Top story: ‘Communities feel they have been abandoned’
Hello – Warren Murray at your elbow as you metaphorically dip your toe into the waters of news.
British attitudes on immigration are hugely divided across cultural, age and education lines, with big gaps between people in affluent, multicultural cities and those from struggling and deprived areas, a major study concludes. Hope Not Hate bases its findings on six years of polling and focus groups. It warns of a potential rise in far-right and anti-Islam sentiments unless politicians tackle disaffections behind the vote for Brexit.
The 100 areas where people are most likely to oppose immigration are in towns or on the outskirts of cities, with 93 of them in the Midlands or north of England. “The strong view in many of these communities is that they have been abandoned and left to rot by the political establishment in preference to addressing the needs and wishes of new arrivals in the cities,” said Nick Lowles, the chief executive of Hope Not Hate.
The 100 areas most linked with what the report calls the “confident multicultural” population are all in major cities or very close to universities. Overall, 60% of people believe immigration as a whole is good for Britain – an increase. But in the wake of the 2017 terror attacks and grooming gang prosecutions, 32% of people believe there are Muslim “no-go areas” in Britain governed by Sharia law, a view endorsed by 49% of leave voters in the Brexit referendum.
The polling found confidence among metropolitan liberals plummeted in the wake of the referendum result. Even two years after the Brexit referendum, 71% of remain voters said they felt pessimistic for the future compared with just 35% of leave supporters.
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‘Golden passport’ revelations – Europe’s security is being put at risk by states selling citizenship or residency to potentially dangerous individuals, the EU justice commissioner Věra Jourová has warned. Malta and Cyprus are named in an OECD blacklist of 21 nations operating such schemes. They have sold citizenship to hundreds of individuals from Russia, China and the Middle East. “If in one country a dangerous person gets citizenship, he gets citizenship for the whole of Europe,” said Jourová, who is due to issue a report recommending much tighter controls. A Swiss businessman named Christian Kälin has become known as the “passport king” having made millions fostering the trade in small countries. Jourová was speaking to mark the first anniversary of the death of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Malta.
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Khashoggi crisis – Turkey’s president has said parts of the Saudi consulate were freshly painted, possibly to hide “toxic materials”, after US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared from there. Donald Trump has pushed a softened line overnight, calling for the Saudis not to be treated as “guilty until proven innocent … We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh”. The remarks stand at odds with condemnation both internationally and from senior figures within Trump’s own Republican party who say the culpability of the Saudi leadership is obvious. Mike Pompeo has visited Saudi Arabia for talks with the de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, and his father, King Salman. After declaring those talks a success, the US secretary of state has moved on to Turkey to meet President Erdoğan.
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Quick catch-up – Your midweek briefing within a briefing …
– Theresa May will urge EU leaders in Brussels today to keep the door open in Brexit negotiations. A string of cabinet ministers have warned her the Irish border backstop must be time-limited and not hive off Northern Ireland from the UK – a big sticking point.
– Labour MPs have indicated they will not back any efforts to remove John Bercow as Commons speaker over a bullying controversy. Bercow is reported to have told friends that he will only stand down next summer, after Brexit, and on his own terms.
– There have been angry scenes when French anti-corruption police raided the offices of leftwing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Several French parties, from the far left to the far right, are being investigated for alleged misuse of European parliament funds.
– Kanye West is under fire for meeting with the despotic President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. West claimed to channel the spirit of a revered Nigerian artist, whose son responded: “The spirit of Olufela Anikulapo Kuti isn’t anywhere near Kanye West.”
– You will have heard by now that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is pregnant (in fact look there she is again on Sky News right now for goodness’ sake). Jess Cartner-Morley makes some suggestions for the maternity wardrobe.
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Booker marked – Anna Burns has become the first Northern Irish author to win the Man Booker prize, taking the £50,000 award for Milkman, her timely, Troubles-set novel about a young woman being sexually harassed by a powerful man.
The experimental novel, Burns’s third, is narrated by an unnamed 18-year-old girl known as “middle sister” who is being pursued by a much older paramilitary figure. It is “incredibly original”, according to the Booker’s chair of judges, the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, who called it “challenging, but in the way a walk up Snowdon is challenging. It is definitely worth it because the view is terrific when you get to the top.”
