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    Britain preparing for blackouts on the scale of power cuts seen in Spain and Portugal, resilience plan reveals

    Britain is preparing for blackouts similar to those in Spain and Portugal which left tens of millions in the dark and brought much of the Iberian peninsula to a standstill. The government’s newly published resilience action plan revealed ministers are preparing for a “major power outage” and learning lessons from similar crises abroad. The Iberian blackouts “show how everybody across society can contribute to protecting a nation against disruptive events”, the resilience plan said. Blackouts left tens of millions without power on the Iberian peninsula More

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    EU justice chief laments democratic standards in Hungary

    Hungary has made virtually no progress in addressing European Union concerns about democratic backsliding over the last year, the EU’s justice commissioner said Tuesday, as he unveiled the bloc’s annual rule of law report.The section on Hungary highlighted concern about party financing, secret surveillance, media pluralism, the excessive use of government emergency powers, as well as pressure put on judges and members of civil society, among other shortcomings.The only positive noted was “significant progress” in increasing the salaries of judges, prosecutors and other legal staff. But even that was done without proper consideration for “European standards on remuneration for the justice system.”“It is deeply disappointing that we’re not in a position to report further progress on the recommendations that have been made last year,” Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.“We stand ready to take further steps, in relation to Hungary, as necessary,” he said, but did not elaborate on what those measures might involve. The European Commission proposes EU laws and supervises whether they are respected.Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s stridently nationalist government has become a pariah among the 26 other EU member countries. It has consistently sought to veto support to Ukraine, although the rest of the EU has begun to bypass Hungary.For the last decade, tensions have simmered between Orbán and the EU’s powerful executive branch, from his handling of migrants in 2015 to last month’s Budapest Pride event which saw marchers risk possible arrest and heavy fines to take part.In 2022, the European Commission blocked substantial amounts of money out of concern that Orban’s government might put the EU budget at risk.“Approximately 18 billion euros ($21 billion) of loans and grants are not available to Hungary because of rule of law issues. I wish it were otherwise,” McGrath told reporters. More

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    Doctors against Palantir’s NHS software put ‘ideology over patient interest’

    Doctors who oppose the use of software developed by Palantir in the NHS have “chosen ideology over patient interest”, the UK boss of the tech giant has told MPs.Louis Mosley appeared in front of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee on Tuesday as part of its innovation showcase.While there, he also challenged claims that Palantir has a “reputational difficulty” and said it is “very proud” of the work it does in Israel.Palantir was co-founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who was an early backer of US President Donald Trump, and has worked with the US government.It was announced in November 2023 that a group led by Palantir had secured a £330 million contract to provide the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP).The shared software system will aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients, but Palantir’s involvement sparked concerns about how patient data will be used.When asked by MPs about how the company protects patient privacy, and if data would be processed outside of the UK, or be accessible by any foreign government, Mr Mosley said: “The critical thing to bear in mind about the way our software works and the way it’s deployed in the NHS, is that the data controllers – so those organisations that have that legal responsibility, in the NHS those are trusts, typically – they maintain control over their data.“So each of them gets their own instance of our software, and they control who has access to it, they control what data is integrated into it, and they, in effect, implement and enforce the data protection policies that they deem appropriate.”He also emphasised Palantir does not “derive any economic benefit from the data, the data belongs to the customer”.Mr Mosley claimed that medics who oppose Palantir’s involvement in the FDP as choosing “ideology over patient interest”.It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) passed a motion stating the company is an “unacceptable choice” for the FDP at its annual representative meeting in Liverpool last month.The union’s members voted in favour of the BMA lobbying against the introduction of Palantir software in the health service, and called for the Department of Health and Social Care to create an audit of the progress of the uptake of the systems throughout the NHS.When asked about this, Mr Mosley said: “I was very disappointed to see that. I think the accusation that we lack transparency or this is secretive is wrong.“I think the BMA has, if I may be frank, chosen ideology over patient interest.“I think our software is going to make patient lives better; so making their treatment quicker, more effective, and ultimately the healthcare system more efficient.“And I, as a patient, and a user of the NHS, I want it to be as quick and efficient as possible.“I’m very sad, frankly, that the ideology seems to have taken precedence over those interests.”The BMA vote comes a little over a year since health workers blockaded the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters to call for an end to Palantir’s contract.In April 2024, hundreds of NHS workers protested in central London, holding placards which read “No Palantir in the NHS” and “Palantir aids apartheid”.Mr Mosley also pushed back against claims about Palantir’s reputation.It was put to Mr Mosley that Palantir has a “reputational difficulty” by Conservative MP Kit Malthouse.“Everybody’s slightly suspicious of what you do,” he said. “And part of that reputational difficulty has been caused by your software being used in war on Gaza and the targeting of Palestinians with particular characteristics.“What protections would you put in place for UK programmes to make sure they’re not complicit in the commission of war crimes?”Mr Mosley said he would “push back” on the question around reputation, adding: “I think much of that concern and suspicion that you mentioned is the result of misunderstandings about the nature of our software, the nature of our business model and the kind of work we support.“I would emphasise the fact that we have never worked and will never work in countries that are adversarial to the west, like China or Russia or Iran.“We do work in Israel. We’re proud of the work that we do there. We have provided the Israelis with support since October 7, but also our work there predates those events.“I can’t go into operational details of the way in which our software is used, but I can assure you that I think the systems to which you might be alluding, like Lavender, for example, are not ones that we are involved in.” More

