Labour leader Keir Starmer celebrates winning the UK general election with a speech at Tate Modern in central London. Getty Images
Mr Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive at the Tate Modern. PA
Mr Starmer gives a victory speech at the Tate Modern. PA
Mr Starmer greets former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. AP
Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak retained his seat as MP for Richmond and Northallerton, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. AFP
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had been expelled from the party and stood as an independent, won in Islington seat North, London. EPA
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, was victorious in Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex. Bloomberg
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves University of Bath after losing his seat in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency. AP
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey celebrates at London Art Bar, central London, after his party seemed poised for a successful night. AP
Penny Mordaunt lost her seat in the Portsmouth North constituency to Labour. PA
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar celebrates with Maureen Burke after she won in Glasgow North East. Reuters
Sir Archibald Stanton standing for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party poses for a picture at the Richmond and Northallerton count centre in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. AFP
Mr Starmer is congratulated by fellow candidates Bobby 'Elmo' Smith and Nick 'The Flying Brick' Delves after winning his seat for Holborn and St Pancras, at the Camden Council count centre in London. AFP
Chris Blackhurst is a former editor of The Independent, based in London
July 05, 2024
Anyone wanting to trace the decline of the Conservative Party would do well to start with 1979 and Margaret Thatcher’s first Cabinet.
The imperious new prime minister was surrounded by an array of talent, people of true stature with names such as William Whitelaw, Peter Carington, Peter Walker, Michael Heseltine, Geoffrey Howe and Quintin Hogg. Now, look at those who have been and gone from high office since Boris Johnson’s 2019 triumph.
Forty years in the making, the once great party was reduced to fielding characters who would never have made it to Mrs Thatcher’s side. From the leaders – Mr Johnson himself, devoid of attention to detail and honesty, Liz Truss, enough said, Rishi Sunak, a COO but no commanding CEO. From the supporting cast – Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson, Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps (a loser last night). This latter list is long and unimpressive.
For some time now, once the realisation dawned that Mr Johnson was an empty vessel, the Tories have lacked policies and substance. The impression they gave, increasingly, was of an organisation that would do anything to cling to power. It was as if the well-rehearsed accolade of the most successful electoral party in history anywhere clung to them like a faded, no longer fitting ball gown.
From the moment Mr Sunak stood in the pouring rain to announce the election, the outcome was foregone. Their campaign smacked of desperately treading water, just trying to keep afloat. Measures – remember National Service for all 18-year-olds – came and went, barely mentioned again. The sense of people who did not believe in what they were doing or saying, who were merely going through the motions, was compounded.
Rishi Sunak walks back into 10 Downing Street in London on May 22 after he announced the General Election for July 4. AP
That was not the intention, of course. But this was a party that ran out of ideas and energy years ago.
They came up with grand-sounding phrases – “Big Society” under David Cameron, “levelling up” from Mr Johnson – but had no concept of how to put them into practice. It always was a difference between Conservative and Labour. The former is a party, the latter is a movement.
After each setback, Labour would dust itself down, pick itself up and begin again, more determined than ever to secure victory. The Tories never had that depth of motivation. For them it was all about winning, and winning. That was it. There was no vision, no ideological, detailed route-map towards a blue-tinted nirvana.
After each setback, Labour would dust itself down, pick itself up and begin again, more determined than ever to secure victory
There was a time when the rump of the party, the “One Nation” Conservatives, provided sense and balance. Increasingly, though, they were marginalised. The Eurosceptics would not let up, and this small, vociferous group snapped and harried. They were aided and abetted by an outsider, Nigel Farage. The fear he spread was out of all proportion to his actual position. Nevertheless, it secured him the announcement of the Brexit referendum.
Britain's Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage won his first seat in parliament. Reuters
Still, his grip tightened. Look at the knots the government got into over Mr Farage’s claim to have been “debanked” by NatWest. It was a call from a minister that forced the departure of the chief executive, Alison Rose, from a bank that was majority-owned by the taxpayer.
Ms Rose did not need to go, Mr Farage wanted her gone, she went.
At the last annual conference, Mr Farage was courted, embarrassingly, by fawning Tory seniors. Roll forward to the election campaign, and Mr Farage’s declaration that he was standing for the Reform UK party was followed by awkward attempts by the same Tory leadership to put distance between them and a man whom they were wooing and pandering to only recently.
Suddenly, he was the enemy - more so, it appeared, than Labour leader Keir Starmer. This speaks volumes about a residual, gnawing fear.
Mr Farage had charisma where they had none, his Reform manifesto contained populist policies that would meet with Tory approval, he’d gone from being the maverick upstart to alternative rival.
So, it ended up with an enormous Labour majority, a landslide. Worse, if that was possible for the Tories, there is the arrival in the UK House of Commons of Reform.
The scale of defeat was not of wipeout proportions. Anything leaving the Tories with double-digit MPs would surely have signalled the end. Faced as well with resurgent Liberal Democrats, they would have been consigned to oblivion.
That has not occurred. Instead, they find themselves at a crossroads: to continue on the same, unhappy, uninspiring, unpopular path; or to change. The pressure will be for the latter. But do they return to the centre where they were once so dominant, or do they continue to shift to the right, to head off Reform, to take their ground? In which case, is there an argument for merger and the anointment of Mr Farage as leader?
It’s too early to call. Certainly, Mr Sunak should go and there needs to be a leadership campaign. But the need is more profound. They must decide who they are, what they believe in – and crucially they must stick to it (theirs has been a party of ill-discipline versus a much tighter Labour).
There is a strong, historical case for a move back towards centrism and the re-emergence of One Nation Toryism. But that’s not been the recent direction and the louder voices are on the right of the party. They will insist they were correct all along, that the rise of Reform proves it, that if the Tory party is to have a future it must embrace the values of the right.
The parliamentary candidates for leader from that quarter do not inspire. It’s hard to conceive of Suella Braverman or Kemi Badenoch appealing to the country at large.
There are two big beasts, one within the Commons but outside the party, and the other outside the Commons but within the party. They are Mr Farage and Mr Johnson. They are the same two who led the Brexit campaign. The fact the B-word is scarcely mentioned today will not hinder them.
A Conservative Party led by Mr Farage will not be the Conservative Party as we know it – Mrs Thatcher and her Cabinet would be lost for words. Equally, it’s hard to see how Mr Johnson can mount a credible return. He may point to his hero, Winston Churchill, who was ousted and did come back. Mr Johnson, though, is no Churchill – however much he believes he is.
What the Tories are facing is months –if not years – of soul-searching and arguing. They’ve brought it on themselves, and it will not end happily.
The scrapping begins today. But if it’s not accompanied by thought and clarity and rigour, they will surely be over – that decline will only carry on. The temptation will be to move quickly but a period of contemplation is required. Begin by revisiting that first Thatcher line-up and ask, how did we get from that to this?
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring:Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
I would recommend writing out the text in the body
And then copy into this box
It can be as long as you link
But I recommend you use the bullet point function (see red square)
Or try to keep the word count down
Be wary of other embeds lengthy fact boxes could crash into
That's about it
Tips for job-seekers
Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
