In one of life's more surreal experiences, I'm in a crowded Irish bar in Cannes hearing Martin Sorrell discuss his exit from WPP #TicTocNews
Martin Sorrell:
- Continues to deny allegations of WPP probe
- Defends his 'difficult' management style
- Says Mark Read alone shouldn't run WPP bloomberg.com/news/articles/…#tictocnews
A bit like Alex Ferguson criticising David Moyes - Sorrell says WPP's first sale since his exit is a 'significant mistake' #canneslionsbloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Essential post-Budget read here from @PhilAldrick: How Hunt has pushed the public finances to the limit in a dash for economic growth before the election... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
This is one of the key charts. Hunt has left himself barely any room to meet his fiscal rule - and that constraint is regarded as proof that the government is committed to sound money, and helped restore calm to financial markets late last year 2/
It means that if the economy gets worse for any reason -- eg fallout from Credit Suisse's woes 👀 -- Hunt may have to enact fresh austerity to keep the public finances on track... 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Remember, Hunt's overriding political aim = make people want to vote Conservative. The Tories have a large (slightly narrowing) poll deficit v Labour and they want to fix that, or risk losing the election next year. But he faces constraints.. 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Money constraints! The amount the government can spend on public services = what it raises through taxes. If Hunt wants to spends more than that, he has to borrow. And if he's borrowing, the UK's debt rises. This is Hunt's first major constraint... 3/
How does Sunak's deal fare against the demands of the DUP and the ERG? There were two important points made in a briefing with the UK government just now... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
On the `Stormont Brake' - where Northern Ireland has the power to reject changes to EU laws affecting the region - it was confirmed that, if the veto is used, the old EU law remains. This might upset the DUP - some will still claim a democratic deficit.. 2/
And last week, the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson was saying it's unacceptable that goods made in N. Ireland have to follow EU rules - even if they're going to stay in N. Ireland. @SimonClarkeMP said the same. And under Sunak's deal... this is still true 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
New: Members of the ERG including Jacob Rees-Mogg and John Redwood have teamed up with the DUP to send a warning to Rishi Sunak over Brexit. A sign of the political difficulty ahead… 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
On Wednesday the DUP tabled an early day motion in Parliament calling for the government to scrap plans to build new border control facilities in N. Ireland, as are required by the current Brexit deal… 2/ bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northe…
And look who also signed the motion - leading ERG members including Rees-Mogg, Redwood and David Jones, each influential figures on the pro-Brexit wing of the Tory party. This kind of DUP/ERG coordination is a worry for Sunak… 3/ edm.parliament.uk/early-day-moti…
Brexit latest: The UK says there'll be a continuing role for the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland -- this will be the crunch issue for Tory MPs... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…@EllenAMilligan
Asked today whether the government wants to remove the role of the ECJ in the NI protocol, Sunak's official spokesman said: “We don’t think it’s right to have a situation where across all areas it is only the ECJ that has a view." Note use of the word `only'... 2/
Sunak's problem is that *any* continuing role for the ECJ in Northern Ireland is a red flag for a sizable caucus of Tory MPs - Why, they ask, should a foreign court have any say over what happens in part of the UK?.. 3/
`We are being levelled down' - here's our @BloombergUK feature on what's holding back `levelling up'. It's a story of government inaction, inflation and funding anger... 1/ bloomberg.com/graphics/uk-le…
Remember, the big picture is that the UK's wealth gap has widened since the Conservatives won the 2019 election - despite the flagship `levelling up' promise to close the gap 2/ bloomberg.com/graphics/uk-le…
This derelict lock and key factory at Moat Street in Willenhall outside Birmingham is a good example of the lack of progress - out of use for 15 years, it put in a £20m levelling up bid last summer... 2/