Own goal averted by last-ditch save
Chris Telford
Lancaster
• Schools have a duty to 'actively promote' the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect and tolerance of those of different faiths. It seems the UK government feels no compulsion to do so (Dismay as UK prepares to sign 'values-free' £1.6bn trade deal with Gulf states. 29 May)
Mona Sood
Southend-on-Sea
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• Simon Elmes criticises the use of 'unwanted Americanisms' such as 'gotten' and 'faucet' (Letters, 29 May). In fact both of these words are from early modern English, and are used in Shakespeare's plays. A respectable English ancestry, I'd say.
Neil Hanson
Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire
• Given that Labour's fall in the opinion polls is the largest for any newly elected UK government in 40 years (Report, 25 May), Keir Starmer is experiencing the swift decline of numbers as well as the decline of swift numbers (Letters, 29 May).
Elli Woollard
London
• My wife and I get to see our grownup children occasionally when they come home to see the dog (Letters, 29 May).
Gary McGregor
Garvald, East Lothian
• Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Who can afford the electric revolution? The £700m question
The UK government recently unveiled a £700 million package aimed at jumpstarting the electric vehicle (EV) transition. At the heart of the plan is a £640 million subsidy scheme to help drivers cover the upfront cost of a new electric vehicle, and an additional £63 million to expand EV charging infrastructure. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You Great Rates and Award-Winning Service The Insurance Savings You Expect The message from Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is clear: electric vehicles must become more accessible to the average motorist. 'There are a lot of people out there who think that EVs are just for the very wealthiest,' she admitted to The Telegraph. And on the surface, she's not wrong. The average price of a new electric car in Britain is just shy of £50,000, more than double the cost of a typical petrol model. But the message beneath the headline is more ambiguous. Is this plan enough to truly democratise the EV market? Or is it just another patchwork attempt to meet the looming 2030 petrol and diesel car ban, without fully reckoning with the underlying economics of the transition? Too steep for the mass market Let's be blunt: for the vast majority of households in Britain, a £50,000 vehicle is simply not in the realm of possibility. Even with a government grant, rumoured to prioritise UK-made EVs like the upcoming Nissan Leaf from Sunderland, the affordability gap remains vast. The previous Conservative government scrapped EV subsidies in 2022, claiming the market had matured. Since then, demand from private buyers has plummeted, with new consumer EV enquiries dropping 65% year-on-year. It's not just the sticker price. EVs face high depreciation rates due to battery degradation, and many consumers remain wary of both their long-term reliability and resale value. Buying an EV is still perceived by many as a financial risk, not a forward-looking investment. This is the crux of the problem: net zero targets depend on mass adoption, but mass adoption depends on affordability. And the market has failed to close that gap on its own. A patch for a broken model? To be fair, the government's new package includes more than just subsidies. Councils will receive £25 million for cross-pavement gullies, allowing people in terraced houses to charge their EVs at home using cheaper electricity rates. A further £63 million will expand public charging infrastructure and improve signage, a necessary step to address so-called 'range anxiety.' Yet infrastructure is not the primary barrier, it's economics. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), EVs accounted for about 20% of new car sales in the first half of 2025. But that growth is increasingly driven by fleet and leasing schemes, not individual consumers. Motability One potentially transformative idea comes from Julian Rose of Asset Finance Policy, who argues that the government could build on the existing Motability scheme to create a fairer and more effective solution to the EV affordability crisis. Rose proposes a revised scheme focused on used EVs and hybrids, with eligibility expanded to include not just those with medical conditions, but also households on low incomes. Key to the idea is removing VAT from lease payments, as with the current Motability model, and offering a modest upfront grant — perhaps £1,000 — to reduce monthly payments. Rose also suggests capped interest rates and using the proven administrative frameworks of Clean Air Zone vehicle replacement schemes to prevent abuse. This approach, he argues, would not only 'help struggling families obtain vital mobility at an affordable monthly cost,' but would also 'strengthen the used car EV market,' reducing depreciation risk and encouraging new EV purchases. With used EV prices currently low, Rose sees this as a 'one-off opportunity' to both support families and build resilience into the second-hand EV market—complementing, not competing with, the government's newly announced subsidy programme. Leasing Meanwhile, private leasing continues to offer a critical bridge. UK-based and continental initiatives like Belgium's LIZY have made second-hand EV leasing more accessible, offering fixed monthly costs that are often lower than car loans. These platforms are proving essential for younger, urban drivers and SMEs who need flexibility and lower upfront investment. Such business models show that affordability isn't just about the purchase price, it's about the total cost of use. Leasing could help normalise EVs in the public mind and serve as a bridge to wider ownership, but these solutions are only scalable if backed by supportive policies and a competitive second-hand EV market. Risk of a two-tier transition What the government is offering now is a partial step forward, welcome, but insufficient. A £640 million grant scheme may provide short-term stimulus, especially for British-made models, but it won't fix the structural problems of price, depreciation, and market segmentation. There's a very real risk we're heading toward a two-tier EV transition: one where company fleets and wealthy households lead the charge, while ordinary drivers are left behind. That undermines both climate goals and social equity. If this revolution is truly meant for everyone, then it can't be designed around those who can already afford to participate. The electric future must be one the average person can actually buy into — literally. So yes, £700 million is a big number. But unless it translates into genuine affordability for the mass market, it won't be nearly enough. "Who can afford the electric revolution? The £700m question" was originally created and published by Motor Finance Online, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump's trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family's business
