The north of England is turning Tory – and it can’t be blamed on Brexit alone. Things have shifted in Labour’s heartlands, and to understand why we need to look at how the region has changed since 1980👇 ft.com/content/929022…
Our Whitehall editor @SebastianEPayne has travelled 6,000 miles over the past year through 10 English constituencies that have traditionally been part of the ‘red wall’ of Labour’s northern strongholds – but fled the party for the first time in 2019 ft.com/content/929022…
Labour’s worst defeat since 1935 was instantly pinned on Brexit, combined with the unpopularity of its then leftwing leader Jeremy Corbyn. But @SebastianEPayne sensed something deeper had shifted ft.com/content/929022…
In constituencies such as North West Durham, where heavy industry such as steel and coal used to dominate, prosperity has improved but many of the new jobs have little security. Infrastructure has suffered decades of under-investment ft.com/content/929022…
The steel works in Consett, County Durham, closed in 1980. It had employed 6,000+ at its peak and heavy workplace unionisation tied workers to the Labour party, as did community pubs and working men’s clubs ft.com/content/929022…
‘There was always the understanding that things would be fine, because the [coal] pit was here,’ says Ian Lavery, a former miner turned Labour MP. And when it was not, that spirit dissipated ft.com/content/929022…
With the rise of new employers and private housing, life became more individualistic. Margaret Thatcher had created a new economy in the north that was primed for the Tories to take ft.com/content/929022…
Brexit played its part, of course: for the dozens of pro-Leave first-time Tory voters @SebastianEPayne met in places such as North West Durham, the 2016 referendum cut an umbilical cord with Labour ft.com/content/929022…
Read the full story about the north of England’s political earthquake – and find out what its constituents, MPs and Labour leader Keir Starmer had to say here: ft.com/content/929022…
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If you like beer, meat or soft drinks, you should care about surging gas prices.
Europe's food industry is braced for major disruption because of them. Here’s what has happened so far: ft.com/content/22497c…
Gas prices in the UK and Europe have surged to new highs in recent weeks, with traders warning that the region is heading into winter with record-low inventories ft.com/content/22497c…
Soaring natural gas prices are causing chaos among makers of ammonium nitrate, a staple fertiliser derived from the fuel which is critical to the supply of carbon dioxide ft.com/content/22497c…
The hits – and the killer business deals – just keep coming from the music industry’s most powerful CEO, Lucian Grainge. Beloved of stars like Taylor Swift, Elton John and The Weeknd, he’s about to take Universal public – with a potential $50bn valuation on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
What does Lucian Grainge have that others don’t? In 2011, he scooped up most of EMI's labels, adding The Beatles, Coldplay & Katy Perry to his roster. A bigger market share allowed him to set terms with streaming platforms that powered an industry revival on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
No music business legend – from Motown’s Berry Gordy to Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun – has ever controlled as much of the industry as Lucian Grainge does, says Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records and signed Bob Marley on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
China has hit out at Australia, the UK and US for playing ‘geopolitical games’ after they struck a new security pact to let Australia acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines. France is also upset by the deal.
'The creation of AUKUS fills the most important gap in the security web of the entire western Pacific,' said one Taiwanese national security official ft.com/content/6c1375…
Taiwan and Japan have hailed the Australia, UK and US security pact for its potential to offset an increasingly assertive China. But China’s foreign ministry spokesperson has accused the three countries of double standards ft.com/content/6c1375…
China has shaken markets and cryptocurrencies with its new regulations and tech crackdown. But why is the country taking such a hard stance and overhauling its governance? on.ft.com/3llFmKh
China’s president Xi Jinping is reinserting the party into the private sector and into family lives in a way that has not been seen since Deng launched the ‘reform and opening’ era in 1978 ft.com/content/bacf9b…
In a series of dramatic moves over the past year, from a crackdown on China’s biggest tech companies to strict time limits on playing video games, Xi Jinping is flirting with propaganda tools and intimidation tactics that many see as similar to the Mao era ft.com/content/bacf9b…
When Angela Merkel came to power the iPhone had yet to be launched, ExxonMobil was the US’s most valuable company and George W Bush and Tony Blair were still in office. What is her legacy as she steps down 16 years on? We asked Germany’s youth 👇ft.com/content/dab5f8…
Merkel steered Germany through shockwaves such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the EU’s sovereign debt crisis and the arrival of millions of refugees as new populist leaders stirred up nationalisms and questioned the European project ft.com/content/dab5f8…
One of those affected by Merkel’s immigration policy was Mohamed Sahly, a 13-year-old who fled Syria with his family in 2015, crossing the Aegean Sea on a small rubber dinghy with 40 other migrants. Today he lives in Berlin & dreams of becoming an engineer ft.com/content/dab5f8…
One in 3 Britons is financially illiterate and 1 in 2 has low confidence making financial decisions. The FT has decided to do something about it. Our new financial literacy & inclusion charity FLIC educates & lobbies for policy improvements. Read on here: ft.com/content/e6ae38…
How can we improve the prospects of millions in the UK and beyond?
Fixing economic deprivation is a mammoth task, but assisting with basic financial education — to boost budgeting skills and debt & investment knowhow — need not be, says @patrickjenkins_ft.com/content/804807…
Until banking & finance are better regulated we must combat the poverty premium – the ways in which society makes it so expensive to be poor. How?
1. Policy improvement campaign 2. Access to money management building blocks 3. Access to learning resources ft.com/content/7e6172…