Top story: PM veers this way and that
Good morning, it’s Graham Russell here at the start of the week with a round-up of what’s going on.
Theresa May appears to have been forced into hardening her Brexit plans with a ruling from Downing Street that the UK will not be in a customs union with the EU. Providing some sense of clarity (at least for now), an official source said: “It is not our policy to be in the customs union”, preferring instead a customs arrangement that frees Britain to strike trade deals with non-EU countries.
Just days earlier, May had refused to rule out staying in a customs union when questioned during her China visit. On Friday, senior Tory sources told the Guardian the prime minister initially appeared to be swayed by the Treasury’s proposals for a permanent customs membership but had since backed away from them.
The move sets the tone for a crucial week for the prime minister, with the EU’s chief negotiator meeting David Davis today for talks on the transitional arrangements. On Wednesday, key cabinet colleagues will meet to decide the fine print on a customs policy. Yesterday, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, and the housing minister, Dominic Raab, still appeared to be at odds on the issue.
Matthew d’Ancona writes that a reckoning is long past due and that May must go, given her role in making the UK an international joke, at risk of being taken to the cleaners by the EU or left with no deal at all.
Can we go back and change Brexit? No, but Labour peer Andrew Adonis has urged people to be “be optimistic, be confident” during his national tour aimed at pursuing a second referendum.
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Crisis becomes critical – Dozens of urgent operations have been cancelled against the orders of NHS bosses, affecting patients with cancer, heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses. Hospitals said the limited supply of intensive care beds has forced them to prioritise flu patients at risk of dying before surgery. Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said the move to cancel surgery for life-threatening conditions “suggests the NHS may be in worse trouble than we’d thought”. Separately, thousands of smear tests in Essex are being reviewed after problems were discovered with the laboratory procedure. So far, 900 samples have been reviewed, with 17 women requiring further assessment.
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Hate campaign – A Holocaust-denying neo-Nazi is set to become the Republican nominee for a seat in Illinois. Candidate Art Jones has been seeking office for more than 40 years and in 2016 was taken off the ballot in the same district, reportedly after none of the voter signatures he needed to qualify were found to be valid. Jones recently spoke of regretting voting for Donald Trump who has “surrounded himself with hordes of Jews”. The chairman of the state’s Republican party said it strongly opposed Jones’s racist views.
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Sting in the tail – Just in case you thought winter was done, the Met has warned people to brace for one of the coldest weeks of the season, with many places expecting at least a dusting of snow. Temperatures could sink as low as -7C in some parts of the UK, while the bulk of the population can expect sub-zero temperatures. The cold snap is expected to continue until at least next weekend, with a chance milder weather might not arrive until the middle of the following week.
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Other corridors of power – Two Freemasons’ lodges set up for politicians and journalists are operating in Westminster, the secretive organisation’s records show. New Welcome Lodge recruits MPs, peers and parliamentary staff, and Gallery Lodge is for the press. A third – the Alfred Robbins Lodge – was also set up for journalists and meets regularly in London. The chief executive of United Grand Lodge of England, David Staples, said there was no conflict arising from the arrangement. “Being a Freemason helps those members in roles serving society ... to be better in those jobs by encouraging them to act as better people themselves,” he said. MPs and peers are not obliged to declare membership of the Freemasons. No political journalists have declared their membership. Here is a guide to the secret society.
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Tongan skier – “My goal was, what’s my next big challenge? What is completely impossible, what can’t be done?” So says Pita Taufatofua, who has become Tonga’s first ever Olympic contender in cross-country skiing. The Pacific Islander hadn’t seen snow until a couple of years ago and has been able to afford only one pair of skis and one knob of wax.
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Lunchtime read: The fight that started all fights
Labour MP Emily Thornberry’s awakening began during her teenage years – via a BBC drama about the suffragettes – but progressed more through what she discovered at home. Her grandmother would have been a suffragette had Nan been born a bit earlier. Thornberry writes: “Looking back I can see it makes perfect sense. Nan was a working-class East End girl who got a job in a bank in the early 30s doing all the backroom numerical calculations. But as soon as she got married, it wasn’t just that she was expected to stay at home: in those days your employer automatically let you go.
“What Nan and Mum taught me is that the fight for female empowerment and equality was not won a century ago, and is still not won today, as we can see from the debates that have dominated the past year – from Harvey Weinstein to Carrie Gracie. But here is the key. Before women’s suffrage, the only way we could change the status quo was through pressure, whether applied politely in conversations with influential men, or violently with rocks thrown at their carriages. Gaining the vote gave us the power to make change happen ourselves. It was the fight that made all the other battles we have fought since then possible. We will therefore always be indebted to the women who made it happen.”
Sport
The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions after one of the NFL’s most historically snakebitten clubs ended their 57-year championship drought in the most thrilling way imaginable, beating the New England Patriots 41-33 in Minneapolis. The half-time entertainment was slightly less thrilling, as Justin Timberlake gyrated through his vast array of hits and paid tribute to hometown hero Prince in a solid but uneventful show. This year’s game also brought with it a stack of new trailers teasing some of the year’s biggest films and shows.
In the Six Nations, the most eye-catching performance of England’s ultimately predictable opening victory was that of the newest member of the side, Sam Simmonds. Meanwhile, the England women’s captain, Sarah Hunter, scored three tries as the defending champions defeated Italy 42-7 in their opener.
Jürgen Klopp said he would be hit with “the biggest fine in world football” for his true thoughts on Tottenham Hotspur’s dramatic late equaliser at Anfield but insisted the match officials cost Liverpool a crucial victory in their pursuit of Champions League qualification. And José Mourinho has ruled out signing a forward next summer, believing he has assembled a Manchester United frontline capable of challenging for trophies.
Business
Asian shares are being smashed this morning as investors take their lead from the big sell-off on Wall Street on Friday. The FTSE100 is set to catch the bug, too, with the index predicted to open more than 1% down this morning. And Lloyds Bank has banned its credit card customers from buying bitcoins as the cryptocurrency continues its slide.
The pound is up slightly at $1.412 and €1.133. Our economics editor, Larry Elliott, says the current situation reminds him of 1987 when the world was on the bring of a market meltdown.
The papers
We’ve got a blend of health, wealth, Freemasons and a customs union today.
The Guardian carries two exclusives – one on the Freemasons’ lodges operating in Westminster and the other on NHS hospitals cancelling urgent operations as the winter crisis bites. The picture slot is given to a women’s march marking the “suffrage centenary”.
The Telegraph says Lloyds has banned its 9 million credit card customers from buying bitcoins, fearing it could end up with a huge bill should the cryptocurrency fall even further. It gives Theresa May’s Brexit customs stance a small spot. The main picture is of Facebook’s European head, Nicola Mendelsohn, who reveals she has an incurable form of cancer in the hope of raising awareness.
The Mail says men are still too embarrassed to see the doctor for prostate cancer checks despite decades of campaigns to raise awareness of a disease that is a bigger killer than breast cancer. It also carries an interview with Pamela Anderson about the menopause.
The Times says plans are afoot to heal the Tory rift over a post-Brexit customs union, with a transitional compromise being mooted. (Some say that might drive a wedge twixt Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.) Its second story says Russian billionaires have been asking Vladimir Putin if they can return home without being arrested as a UK crackdown on unexplained wealth continues apace.
The FT casts its interview with Bank of England deputy governor Sam Woods in the light of the customs row. Woods warns against a “bonfire of the banking regulations” after Brexit.
The Express and Mirror point to the current winter chill, and the Sun says some of the Queen’s swans have succumbed to bird flu.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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