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    Macron state visit live: French president set to address parliament after royal welcome from King and Queen

    Macron receives royal welcome to UK from Prince and Princess of WalesFrench president Emmanuel Macron is preparing to address MPs in Parliament after receiving a warm welcome from the King and Queen on the first day of his three-day state visit to the UK.Amid pomp and pagentry, the red carpet was rolled out for the Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, in Windsor, their greeting aimed at symbolising the return of closer ties between the two countries. Mr Macron dolled out Gallic charm by taking Camilla’s hand and air kissing it, having earlier greeted the Princess of Wales at RAF Northolt with the same gesture. The King had a burst blood vessel in his right eye, said to have developed overnight and said to be unrelated to any other health conditions. Nearly 400 military personnel from the Army, RAF and Royal Navy lined Windsor High Street along the ceremonial route and a 41-gun salute sounded in Mr Macron’s honour.The King is expected to emphasise “the multitude of complex threats” both countries face in a speech at a state dinner at Windsor Castle later, while Macron posted on social media that “there is so much we can build together”.The two countries jointly announced that French nuclear energy utility EDF would invest £1.1 billion in a project to build a nuclear power station in eastern England.Pomp, pageantry and politesse greet French presidentJane Dalton8 July 2025 15:35Macrons view royal collectionThe King and Queen showed Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte items in the Royal Collection exhibition in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.President Macron, Brigitte and the King More

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    Lammy threatens more sanctions on Israel if ceasefire isn’t reached within weeks

    David Lammy has threatened more sanctions on Israel if a ceasefire in Gaza is not achieved in the coming weeks. Giving evidence to the Foreign Affairs select committee, the foreign secretary also refused to set a timeframe for when the UK would recognise Palestinian statehood, saying he could not “tie myself to a calendar because it’s convenient for a soundbite”.It comes just weeks after The Independent revealed that the Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing unions that finance Labour, issued a joint statement with its Canadian and French counterparts calling on the UK government to change its position.David Lammy has threatened further sanctions on Israel More

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    Post Office scandal may have led to more than 13 suicides, official inquiry finds

    More than 13 people may have killed themselves as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal, according to the first tranche of a public inquiry’s report into what has been described as the worst miscarriage of justice in UK history. The inquiry chairman, retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, said at least 59 people “contemplated suicide at various points in time” and “attributed this to their experiences with Horizon and/or the Post Office”.He made the remarks in a report which laid bare the “disastrous human impact” for the 1,000-plus post office workers wrongly accused of taking money from their branches because of faulty software.Sir Wyn said “bankruptcies had occurred” and “marriage and families have been wrecked” over the scandal, adding: “The picture which has emerged is profoundly disturbing.” After the report was released, former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton, who was falsely prosecuted for a shortfall of £36,000 at her Post Office branch, said: “It shows the full scale of the horror that they unleashed on us. We were just decent people trying to do a day’s work for our community.”Sir Wyn Williams has led the inquiry More

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    Voices: Readers torn on wealth tax – from ‘the only counterbalance’ to ‘utterly counter-productive’

    Chris Blackhurst’s claim that Britain “simply can’t afford” a wealth tax has sparked fierce debate among Independent readers, who were deeply split over whether taxing extreme wealth is fair, workable, or economically sensible.Many backed Lord Kinnock’s call for what one commenter dubbed an “obscene wealth tax”, arguing that while wages have stagnated, asset values have skyrocketed. They claimed that taxing the ultra-wealthy is the only way to rebalance a system rigged in favour of those who make more money from owning than working. Several called for a land value tax too, insisting it’s fairer, harder to dodge, and long overdue.Others weren’t convinced, with some questioning the practicality of taxing wealth, especially when it’s tied up in private businesses or property. One pointed out: “How do you tax the value of something that can’t be easily sold?” Another warned that entrepreneurs would simply leave the country, taking jobs and investment with them.There were strong words for Labour, with accusations that the party is chasing populism over sound economics. But just as many readers argued that the real risk is doing nothing – letting inequality grow while public services crumble.Here’s what you had to say:Obscene wealth taxIt’s not a wealth tax we need.It’s an obscene wealth tax.When simply having money can make more money than earning it can, and a class of super-rich see no shame in possessing such grotesque amounts of wealth, an obscene wealth tax is the only possible counterbalance to the inevitable concentration of money in the hands of an ever-shrinking number that capitalism enforces.It may not work. But we have to try.HeHeHitThatTooWellCliveLand value taxThe government should urgently look at resurrecting an idea that nearly became law a hundred years ago – a land value tax. There is so much money tied up in property and, by definition, land that it would be perverse not to tax it. Rich individuals purchase land as a means of evading taxes, and some landowners have managed to avoid paying taxes for centuries by owning their land through trusts.Tax it. The land cannot be taken abroad, and it’s a tax that cannot be avoided, irrespective of “who or what entity owns it”. You don’t tax any property itself, you tax the value of the land it sits on. Closing this loophole would raise billions.flying scotDo you think the UK should introduce a wealth tax on the super-rich to help fund public services? Share your views in the comments.Socialism exists only for the richI get that large salaries attract the best people for certain positions, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the top 1 per cent of rich people hold more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent. The gap between the very wealthy and the working class is massive and is only getting wider.It wasn’t that long ago when one decent working-class wage could buy a house, a car, and still manage to bring up a couple of kids. Socialism only exists for the rich, while the working classes, people with disabilities, and now kids with disabilities are being targeted to raise more money.PlasticpaddyHow do you value a private business?The vast majority of people in the UK with personal wealth over £10 million are entrepreneurs or business founders, and almost all of their wealth is in the form of shares in their business. These businesses will mostly be privately held, so there is no market-based price discovery mechanism available to value them.So, to make this work, the government would, on an annual basis, have to accurately estimate the value of every privately owned business in the UK. They would be backed up in court for decades with appeals, because the value of a business ultimately is “what someone else is prepared to pay for it”.There is no universally agreed-upon formula.But long before this became a problem, every single high-net-worth business owner would have re-domiciled their business overseas and left the country for good, taking all the jobs with them, most likely.sj99Millionaires remove money from the economyMoney spent on winter fuel allowance, teacher wages, and special needs support stays in the economy because it cannot be saved.Wealth accruing to millionaire CEOs leaves the economy, usually via tax-efficient schemes in foreign jurisdictions.Millionaires and billionaires remove money from our economy because they don’t live paycheque to paycheque.RodyaRaskolnikovHigh salaries create tax, not trickle downLord Kinnock is certainly right about one thing: a wealth tax will be highly popular among voters.Taking money off those rich so-and-so’s and giving some to me – what’s not to like?What its proponents don’t understand is that high salaries attract high taxes, and the Treasury is no doubt grateful. But they don’t have any significant multiplier effect.Whereas companies set up by rich people (or who have become rich due to the value of those companies) employ workers who pay income tax and NI, generate pensions for retirees, produce goods and services which attract VAT, make profits which incur corporation tax and pay dividends on which dividend taxes are paid.So there is a large tax multiplier function. Impeding that process is not a good idea.OldContemptibleGentrification doesn’t make you richThe problem is: how do you define wealth?I am working class and I live in a house in a once down-market neighbourhood that has been gentrified. It’s worth considerably more than I paid for it 50 years ago. It’s an asset that could attract a wealth tax.But I’m a pensioner on limited means, and there is no way I could afford 10 per cent or even 1 per cent of the value of my asset in a wealth tax every year.I could move, but stamp duty and other costs make that unappealing – assuming I could find a suitable property for an ageing couple.How’s that fair?EnglishCastleWho are the real wealth creators?Well, the country has the choice of keeping a regressive tax system and declining public services, or doing something about it.I see no reason at all why capital gains tax should not be the same rate as income.Why does this country allow the curious ransom-like threat of the wealthy leaving to dominate fiscal policy?Who are the real wealth creators? Those who do the work, of course.Land value tax is another possibility. They can’t take their land and house abroad.International cooperation would be a big help, of course, so that low-tax regimes cease to exist.Regardless, wealth distribution has become acutely unequal in recent decades. If nothing is done, the economy will decay, as we’re already seeing.The rich will always gripe and offer special pleading.Those who are not rich yet back regressive taxation, are cutting their own throats.PoulterTop bosses won’t flee for losing £1mA good part of the collapse in Labour’s support is that they are intent on avoiding any meaningful tax increases for the rich, while penalising the disabled and others at the bottom of the wealth scale.It’s no doubt a complex issue, but a couple of things strike me:1. Are we to believe that if the income of a top boss drops, as a result of extra tax, from say £3m a year to £2m, it will become impossible to find someone competent to do the job at the lower rate (assuming the first scarpers off abroad)?2. Does the argument that we have to pay top rates to get the best talent bear any scrutiny?E.g. the main skill demonstrated by water company bosses seems to lie in accruing as much wealth for themselves, with the lowest benefit to anyone else. Is that what we’re paying top rates for?It’s funny how the same argument somehow never gets used for people who actually do something useful, like care workers.EadwineWealth doesn’t trickle downUnfortunately, this is based purely and simply on the belief that wealth trickles down, which is largely untrue.And the ‘wealth’ does not benefit the country – it is spent and invested elsewhere.A tax based simply on land ownership and usage, easy to verify by drone or satellite and with clear ownership recorded by the Land Registry, resolves that, and might also put an end to leaseholds…To suggest that millionaires and billionaires should contribute more, and that all working people be paid a minimum of the living wage, and those unable to work full time be topped up from taxation on those able to pay, should not be contentious.Topsham1Popular, but counter-productiveAs Colbert said more than 300 years ago:”The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest amount of hissing.”With a wealth tax, a government gets neither feathers nor hissing, as the rich simply leave the country for more welcoming shores.The idea is popular, but also utterly counter-productive.paulThe rich pay the tax alreadySo many lefties think that they are paying too much tax and that, instead, the government should soak the rich.The reality is that the vast majority of people in the UK are net recipients.The top 10 per cent of earners pay nearly 60 per cent of tax, and the tax rate in the UK is one of the lowest in Western Europe.If you want decent services, pay for them.YetAnotherNameWhen does wealth creation become a problem?When someone starts and grows a business, they risk their savings and even their house. They work long hours and only make a profit and grow the business if they provide the goods and services that people want to buy.They also create jobs that would otherwise not exist and pay taxes that would otherwise not be paid.At what point does any of this wealth generation become a problem?MarkWant to share your views? Simply register your details below. Once registered, you can comment on the day’s top stories for a chance to be featured. Alternatively, click ‘log in’ or ‘register’ in the top right corner to sign in or sign up.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here. More

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    Farage’s support has ‘topped out’, pollster claims as Starmer told to stop obsessing about Reform

    A leading pollster has suggested that support for Reform UK has “topped out”, and that the momentum that was carrying the party up in the polls has ground to a halt.Conservative peer Robert Hayward has told The Independent that the results of recent council by-elections in which Reform lost while defending seats, coupled with a small fall in the party’s polling figures, suggest that the march of Nigel Farage to Downing Street at the next general election could be facing a setback.It comes after business leaders and senior figures in the Labour Party urged Sir Keir Starmer to “stop obsessing” about Reform.The analysis follows two by-elections last week in which Reform lost council seats it was defending for the first time.Nigel Farage has seen his party’s momentum in the polls grind to a halt More