How Lord Dannatt used his peerage to open doors for business interests

The flowers and hamper that arrived at the Tower of London had been sent by a small energy company based in Sierra Leone. They were a gift to Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, who a few months earlier had introduced the company’s executives to the minister for Africa. It was a move they hoped would smooth the way for the fledgling company’s grand plans to build a £500m hydroelectric dam.With support from the UK government, the company had a better chance of getting the dam built. The dam, they said, would bring much-needed cheap electricity to many people in Sierra Leone

Reform’s ‘Trumpian’ legal threats hint at more aggressive approach to media

“It was Trumpian,” said Mark Mansfield, editor and CEO of Nation.Cymru, a small English-language Welsh news service. “It has perhaps given us a flavour of how a Reform UK government would behave towards the media.”Mansfield is referring to what he described as an attempt by a figure at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to “bully” his publication, but he believes a wider lesson might be learned.On 12 November, Nation

Nigel Farage’s shifting answers on school-days racism claims – a timeline

Nigel Farage’s response to allegations of teenage racism during his time at Dulwich college have ranged from vehement at times and rather more nuanced at others.Here is what he has said.After Channel 4 reporter Michael Crick revealed a June 1981 letter written by a teacher about Farage during his time in Dulwich referring to him as “racist” and “fascist” or “neo-fascist”, Crick tracked down Farage.Farage said: “Of course I said some ridiculous things that upset them.” Crick asked him if these were “racist things”

Nigel Farage responds to racism claims saying he never ‘tried to hurt anybody’

Nigel Farage has broken his silence nearly a week after he was accused by about 20 people of racism and antisemitism as a teenager, by saying he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody”.His remarks came after the publication of a detailed investigation by the Guardian in which many of his school contemporaries claimed to be victims of, or witnesses to, repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour.The Reform party leader’s aides emphatically denied the allegations, saying that any “suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.In a broadcast interview on Monday, Farage appeared to give a more nuanced response when he was asked if he had racially abused fellow pupils at school.He replied: “No, this is 49 years ago by the way, 49 years ago

BBC finds its happy place inflicting latest round of self-harm | John Crace

This was the BBC in its happiest of happy places. Sure the Beeb likes to do the news, but there is nothing it likes more than reporting on itself. The holy grail of its output. There are whole departments within the Beeb dedicated to making TV and radio programmes about other BBC TV and radio programmes.There can be no other organisation that subjects itself to quite so much self-analysis

UK politics: Risk of Maccabi Tel Aviv facing antisemitic attacks not ‘predominant’ reason for match ban, police tell MPs – as it happened

MPs have been told that the risk of antisemitic hate crime was not the “predominant” reason why West Midlands police wanted to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Europa League match at Aston Villa.Mike O’Hara, WMP’s assistant chief constable, said in a letter to the Commons home affairs committee that the threat of violence by Maccabi fans was a more important consideration.The letter, which has been published this afternoon by the committee, confirms reporting by the Guardian last month which said that the fans were banned “after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club”.Keir Starmer and other political leaders reacted with outrage after the ban was first announced in October. Starmer suggested the police were accepting they would not be able to protect the Maccabi supporters from antisemitic violence, and he said: “The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation