Top story: separatist parties win most seats
Good morning everyone, Graham Russell here with the final morning briefing of 2017.
Its government was sacked, its leading figures were thrown in prison and its supporters were beaten by police yet Catalonia’s secessionist push appears as strong as ever. Last night three separatist parties won a total of 70 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament, retaining their majority if they can form a coalition. The centre-right, pro-unionist Citizens party was however the single biggest winner in the election, taking 36 seats. The result – you can see a full breakdown here – is a major blow for Spain and the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, who used article 155 of the constitution to seize control of the region after its unilateral independence referendum.
Speaking from Brussels, the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, said: “As Catalan president I wish to congratulate people for delivering an indisputable result. We have won this election in exceptional circumstances, with candidates in prison, with the government in exile and without having the same resources as the state.”
However, Inés Arrimadas, the leader of the Catalan Citizens party, said of its strong showing: “We have sent a message to the world that a majority in Catalonia is in favour of the union with Spain. For the first time, a constitutionalist party has won a Catalan election.” Much will now depend on what the pro-independence parties agree. Puigdemont still faces arrest if he returns to Spain.
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Cold shoulder for surgery patients – Tens of thousands of patients in England have had their surgery pushed back into the new year as the NHS seeks to avoid a winter meltdown. The only exceptions are cancer operations and “time-critical procedures”. Trusts that are already struggling have been told to convert clinics and day-surgery areas into makeshift wards to avoid running out of space when the winter weather starts to bite. Theresa May has made the NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens, “personally responsible” for how the service performs this winter. Last year, a winter crisis led the British Red Cross to declare “a humanitarian crisis”.
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The most awful time of the year – Shortly before the good bit (the Christmas holiday) comes the bad bit (the journey there). Motorists have been advised to leave before lunch today or face one of the worst travel days of the year. More than a million motorists are expected on the roads, with holidaymakers combining with commuters, fog and train strikes to create merry hell. The M25 tops the blackspot list, along with the M6 between Merseyside and Staffordshire, plus the M1 and M4. And don’t forget the the A303 around Stonehenge: beautiful but you risk having plenty of time to admire it.
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Cyber war games – The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is to tell his Russian counterpart the UK will retaliate in kind if Russia continues to use cyber-attacks to disrupt the west. “I can assure you that the UK is a world leader in this field. We don’t conduct malign or disruptive cyberactivity, but the logic of deterrence is clearly something we appreciate in the cyber field,” he said during his visit to Moscow to met Sergei Lavrov. “There are areas in which Russia is behaving in a more hostile way towards our interests than at any time since the end of the cold war. I will make clear to Lavrov that there are things that we find extremely difficult to accept, and we can’t accept.”
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The price of Jerusalem – The UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to reject Donald Trump’s unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, further isolating the US and discomforting America’s closest Middle East ally. Yet, as our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, explains, this could turn into an expensive symbolic clash for the UN as a whole. In 2016, the US was its largest donor, contributing more than $10bn (£7.5bn) – roughly one-fifth of its collective budget. Of this, $6bn was voluntary.
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‘Madam Brexit’ – What does Brexit mean? Well Theresa May has found that to some it’s just a name, or rather a surname. During the prime minister’s trip to Warsaw for talks with Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, the translator described her as “Madam Brexit”, drawing a smile from May.
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- Warren, Martin and my good self will brush off the mince pie crumbs and detach ourselves from the sofa to bring you the next briefing early in the new year. In the meantime, I hope you all get a decent break and feel free to peruse www.theguardian.com during the festive hiatus.
Lunchtime read: winter in one of Greece’s worst refugee camps
For the men, women and children forced to call Moria on the island of Lesbos their home, life in the refugee camp is a daily battle for survival in conditions so desperate even the Greek migration minister has warned they could be life-threatening. Most of its nearly 6,000 occupants live in flimsy tents and their only preparation for winter has involved using wooden pallets to elevate tarpaulins above the mud. For human rights groups, the vastly overcrowded camp is a tragedy waiting to happen and an embarrassment for Europe. “I’ve run out of ways of describing conditions that are beyond deplorable,” says the mayor of Lesbos, Spyros Galinos. “I recently compared what they are doing here to Guantánamo but of course I’ve never been to Guantánamo. Perhaps concentration camp would be better.”
Sport
“Our sin? We appeared to take our task at Fifa too seriously.” Miguel Poiares Maduro, Navi Pillay and Joseph Weiler were enlisted to help clean up football’s governing body after years of scandal, but now they say their path was blocked. The England and Lions three-quarter Elliot Daly will miss the Six Nations Championship after sustaining an ankle injury playing for Wasps last weekend that will rule him out for three months, even though he may not need surgery. Brisbane International tennis organisers are confident Andy Murray will play in their tournament, which starts on New Year’s Day, despite media reports that the British No1 might struggle to make that date owing to his well-publicised hip problem. And Peter Wright firmly brushed aside any fitness concerns as he beat Diogo Portela in the first round of the William Hill World Championship at Alexandra Palace.
Business
The chief executive of Tesco, Dave Lewis, has “some explaining to do” about why the company did not reveal its inspectors had unearthed “major” process issues at a second 2 Sisters Food Group factory, MP John Grogan has said.
Bitcoin fell more than 10% to below $14,000 on the Bitstamp exchange on Friday, extending overnight losses. The cryptocurrency had climbed to a record high of $19,666 on Sunday in lead-up to exchange giant CME Group’s launch of bitcoin futures before losing steam.
The pound is buying $1.337 and €1.129.
The papers
The papers today are a mix of love and loathing, with the official Prince Harry and Meghan Markle engagement photographs sitting next to splashes about a backlash against police over the leak revealing details of pornography on Damian Green’s computer, Russian hacking and a struggling NHS.
The Guardian has a bleak story about the NHS postponing thousands of surgeries to avoid a winter crisis, alongside Theresa May’s pain at having to sack Green, a lifelong friend.
The Telegraph and Times both lead on criticism of the officers who brought down the former first secretary of state, with Boris Johnson weighing in in the Telegraph, claiming police had a vendetta against him.
Johnson is also on the front of the Mail, warning Russia that Britain is ready to “hit back” against the Kremlin’s cyber warriors.
Over at the tabloids, the Sun celebrates the return of the “Great British passport” in the wake of Brexit, the Mirror leads on the arrest of the Ukrainian PM’s aide on suspicion of spying for Russia, and the Express says a drug to treat Alzheimer’s could be just five years away.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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