Author: LoveWorld UK

The chief executives of some major U.S. airlines questioned on Dec. 15 how much wearing masks onboard flights helps to limit exposure to COVID-19, noting that an aircraft is “the safest place you can be.” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby made the comments during a Senate Commerce committee hearing on aviation issues, titled “Oversight of the U.S. Airline Industry.” The hearing focused on the Payroll Support Program that Congress designed to protect the airline workforce and support the continuity of safe and essential travel amid the pandemic. But the topic of masks arose via a question from Sen. Roger…

The Liberal Democrats have won a stunning victory in the North Shropshire byelection, taking what had previously been a safe Conservative seat by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes, and capping a disastrous few weeks for Boris Johnson. Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem candidate, won 17,957 votes, ahead of the Conservatives’ Neil Shastri-Hurst, on 12,032, a majority of 5,925. Labour’s Ben Wood was third, with 3,686 votes. Turnout was 46.3%. The calamitous collapse in Conservative support – a 34% swing in a seat where they had a near-23,000 majority in 2019 – will prompt significant jitters among many Tory MPs, and is…

The Metropolitan Police have been urged to investigate a lockdown-busting Christmas party attended by ex-London mayoral hopeful Shaun Bailey that took place in the basement of Conservative Party HQ. Mr Bailey yesterday quit as chairman of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee after the Mirror published a photo which showed him posing with dozens of Tory aides at the party on December 14, when London was in Tier 2 restrictions. Labour, Lib Dem and Green Party politicians on the London Assembly have written to Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick to demand an investigation. The Metropolitan Police have been urged…

Mercedes will not make any further appeal against the dramatic events in Abu Dhabi which saw Max Verstappen crowned world champion over Lewis Hamilton. The team, which had already made two unsuccessful protests against the decision which led to Hamilton’s defeat in a last-lap shootout on Sunday, had until Thursday evening to make a final appeal. However, in a statement, Mercedes said that conversations with Hamilton, combined with Wednesday’s announcement by the FIA that it would investigate what happened in Abu Dhabi, meant they would withdraw from taking any further action. “We left Abu Dhabi in disbelief of what we had just…

Polls have opened in North Shropshire for voters to elect a replacement for the disgraced former Tory MP Owen Paterson, who resigned after being found to have breached parliamentary lobbying rules. People in the rural constituency began casting their votes from 7am on Thursday in what is expected to be a close-run byelection between the incumbent Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Polling stations close at 10pm and a result is not expected until the early hours of Friday. There had been speculation that growing concerns about the Omicron Covid variant and poor weather could diminish voter turnout. The byelection was triggered…

The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic despite mounting concern over the Omicron variant. Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to raise rates from the historic low of 0.1% to 0.25%, judging that pressure from surging inflation outweighed the risks to the economy from the new variant. Official figures showed inflation hit 5.1% in November amid soaring energy prices and global supply chain bottlenecks, hitting a rate the Bank hadn’t expected to be reached until the spring. The MPC has an official inflation target of 2%. However, the rate…

Shaun Bailey has stepped down from an official role in the London assembly after a photograph emerged of him joining a throng of people for a “raucous” party amid the Covid lockdown in December last year. The Conservative candidate for London mayor earlier this year stood aside as chair of the police and crime committee, a statement from the assembly’s Conservative group said. It said that Bailey “does not want an unauthorised social gathering involving some former members of the London mayoral campaign team last December to distract from the committee’s important work holding the mayor of London to account”. However, it…

Marcelo Bielsa offered no excuses for Leeds’s 7-0 humiliation by Manchester City, their joint heaviest defeat in the club’s 102-year history, the manager admitting this was the “worst result” of his four years in charge. The defeat leaves Leeds with 16 points after 17 games and, adjusting to three points for a win, only in 1930‑31 have they had fewer at this stage of any league campaign (14). Two goals from Kevin De Bruyne and one each from Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, John Stones and Nathan Aké meant Leeds matched their poorest margin, set previously when losing 8-1 against…

Any further measures to limit the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus would lead to a recall of the House of Commons for a vote, the cabinet minister Grant Shapps has said. After disquiet among backbenchers over plans for vaccine certificates led to a rebellion by 99 Conservative MPs on Tuesday, Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he believed the precautions now in pace would be enough to keep Omicron under control. But he said: “If more measures were required … then of course the house would be recalled and those measures would be put to the house. But I don’t…

Sajid Javid and his top health advisers were today accused of scare-mongering after clarifying that gloomy models do estimate that 200,000 Britons could be catching Omicron every day. The Health Secretary last night told MPs that daily Covid infections were thought to have breached the 200,000 mark. But his comments, made in a statement discussing the threat of Omicron, sparked immediate confusion over whether the figure was relating to the virus as a whole, or specifically just the super-mutant variant. Department of Health insiders last night told The Telegraph that Mr Javid was correct to imply Omicron cases had hit 200,000 a day.…