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Welcome to your Weekend Wire from Best for Britain.
This week saw confirmation that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has had his title of prince formally removed; a fresh row over a senior cabinet minister’s housing arrangements; and the devastating Hurricane Melissa strike the Caribbean.
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Read on for more on all that.
The piss artist formerly known as Prince
The man formerly known as Prince Andrew has been officially removed of his “Style, Titles and Honours” and will be moving out of his home at Royal Lodge, Windsor, and into privately funded accommodation at Sandringham, in Norfolk.
It comes after weeks of intense scrutiny, as the BBC put it, following Andrew’s links to the deceased convicted paedophile and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein putting mounting pressure on the royal family.
The family of the late Virginia Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew three times as a teenager, which he denies, released a statement praising “her truth and extraordinary courage”. Giuffre, who took her own life earlier this year, “never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and to countless other survivors like her”, her family said.
In a timely bit of polling, this week YouGov revealed the British public’s attitudes towards the monarchy, with Conservative voters the most positive, on 89% saying the institution is good for Britain, compared to just 33% of Green supporters.
Reevesing the small print
With just weeks to go before the Budget, getting a ticking off from Prime Minister Keir Starmer probably wasn’t top of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ to-do list. However, that was exactly what she got this week when it emerged she had failed to secure a rental licence to let out her south London family home.
Reeves previously admitted to mistakenly breaching local council rules by failing to secure a “selective” licence for the property when it was let out after her move into No 11 Downing Street.
Initially Reeves said she was unaware of the requirement, but subsequently emails between her husband and the lettings agency showed he had been informed about the need for a licence. But estate agents Harvey & Wheeler took the blame for the “oversight” in not applying for a licence on her behalf, despite having agreed to do so.
Starmer insisted he still viewed the matter as an “ inadvertent failure” and that he saw “no need for any further action”. But he did note: “It would clearly have been better if you and your husband had conducted a full trawl through all email correspondence with the estate agency before writing to me yesterday.” Awkward.
New poll klaxon
At Best for Britain HQ we’ve been hard at work this week on a new report looking at what the public think are the most important issues facing the UK and local communities.
Our poll found that only a quarter (26%) of people think immigration and asylum is one of the top three most important issues locally, to them and their communities.
This was half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest issues facing the country, and put immigration seventh on the list of top local problems behind the cost of living, health, crime and housing.
As our policy director Tom Brufatto put it: “The data clearly demonstrates that media exposure and political discourse are fanning the flames of anti-immigration sentiment in the UK, causing the Government to lose support both to its right and left flank simultaneously.
“Measures designed to tackle the cost of living, such as undoing the economic damage caused by Brexit through closer trading relations with the EU, will instead draw support from across the political spectrum.”
Read the full report on our website [ [link removed] ], and see the findings written up in the Independent [ [link removed] ].
Hurricane Melissa
Scenes of devastation in Jamaica and Haiti were reported late last week after one of the most powerful storms to strike the Caribbean, Hurricane Melissa, hurtled through the region.
The BBC reported [ [link removed] ] there were at least 19 deaths in Jamaica, with at least 30 people killed in Haiti, while search and rescue and aid efforts continue.
Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon described “entire communities that seem to be marooned and areas that seem to be flattened”, with electricity still out for most of Jamaica.
The UK government on Friday said it would send an additional £5m in humanitarian supplies, including shelter kits and solar powered lanterns, on top of the £2.5m already announced. The Foreign Office is also preparing to evacuate Brits unable to come home on commercial flights.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
In a nailbiting finish, progressive Dutch D66 party triumphed in the Netherlands’ parliamentary elections this week, with the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders neck and neck, with some 99.7% of ballots counted as of late on Thursday.
However, as the Guardian reported [ [link removed] ], all major mainstream parties ruled out working with Wilders, leaving D66 leader Rob Jetten close to forming a new coalition government - even before national press agency ANP declared [ [link removed] ] D66 the winner, around Friday lunchtime.
I Can’t Feel My Face (When I’m With You)
Elsewhere on the Best for Britain Wire, our Editor Niall McGourty wrote a moving - and funny - piece [ [link removed] ] about his experience waking up with facial paralysis just a week before his wedding. [Ed note - yes, he okayed this subheading.]
A timely reminder of our brilliant health service, and its “diligent, competent and friendly staff… who really care about what they do and come from all over the world to do it here”.
Cop on
In an exclusive for the Guardian [ [link removed] ], indigenous journalist Wajã Xipai, interviewed UN secretary general Antonio Guterres ahead of the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil this month, who warned that humanity has “failed” to limit global heating to 1.5C.
Guterres acknowledged it was now “inevitable” that humanity will overshoot the target set in the Paris climate agreement, with “devastating consequences” for the world.
As Xipai writes so powerfully: “I left with the feeling that many people in the world still need to listen, not to the speeches, but to the sounds of the rivers. To reforest their deforested thoughts, and then act with the speed we need to stop the extermination they are causing, and will cause to our own species.”
Green vs red lines
Green Party leader Zack Polanski set out his position on Europe this week, suggesting that he’d like to go much further than Starmer’s ‘red lines’ and branding Brexit a “catastrophic decision”.
The self-styled eco-populist called the ending of free movement a “disaster” which should be reversed, as well as calling for the UK to rejoin the customs union and “over [the] longer term” to rejoin the EU. More in this piece by Politico [ [link removed] ].
This week the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) became the latest international institution to close its UK HQ due to Brexit.
The group - representing the global private sector in travel and tourism - will relocate to Europe due to “lower operational costs and EU single market access”, the Independent reported [ [link removed] ].
Chairman Manfredi Lefebvre even admitted: “Brexit is one of the main factors in our decision to potentially move our headquarters beyond the UK.”
Cheerful News of the Week
In welcome news for the UK’s 11 million private renters, on Tuesday this week the government’s Renters’ Rights Bill received royal assent, marking the most significant changes in decades.
The bill includes a ban on no-fault evictions; new obligations on social landlords to address emergency health and safety issues within 24 hours; allows tenants to keep pets; and prevents landlords rejecting prospective tenants for having children or being on benefits.
Housing and homelessness charity Shelter’s chief executive Sarah Elliot called it “the victory of a lifetime for renters”, as she welcomed the end to “the gross injustice of no-fault evictions”.
Read more about this - and other good news - via the website Positive News [ [link removed] ].
We don’t often, but this week we have to agree with GB News [ [link removed] ] who branded the moment shadow home secretary Chris Philp forgot the name of the Welsh Conservative leader six times “toe-curling”.
Next week features two significant anniversaries: it’s one year since Donald Trump was re-elected US President, and 75 years since the creation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
We’ll also be keeping a close eye on the results of the New York mayoral election, with Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani maintaining a strong lead in the polls [ [link removed] ].
Have a good one.
Jessica Frank-Keyes
Senior Press Officer
Best for Britain
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