Top story: ‘You will have to talk with us’
Hello, it’s Warren Murray with your sampling platter of news. The weather is looking quite filthy this morning, especially in Scotland where heavy snow is forecast to bring transport disruption. Now for the other stories to start your day …
There are warnings that Spain could force a hard Brexit for Gibraltar regardless of whatever transitional deal Theresa May’s government manages to negotiate with the EU.
The 27 member states previously shocked Downing Street by insisting Gibraltar will be outside any future trade deal unless an agreement is reached in advance with Madrid over the Rock’s future status. “This is what we are telling the Gibraltarians,” a Spanish government source has now told the Guardian. “If you want to have your existing status, you will have to talk with us.”
Such is the economic importance to Gibraltar of retaining the rights of EU membership that just 4% of its population voted to leave in the UK’s 2016 referendum. Clare Moody, the Labour MEP for south-west England and Gibraltar, said: “The UK should be insisting that the transition period is a continuation of all existing terms, including for Gibraltar, before the future relationship [with the EU] is finalised.”
Weighing up ‘balanced’ budget – Philip Hammond has talked up Britain’s economy while delivering the autumn budget but the independent forecasts tell a more sobering story. The Office for Budget Responsibility has cut by a quarter the rate at which Britain is expected to grow in the years up until 2022, with earnings and living standards squeezed hard over the next two years and unemployment creeping up, even if the government strikes a good Brexit deal with the EU. The Resolution Foundation says downgraded growth forecasts will cut the average family’s income by £1,000 a year.
But Hammond and Theresa May would much prefer you were getting excited about the abolition of stamp duty for first-time home buyers (even though the OBR says it will push up house prices) and the goal of building 300,000 new homes a year (though the level of new funding for that looked modest). There was an extra £2.8bn for the NHS, including £350m to deal with winter pressures and address waiting times. The wait for universal credit will hopefully fall from six weeks to five. A “Google tax” aims to crack down on internet companies that operate in Britain but pretend they are somewhere else; and there are transport, housing and broadband initiatives for England’s regions. Our budget team have got these and other key points covered.
In a pithy but not really all that incisive response, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, condemned the statement as “a nothing-has-changed budget from an out-of-touch government with no idea of the reality of people’s lives and no plan to improve them”. We have rounded up some of the winners and losers from the budget to help you decide where the reality of your life fits in.
‘Most heinous crimes known to humankind’ – The “Butcher of Bosnia”, Ratko Mladić, has been jailed for the rest of his life over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which more than 7,000 men and boys were killed.
Mladić, now 74, was found guilty of genocide at the United Nations-backed international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. He hurled abuse at judges who had him removed while the verdict was read.
The result comes decades after the ferocious civil wars of the 1990s that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia. Divisions remain in ethnically split Bosnia. In Srebrenica, victims’ families rejoiced – “Mladić will die in The Hague. I’m so happy that justice has been done,” said Nedžiba Salihović, whose father, husband and son were murdered. But in Serbian areas, posters remained on display venerating Mladić as a war hero, and Serb leaders accused the court of bias in favour of Croats and Muslims.
Abbot’s apology – The head monk on Caldey Island has said he is “truly sorry” that allegations of serious child sexual abuse were not passed on to police. The Guardian revealed at the weekend that six women claimed they had been abused as children by Father Thaddeus Kotik during the 1970s and 80s. Since then, it has emerged that five others were allegedly abused by the monk, who died in 1992. Daniel van Santvoort, the current abbot, said: “When I came to the island in 1990, and then became abbot in 1999, I knew nothing of any such claims, but I was made aware of them in 2014 when one claimant contacted me.” Caldey Abbey eventually compensated six people out of court in 2016, some 40 years later, he said, adding that anyone with further complaints should contact police or the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
Children’s ref draws a line – A Beverly Hills soccer (ie football) referee has sent a stinging resignation email to the “entitled” parents of the youth league where he had been volunteering his services. “I have come to despise so many of you and I hold so many of you in contempt,” said Avery Krut, 57. “You are damaging the children. You have said nasty things to and about too many referees and it must come to an end.” The regional soccer board hastily responded with its own email disowning Krut’s views. In a phone call, Krut was unrepentant about parents bellowing expletive-laden, toxic sentiments from the sideline. “People are channeling their inner Donald Trump. They have no filter.”
Health grounds – Three cups of coffee a day seems to do more good than harm, according to an “umbrella” study drawing together the results of more than 200 previous papers on coffee drinking around the world. Consumption was linked to lower risk of premature death, heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, dementia, some cancers, gout and gallstones. Drinking more than three cups a day was not linked to harm, though the beneficial effects were less pronounced. The findings don’t mean coffee will be offered on the NHS any time soon – and there’s a warning to “hold the cake … coffee is often consumed with products rich in refined sugars and unhealthy fats”. Today’s Briefing, by the way, is brought to you by two cappuccinos and one Americano (so far).
Lunchtime read: Damned for the sins of their husbands
The Briefing has been waiting for someone to write this piece, and Tania Branigan has delivered. Like China’s “Madame Mao” (Jiang Qing) before her, is Grace Mugabe taking the fall for her husband’s misrule of Zimbabwe – and, at least in part, being demonised for being a politically ambitious woman?
“Their images align suspiciously neatly with archetypes of irrational, vicious women,” Branigan writes. “Ruthlessness, even unpredictability, hardly made either Jiang or Grace unique in their political spheres. Yet their allies and rivals never attracted the same visceral hatred. Both women became lightning rods for the grievances against their husbands.
“In turn they are weaponised against other women. Even now, the spectre of Jiang looms in China. For all the rhetoric of equality, no woman has ever reached the top political body.” As one Zimbabwe expert puts it: “Women are going to be afraid to speak out when they recall Grace Mugabe. I think she will be used against them … There’s a sense of people saying: ‘Women, you gave us these problems.’”
Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president on Friday.
Sport
England’s Ashes debutants Mark Stoneman and James Vince survived the early loss of veteran opener Alastair Cook to post a century stand and frustrate Australia on a rain-interrupted first day of the first Test in Brisbane. Stoneman has just gone for 53 though and England are 127-2. Follow the action live on our blog.
Manchester United went down 1-0 in Basel but should still qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions’ League, while Chelsea booked their spot with a 4-0 win over Qarabag. Celtic took the lead against PSG in Paris inside a minute but it was all downhill for the remaining 89 minutes as they were battered 7-1. Donald McRae meets up with his favourite ever boxer, James Toney, who is preparing for an exhibition fight in Bristol before starting a career as a bounty hunter.
Business
On the markets, the pound rose modestly overnight despite Philip Hammond’s growth downgrades earlier in the day. A dip in the US dollar also helped and sterling has been buying $1.333 and €1.125. The FTSE100 is set to open flat as investors continue to digest the budget. One bright spot for Hammond is that car production has risen in the UK as exports make up for falling demand at home, according to new figures.
The papers
It’s the post-budget reckoning and the Daily Mail is happy to issue a front-page retraction: it no longer thinks Chancellor Philip Hammond is an Eeyore after his display of “Brexit optimism”. The Daily Express is chuffed, too, with the £3bn set aside for Brexit spending, and the Telegraph praises the stamp duty cut.
The i also leads on the housing pledges, while the Times says Hammond is “easing off” on austerity. The Guardian sees less to cheer, with a warning about the downgrade in growth prospects, a scepticism shared by the Financial Times and the Mirror.
The only non-budget page one comes from the Sun, which leads on a report that Jon Venables, jailed in 1993 for the murder of James Bulger, has been returned to prison after allegations he was in possession of child abuse images.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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