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Slippery when wet – Scientists say they have developed a self-lubricating condom aimed at making safe sex go more smoothly. Boston University researchers, led by Prof Mark Grinstaff, treated latex with a water-loving polymer and there is really no tasteful way for the Briefing to explain further so close to breakfast time.
Lunchtime read: How China hijacks the news
Earlier this month a journalist from state-owned China Central Television shouted down a speech about Hong Kong during the Tory conference in Birmingham. She was asked to leave – and slapped a party activist on her way out. The Chinese embassy in London demanded an apology. Last month, in Sweden, a group of Chinese people had to be evicted from a hotel after demanding to sleep in the lobby. A video emerged online of them screaming and throwing themselves on the pavement. It was accompanied by criticism from the Chinese foreign ministry of this “brutal treatment”.
David Bandurski, from the University of Hong-Kong’s China Media Project, says both incidents follow a familiar pattern from Chinese authorities of pengci, or “porcelain bumping”: manufacturing a drama to obtain a desired outcome. China’s state press is practised at publishing shrill denunciations that garner press coverage in the west. When the video came out, the Communist party’s arch-nemesis the Dalai Lama happened to have just visited Sweden, while Beijing and Stockholm remain at odds over the disappearance of Hong Kong-based bookseller Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen. “The danger,” writes Bandurski, “is that such histrionics could make European governments, universities, scholars and journalists … retreat from issues likely to prompt an outburst. Europe must send a message that it welcomes free, open and calm discussion of all issues, and that it will not suspend its values or the rights of its citizens to appease China’s official bouts of anger.”
Sport
Ryan Giggs had challenged his young team to prove they could cope without Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey; Harry Wilson duly offered evidence with a superb free-kick as Wales intensified the pressure on Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill with a 1-0 Nations League win. In Paris, Antoine Griezmann scored twice in the second half as France came from behind to beat Germany, while a stoppage-time goal from Miranda gave Brazil a 1-0 victory over Argentina and an improving Holland held Belgium to a 1-1 draw. Eric Dier has pointed to England’s eagerness to stamp their authority on their Nations League match with Spain as evidence their youthful side will no longer be intimidated by elite opposition.
Eddie Jones’s mounting problems showed little sign of easing with Chris Robshaw England’s latest injury casualty for the upcoming autumn rugby internationals. The interim CEO and president of USA Gymnastics, Mary Bono, has resigned just four days after she stepped into the role and following criticism from Olympic champion Simone Biles at the weekend. And the grass-banked Pallekele Stadium should provide a pleasant setting for the resumption of Sri Lanka and England’s rain-affected one-day series, but going into today’s third match, the dark clouds of cricket’s battle with corruption hovered overhead.
Business
It’s not often we’ve been able to say this in recent years, but British workers are beginning to see their pay go up. Official figures have shown that regular pay was 3.1% higher in the three months ending in August as unemployment stayed at 4% and employers had to pay more to keep and attract staff. The news pushed sterling above $1.32 but it’s fallen back a touch overnight to $1.317. It’s held up against the euro at €1.139. The FTSE100 is set to follow Asian and US markets higher when it opens this morning.
The papers
The Guardian’s lead story today is “EU issues alert over security risk of ‘golden passport’ sales”, continuing our reporting as part of the Daphne Project. The FT reports “BlackRock feels investors’ anxiety as inflows plunge to two-year low”.
The Times says: “Global list of charity sex predators to be launched”. And the Mail reports on “Drug gangs epidemic in our towns”. The i’s splash follows the fortunes of the Speaker: “Bercow to quit after bullying inquiry”. Brexit leads coverage on the front page of Telegraph: “Hammond warns of £36 billion no-deal bill” and the Express which is angry about an upcoming march for a People’s Vote: “Respect the 17.4m who voted Brexit”. The Mirror continues to cover the divorce proceedings of Ant: “Life with cheating Ant was intolerable” and the Sun has an interview with the mother and sister of the cyclist shot dead by a French hunter.
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