Zohran Mamdani is riding a populist wave, like Trump
L et me tell you a (true) Fairytale of New York. Like most New Yorkers with a car, I park my vehicle on the street to save myself the typical $1,000 a month that a spot in a parking garage now costs. Ostensibly to allow for 'street cleaning', but really to raise additional revenue through needless fines, the city has parking restrictions during mornings twice a week for an hour and a half on alternate sides of most streets, so that a vehicle may not be parked and left for more than a couple of days at a time.
This has given rise to a New York ritual. Every morning you'll see people sitting in their cars, on their phones and laptops, waiting for the street cleaning machine to pass (it often doesn't, though the traffic cop always does, cheerfully appending $65 tickets to every empty car) and the drivers must then move the car out and back into the precious spot and wait out the remaining time so they can enjoy the privilege of another day or two of free parking.
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The Guardian
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- The Guardian
Shiploads of cars ready to set sail for US from UK as trade deal kicks in
Shiploads of Minis, Aston Martins and Range Rovers will set sail for the US on Monday as the UK-US trade deal kicks in, but British farmers say they have been used as collateral to save the car industry. Auto shipments across the Atlantic were down more than half in May after Donald Trump's imposition of a 25% tariff on 3 April on top of an existing 2.5% levy. However, as of one minute past midnight US time on Monday – 5am in the UK – that has been reduced to 10% for cars, and UK manufacturers expect pent-up demand to be unleashed. Aston Martin's chief executive, Adrian Hallmark, said the luxury carmaker had stopped shipping between April and June, something he said had been 'not catastrophic, but slightly uncomfortable'. The outline of the trade deal was agreed between Trump and Keir Starmer in early May, the first such bilateral pact to mitigate the president's import taxes. However, delays in agreeing the fine print meant the higher tariff had continued to apply, pushing the cost of British cars up by more than a quarter for US importers. Hallmark told a British car industry conference last week that he was 'planning to invoice three months' worth of sales in a 24-hour period', with stocks in the US down by 50% due to the pause. Aston Martin exports 90% of its cars, but its customers are wealthy and were willing to wait. 'The demand has been strong and will be in good shape when we start to invoice cars like fury on Monday next week,' he said. On the eve of the trade deal coming into force, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, received reassurances from the sportscar maker Lotus that it had no plans to close its UK factory, in Hethel, Norfolk. Reynolds contacted Lotus bosses after it emerged that the carmaker was considering shifting production to the US – a move that would jeopardise 1,300 jobs. A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said Reynolds met Lotus and its owner, Geely, on Sunday to clarify the company's situation, and 'was reassured by management that they are committed to their UK operations and have no plans to close their Hethel plant'. A decision to relocate manufacturing abroad by a prestige brand such as Lotus would be embarrassing for the UK government. Labour's industrial strategy, published last week, singled out automotive production as among the strategic sectors it wants to support. The car industry welcomed the US-UK trade deal when it was struck, with it preventing job losses at JLR, the maker of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Range Rovers are particularly popular in the US. However, the lower 10% duty only applies to a quota of 100,000 cars a year – slightly below last year's export numbers – leaving little room for growth. JLR alone exported 84,000 cars in the year up to April 2025. The initial trade deal also included a promise of zero tariffs on steel but this has been held up by negotiations over the origin of some raw materials for smelting, particularly at Tata's plant at Port Talbot in south Wales. Concessions were won with new tariff-free quotas for British and US beef in each other's markets, as well the controversial removal of a 19% tariff on American ethanol imports, which the UK industry says leaves biofuel plants facing closure. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The president of the National Farmers' Union, Tom Bradshaw, said the government must stop using agriculture as a bargaining chip in talks and urged Starmer to take the sector off the table in the talks on steel and remove the 10% baseline tariff Trump has applied to all imports. 'Agriculture has borne the responsibility of removing tariffs for other sectors. 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The Independent
23 minutes ago
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Starmer and Trump's historic trade deal comes into effect
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
I went to a drive-thru Starbucks but ended up with a £100 parking fine
I recently had to collect my brother from Stansted airport. I stopped to collect a coffee from the Starbucks drive-thru in a retail park near the airport. I asked the assistant if it was OK to park up to drink it and was told there were 60 minutes' free parking. In total I was on the site for 16 minutes. Soon afterwards I received a £100 from MET Parking Services. I immediately contacted Starbucks, which told me I was supposed to enter my car registration on an iPad in store. This had not been mentioned by the staff and there was no iPad available at the drive-thru kiosk. Stansted travellers beware! CF, Sudbury, Suffolk Scores of other drivers have been charged £100 for sipping a coffee at the Southgate Park retail park which lies off the A120 by the airport, according to online forums. This must make it the most expensive latte in the UK. The car park seems to also be ranked one of Britain's trickiest traps for motorists. The Guardian first exposed its opaque rules back in 2018 and it seems it's still providing a lucrative income stream for the enforcement firm, MET Parking Services. Signs greeting arrivals proclaim that parking is for customers only. Terms and conditions are detailed on separate notices in font illegible through a windscreen. Many of those caught out parked outside Starbucks and ordered from the adjacent McDonald's, or vice versa. That's because the Ts and Cs decree that the lot is divided into two sections – one for each outlet – and that, as well as pulling up in the correct bays, customers must register their vehicles within the correct restaurant. Starbucks told you helplessly that it has no control over parking charges, and referred you to MET. It ignored your question about why you were not properly informed by staff. It also ignored my requests to know why drive-thru customers are not automatically told of the registration requirement and provided with an iPad. There's little point in a drive-thru if they have to walk into the cafe to comply. I wanted to know whether it has pressed for clearer signs, and how many complaints it has received in the last year, but it didn't bother to reply. I found MET to be just as uncommunicative. In vain I asked why the signs are not clearer, whether it, or the landowner, keeps the charges levied on unwitting drivers, and how much it collected in the past year. MET's parking charge notice may be unenforceable, in any case. Parking companies obtain the address of a vehicle's registered keeper from the DVLA, but they can't prove it was the registered keeper at the wheel. In most cases that doesn't matter. The 2012 Protection of Freedoms Act, which applies to England and Wales, allows the registered keeper to be held liable for breaches of conditions on private land if the driver is not named. However, keeper liability does not apply to land where parking is covered by specific laws – known as statutory control – such as railway stations and airports. You should be asked if you were the driver, and if you refuse to confirm who was at the wheel the charge notice can't be pursued. In at least one case the independent appeals service, Popla, allowed an appeal because MET failed to rebut the appellant's claim that Southgate Park is within the boundary of Stansted airport. Your fine has since been cancelled by MET – I suspect the prospect of a headline was the nudge it needed. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.
