Lack of apology for schoolboy ‘banter’ speaks volumes about Nigel Farage | Letters

Peter Ettedgui’s account of the antisemitic taunts he endured as a teenager (Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt, 25 November) reminded me of a simple truth about bullying: the bullied remember far more clearly than the bullies ever do. That’s how trauma works. The moment lodges for one person, yet barely registers for the other. So yes, forgetting is plausible

MPs launch inquiry into Andrew’s lease arrangements at Royal Lodge – as it happened

The Commons public accounts committee is set to launch an inquiry into the crown estate following questions over its lease of Royal Lodge to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.The PAC announced the inquiry as it published the unredacted lease given to Mountbatten-Windsor, and letters about the arrangement from the Crown Estate and from the Treasury.Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the PAC chair, said:We would like to thank The crown estate commissioners and HM Treasury for their considered responses to our questions.In publishing these responses, the public accounts committee fulfils one of its primary purposes – to aid transparency in public-interest information, as part of its overall mission to secure value for money for the taxpayer.Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry

Is David Lammy persuaded by his own jury trials proposal? Not sure. But he said it anyway | John Crace

Spare a thought for David Lammy. Not so long ago he was foreign secretary. His dream job. Turning left on boarding planes to go to meet his counterparts around the world. An important player in global geopolitics

UK ministers aim to ban cryptocurrency political donations over anonymity risks

Ministers are working to ban political donations made with cryptocurrency but the crackdown is not likely to be ready for the elections bill in the new year, Whitehall sources have said.The government increasingly believes that donations made with cryptocurrency pose a risk to the integrity of the electoral system, not least because the source can be hard to verify.However, the complex nature of cryptocurrency means officials do not believe a ban will be workable by the time of the elections bill, due to be published shortly, which is set to lower the voting age to 16 and reduce loopholes in political finance.The government’s ambition to ban crypto donations will be a blow to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which became the first to accept contributions in digital currency this year. It is believed to have received its first registrable donations in cryptocurrency this autumn and the party has set up its own crypto portal to receive contributions, saying it is subject to “enhanced” checks

David Lammy tells of ‘traumatic’ racial abuse in youth after Farage allegations

David Lammy has spoken of his own “traumatic” experience of being racially abused at school as he called on Nigel Farage to apologise for comments he allegedly made while a teenager.Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said the testimony of more than 20 of the Reform leader’s school contemporaries of his racist and antisemitic behaviour was “deeply troubling”.Farage has faced repeated calls for a show of contrition after a Guardian investigation into his time at Dulwich college, in south-east London, but he is yet to apologise.He has denied that anything he did as a young man was “directly” racist or antisemitic while conceding that “banter” then could be interpreted differently today.Lammy, 53, whose parents, David and Rosalind, came to the UK from Guyana, contrasted Farage, 61, to those who abused him as a young man growing up in north London

Angela Rayner to lay amendment to speed up workers’ rights bill

The former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will lay an amendment on Wednesday to speed up the workers rights’ bill, after “considerable anger” that unelected Lords forced the watering down of day-one rights.The amendment would mean the new shorter qualifying period is in place by early next year.A number of MPs have told the Guardian that while they accept the need for the change, they fear that the climbdown by the government will embolden peers and critics of the bill to push for further changes.Rayner, who was the driving force behind the legislation in government, is understood to have accepted the compromise to remove day-one rights against unfair dismissal and replace it with a reduced qualifying period, down from two years to six months.Trade unions have mostly accepted the compromise – arguing that the alternative of a nine-month probation period needed extra time for consultation amid worries it was unworkable