fantastic side that in my eyes illustrates the interior life of the characters." Image | DEATH DOES NOT EXIST Publicity Materials/9_LMNP_Enfant_fleurs.png Caption: A still from Death Does Not Exist (Félix Dufour-Laperrière) Open Image in New Tab At this point, I ask Dufour-Laperrière to consider the whole Cannes apparatus and its contradictions. The festival is hosting films that are touching on some of the most urgent crises of our time. They opened with "Ukraine Day," premiering three titles (Zelensky, Notre Guerre and 2000 Meters to Andriivka) about the war that has been raging for three years. They're also premiering Once Upon a Time in Gaza, a dark comedy about two brothers selling drugs out of a falafel shop in 2007; Yes, Israeli director Nadav Lapid's critical satire about a musician trying to compose a new national anthem after October 7; and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary about the lives lost to Israeli offensives in Gaza. The last one arrives in Cannes mired by a tragedy not originally contained in the film. Its main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed along with 10 members of her family in an Israeli airstrike, just days after announcing her film will premiere at Cannes. While the festivals host these films, it also warns attendees attending to not make any political statements or wear such symbols on the red carpets and events. The stark opposition between Cannes trying to reflect and engage with the world at large in its programming while maintaining a comfortable, cozy and risk-averse decorum is at the heart of what Death Does Not Exist is about. "It's paradoxical being in a peaceful country," says Dufour-Laperrière. "I don't bear direct involvement in it. But there are some people that are directly touched — them and their families — with what's going on in the world. And I guess they should be necessarily allowed to express their concerns. And these concerns are often, as you say, quite tragic. "It's an impossible balance to find between the two. You can be moderate. But if the world isn't moderate, what are we going to do? Reality is unbearable for a lot of people."
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
José ‘Pepe' Mujica, former guerrilla and ex-president of Uruguay, dies aged 89
Uruguay's former president José Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He was 89. His death was announced by the current Uruguayan president. Yamandú Orsi. In a post on social media platform X, Orsi called Mujica a 'president, activist, guide and leader'. Mujica had been under treatment for cancer of the esophagus since spring 2024, when the disease was diagnosed. Even as the treatment left him weak and hardly able to eat, Mujica reappeared on the political stage in fall of 2024, campaigning for his leftwing coalition in national elections that vaulted his preferred candidate and protege, Orsi, to the presidency. In September of 2024, his doctor reported that radiation had succeeded in eliminating much of Mujica's tumor. But in January of 2025, his doctor announced that the cancer in his esophagus had returned and spread to his liver. His autoimmune disease and other underlying medical problems led Mujica to decide not to pursue further treatment. 'Honestly, I'm dying,' Mujica told weekly magazine Busqueda in what he said would be his final interview. 'A warrior has the right to rest.' During his 2010-2015 presidency, Mujica, widely known as 'Pepe', oversaw the transformation of his small South American nation into one of the world's most socially liberal democracies. He earned admiration at home and cult status abroad for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacting the region's first sweeping abortion rights law and establishing Uruguay as a leader in alternative energy. He sparked global fascination by shunning the presidential palace to live in a tiny farmhouse and donating most of his salary to charity. In his final interview, Mujica repeatedly answered interview questions with philosophical aphorisms. 'Life is a beautiful adventure and a miracle,' he said. 'We are too focused on wealth and not on happiness. We are focused only on doing things and – before you know it – life has passed you by.'
Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Starmer immigration speech live: We will take back control of our borders
Sir Keir Starmer said without controls on immigration 'we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together'. He said the immigration system is 'almost designed to permit abuse'. It encourages some businesses to bring in lower paid workers rather than invest in our young people, he said. It is also 'sold by politicians to the British people on an entirely false premise', he said. If Nigel Farage is the political catalyst for Labour's immigration crackdown, the philosophical inspiration seems to be Danish. Labour has long been uncomfortable with any criticism of immigration. But Sir Keir Starmer is now saying he supports it not despite being a progressive leader, but because of it. The prime minister repeatedly insisted reducing immigration was 'fair' ,saying that 'nations depend on rules' and that without them 'we risk becoming an island of strangers'. Such a progressive argument has been pioneered by Denmark's Social Democrats, who argue that a cohesive society with a strong safety net cannot co-exist with mass immigration. Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's prime minister, argued recently: 'Being a traditional Social Democratic thinker means you cannot allow everyone who wants to join your society to come. It's impossible to have a sustainable society, especially if you are a welfare society.' The US left is already looking closely at this line of argument and Starmer appears to have embraced it wholeheartedly. The prime minister promised that migration will fall, but insisted it's 'not just about numbers'. Starmer said: 'We will create a system that is controlled, selective and fair. A clean break with the past. We will link access to visas directly to investment in home grown skills.' 'If we do need to do more, then mark my words we will,' he added. 'Migration is part of Britain's national story,' the prime minister said. He spoke of the events of last week commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day and the 'great rebuilding' after the war. 'Migrants were part of that and make massive contribution today,' he said. 'You will never hear me denigrate that. But people should commit to integration and learning our language. And the system should distinguish between those that do and don't. That's fair. Britain must compete for the best talent in the world.' Sir Keir Starmer opened his announcement on migration by promising to 'take back control of our borders'. He accused the previous Conservative government of conducting a 'one nation experiment in open borders'. The prime minister said everybody knows the 'take back control' slogan and what it meant on immigration, but what followed with the previous government was 'the complete opposite'. Between 2019 and 2023 net migration quadrupled to nearly one million in 2023, which is 'about the population of Birmingham', he continued. 'That's not control, it's chaos.' One of the most consequential elements of Sir Keir Starmer's promise of a 'clean break' on immigration is whether he can end a Whitehall consensus that importing foreign workers is good for the economy. The Home Office is deeply sceptical of this argument but is now taking it head on: Yvette Cooper argued on Sunday that if it were true the past decade would have been a time of surging growth. But the Treasury has always firmly believed that immigration makes Britain richer and means more money for public services. Along with the Office for Budget Responsibility's conclusion that higher immigration as more money for the chancellor, the power of this argument within government has repeatedly overwhelmed years of promises to bring down numbers. Starmer is already facing questions about whether his plan will be enough. To truly change government thinking on immigration, he will have to persuade the Treasury that it is not the economic and fiscal boon it has long assumed. Government plans to get rid of care worker visas risks causing 'significant problems' in the sector, a care home chain director has said. Amy Clark, commercial director of a Cornwall care home chain, told the BBC's Today programme that the measures could cause challenges because recruiting locally is 'very, very difficult'. She said even when they raise wages they do not get applicants. Continuing to pay higher than the minimum wage is also becoming 'increasingly difficult' due to government changes to national insurance and the minimum wage. It comes after Care England's chief executive Martin Green labelled the government's plans 'cruel'. The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, professor Nicola Ranger, is also expected to tell its annual congress that the government has 'no plan to grow a domestic workforce' and its plans are 'pandering and scapegoating'. • Automatic residency rights will cease to apply after five years and the time a person must have spent in the UK in order to qualify will be extended to ten years• The wait for residency will be reduced based on a 'contributions-based model', including the consistency of tax payments or evidence of working in public services or highly skilled private sector jobs• English language requirements will be raised across all immigration routes• Skilled worker visas will require a university degree• Tighter restrictions will be introduced on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages• Care providers will no longer be able to hire workers from overseas• Overseas citizens will require digital IDs• The rules could be tightened up around the right to a family life for foreign offenders looking to evade deportation The government's resistance to setting a new net migration target has been criticised by Reform and the Conservatives. The Conservatives have promised to force a vote on a binding cap. Reform have accused the government of 'merely tinkering around the edges' with a plan 'doomed to fail'. Net migration rose to a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Sunday that she thought a target 'undermined the credibility of anything that governments do … so, we're not taking that specific target approach'. Migrants who pay their taxes on time, volunteer in the community and work in public sector or high-skilled jobs will be prioritised for residency rights under new immigration reforms. Sir Keir Starmer is set to unveil plans to drive down net migration in the wake of sweeping election gains by Nigel Farage's Reform UK by making it harder for migrants to secure settlement and citizenship in the UK. The prime minister will declare in a Downing Street press conference that indefinite leave to remain in Britain is 'a privilege that must be earned, not a right'. • Read in full: Staying in UK is a privilege not a right, Keir Starmer will tell migrants
