This should be a time of celebration for Britain's Labour Party, which opens its annual conference on Sunday, less than three months after winning power in a landslide to put an end to 14 years in opposition.
But it is no victory lap for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
His government faces a battered economy and an electorate impatient for change. The mood among Labour members as they gather in Liverpool has been further dampened by a tempest over Mr Starmer's acceptance of free clothing at a time when millions of people are struggling with a cost of living crisis.
Mr Starmer insists he followed the rules when he took clothes and designer glasses from Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime Labour donor. But after days of negative headlines, the party now says Mr Starmer will not accept any more free outfits.
“I get that people are angry,” said Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who also accepted donations to pay for clothing.
“But donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time. People can look it up and see what people have had donations for, and the transparency is really important.”
Mr Starmer won the July 4 election on a promise to “restore politics as a force for good” after 14 scandal-tarnished years under the Conservatives. He vowed to get the country's sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services, such as the National Health Service.
Since then, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservative government, and warned that “things will get worse” before they get better. One of the government's first major acts was to strip millions of retirees of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter.
Mr Starmer also had to deal with anti-immigrant unrest that erupted after three children were stabbed to death in Southport, near Liverpool in July. Mr Starmer responded firmly, pledging swift justice and tough sentences for rioters. But prison overcrowding, a legacy of the last government, meant hundreds of inmates had to be freed early to make way for the newly convicted rioters.
Then came the clothing scandal, dubbed “frockgate” after dresses gifted to the Prime Minister’s wife, Victoria Starmer.
Mr Starmer is also facing grumbling among his own employees over the salary of his chief of staff, Sue Gray. The BBC disclosed that she is paid £170,000 a year – about £3,000 more than Mr Starmer himself. The government says it was not involved in setting the pay scale for political advisers.
Labour says that the criticism is being whipped up by the Conservatives and their media supporters. But polls suggest it has hurt. An Ipsos poll released Friday found 25 per cent of respondents thought Mr Starmer was doing a good job – down from 36 per cent in July – while 42 per cent thought he was doing a bad job, up from 14 per cent. The firm interviewed 1,082 adults by telephone and the margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
“He promised to be different, but he hasn’t been,” Conservative MP Chris Philp told the BBC. “He is not running a government of service, he is running a government of self-service.”
The bad news has alarmed many Labour members, who worry worse is to come in the form of tax increases and spending cuts when the government announces its first budget on October 30.
Labour leaders will try to convey a more positive message when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves makes a televised conference speech on Monday, followed by Mr Starmer on Tuesday. They’re hoping to inject some cheer into the four-day conference, a blend of pep rally, policy forum and boozy bash that plays a key role in maintaining morale among party activists.
The government argues that it has already made a string of positive changes, including ending a wave of public-sector strikes. In the coming weeks, it plans legislation to take public ownership of the railways, set up a state-owned green energy firm, impose tougher rules on water firms that dump sewage and strengthen rights for workers and tenants.
Victoria Honeyman, professor of British politics at the University of Leeds, said Labour’s first months in office were destined to be difficult because voters’ expectations were so high.
“But they have made mistakes,” she said. “The business with the clothing, it’s not a terminal blow, but it’s the kind of thing that will stick in people’s minds for a certain amount of time and could so easily have been avoided.
“It smacks of a lack of attention or a lack of caution, neither of which are good looks.”
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
THREE
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Race card
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Meydan Cup – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,810m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,600m
9.50pm: Meydan Classic – Conditions (TB) $$50,000 (T) 1,400m
9.25pm: Dubai Sprint – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,200m
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Florida: The critical Sunshine State
Though mostly conservative, Florida is usually always “close” in presidential elections. In most elections, the candidate that wins the Sunshine State almost always wins the election, as evidenced in 2016 when Trump took Florida, a state which has not had a democratic governor since 1991.
Joe Biden’s campaign has spent $100 million there to turn things around, understandable given the state’s crucial 29 electoral votes.
In 2016, Mr Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton paid frequent visits to Florida though analysts concluded that she failed to appeal towards middle-class voters, whom Barack Obama won over in the previous election.