While there, Trump will talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a meeting he's said will take place at 'probably one of my properties.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the president also plans to visit a Trump course near Turnberry, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) away on Scotland's southwest coast. Advertisement Using this week's presidential overseas trip — with its sprawling entourage of advisers, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters — to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family's business interests. The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump's business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters. Advertisement White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a 'working trip.' But she added that Trump 'has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport.' Trump family's new golf course has tee times for sale Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This time, his trip comes as the new golf course is about to debut and is already actively selling tee times. It's not cheap for the president to travel. The helicopters that operate as Marine One when the president is on board cost between $16,700 and nearly $20,000 per hour to operate, according to Pentagon data for fiscal year 2022. The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly. That's not to mention the military cargo aircraft that fly ahead of the president with his armored limousines and other official vehicles. 'We're at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn't seem to see much of a difference,' said Jordan Libowitz, vice president and spokesperson for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 'It's as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.' During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics frameworks for Trump's second term allows them. Trump's assets are in a trust run by his children, who are also handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he's in the White House. The company has inked many recent, lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the administration continues to negotiate tariff rates for those countries and around the globe. Advertisement Trump's first Aberdeen course has sparked legal battles Trump's existing Aberdeenshire course, meanwhile, has a history nearly as rocky as the area's cliffs. It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump's company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government's legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers' views. And the development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals. Trump's company's initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he'd be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged. Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines — a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals. Golfers-in-chief Family financial interests aside, Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to golf in Scotland. That was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played in Turnberry in 1959. George W. Bush visited the famed course at Gleneagles in 2005 but didn't play. Many historians trace golf back to Scotland in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest known references to game was a Scottish Parliament resolution in 1457 that tried to ban it, along with soccer, because of fears both were distracting men from practicing archery — then considered vital to national defense. Advertisement The first U.S. president to golf regularly was William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913 and ignored warnings from his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, that playing too much would make it seem like he wasn't working hard enough. Woodrow Wilson played nearly every day but Sundays, and even had the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could practice in the snow, said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Warren G. Harding trained his dog Laddie Boy to fetch golf balls while he practiced. Lyndon B. Johnson's swing was sometimes described as looking like a man trying to kill a rattlesnake. Bill Clinton, who liked to joke that he was the only president whose game improved while in office, restored a putting green on the White House's South Lawn. It was originally installed by Eisenhower, who was such an avid user that he left cleat marks in the wooden floors of the Oval Office by the door leading out to it. Bush stopped golfing after the start of the Iraq war in 2003 because of the optics. Barack Obama had a golf simulator installed in the White House that Trump upgraded during his first term, Trostel said. John F. Kennedy largely hid his love of the game as president, but he played on Harvard's golf team and nearly made a hole-in-one at California's renowned Cypress Point Golf Club just before the 1960 Democratic National Convention. Advertisement 'I'd say, between President Trump and President John F. Kennedy, those are two of the most skilled golfers we've had in the White House,' Trostel said. Trump, Trostel said, has a handicap index — how many strokes above par a golfer is likely to score — of a very strong 2.5, though he's not posted an official round with the U.S. Golf Association since 2021. That's better than Joe Biden's handicap of 6.7, which also might be outdated, and Obama, who once described his own handicap as an 'honest 13.' The White House described Trump as a championship-level golfer but said he plays with no handicap. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Palestinians are ‘walking corpses' says UN, as Starmer calls starvation ‘unspeakable and indefensible'
Palestinians are beginning to resemble 'walking corpses', a United Nations official said on Thursday as Sir Keir Starmer called the starvation unfolding in Gaza 'unspeakable and indefensible'. Humanitarian workers in the territory are seeing children who are 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without urgent treatment, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency. The prime minister is due to hold an emergency call with France and Germany on Friday to push for aid – and a ceasefire. 'We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,' he said. 'The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen.' Sir Keir's comments came just hours before French president Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognise Palestinian statehood in September at the United Nations General Assembly. The number of people starving in Gaza is reported to have increased dramatically in recent days; most of the 113 hunger-related deaths recorded there so far have occurred in recent weeks, and 82 of those who have died were children, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has imposed heavy restrictions on the amount of food and aid allowed to enter the territory, limiting aid to a handful of trucks each day following an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials say the aid delivered into the strip is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. 'We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay,' Sir Keir said. Mr Lazzarini said a UNRWA worker had described people in Gaza as 'neither dead nor alive – they are walking corpses'. He said the agency has the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt, which have not yet been allowed into the territory. 'Families are no longer coping: they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened,' he said. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians who were attempting to secure food from a limited number of aid trucks. The killings have drawn widespread condemnation, including from many of Israel's own allies. As more than 100 human rights groups and charities demanded in a letter on Wednesday that more aid be allowed in, Palestinians living in Gaza said they had been forced to trade personal items, such as gold jewellery, for flour. 'We are living in hunger and daily suffering, as prices have risen in an insane way that no Gazan citizen, whether employed or unemployed, can bear, in a way that is beyond comprehension,' said Wajih al-Najjar, 70, from Gaza City, the breadwinner for a family of 13. 'People are forced to go to death in search of some aid,' he told The Independent, lamenting the exorbitant price of flour, which he says has shot up from 35 shekels (£7.74) to up to 180 shekels (£39.80) per kilo. Mr Najjar, who has lost one quarter of his bodyweight – dropping from 85kg to 62kg – said he cannot get a full meal for himself. 'So what about children who need food more than three times a day?' he said. Meanwhile, major broadcasters and news agencies, including the BBC and Reuters, issued a joint statement to say that their journalists on the ground in Gaza are also facing the 'threat of starvation'. 'We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,' it read. 'For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. 'Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.' Prices continue to rise beyond control, and food scarcity has soared to an unprecedented level in the Gaza Strip, in the 21st month of a destructive Israeli invasion and bombardment that Palestinian health officials say has killed more than 60,000 people. The war and invasion began on 7 October 2023 in response to attacks perpetrated on Israel by Hamas militants, who killed 1,200 people and captured at least 250 hostages. Ihab Abdullah, a 43-year-old university lecturer who is the breadwinner for nine family members, said that every night before he goes to sleep, he asks: 'How will I provide for my children today? I can bear the hunger, but what about my children?' 'We have become unable to buy or find food in the markets. We live in daily hunger, because the most needed commodity, flour, is not available in sufficient quantities. We are in a situation where we cannot buy food, even if we have money. Those who have money and those who do not have money are the same. Purchasing value has disappeared.' Younis Abu Odeh, a 32-year-old who is displaced in Gaza, says he feels as if Palestinians have been 'put on a chicken farm and starved'. 'We are living through a war of extermination, famine, and psychological warfare,' Mr Odeh told The Independent. 'A war of displacement, a war of tents, a war of heat and sun.' The Israeli government insists it is not causing a famine. Spokesperson David Mencer said that the 'manmade shortage' of food has been 'engineered by Hamas'. Mr Mencer said on Wednesday that more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza between 19 and 22 July, containing food, flour and baby food. The deepening crisis came as Israel brought its delegation home from the Gaza ceasefire talks on Thursday after Hamas delivered a new response to a proposal for a truce and a hostages deal. The Israeli prime minister's office thanked mediators for their efforts and said the negotiators were returning home for 'further consultations'. Earlier it said Israel was reviewing the response from Hamas. In his statement, Sir Keir said: 'It is hard to see a hopeful future in such dark times. But I must reiterate my call for all sides to engage in good faith, and at pace, to bring about an immediate ceasefire, and for Hamas to unconditionally release all hostages. We strongly support the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to secure this. 'We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution, which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.'
