Tag: The Observer

At least 200 people have applied to stand as candidates for the new Independent Group if the UK takes part in European elections next month – amid growing signs that the contest could turn into a “proxy referendum” on whether to leave or remain in the EU. The Independent Group’s team of eight former Labour and three former Tory MPs – all strongly pro-Remain and in favour of a second referendum – have applied to the Electoral Commission to register as a party and take part in the elections under the name Change UK – The Independent Group. They believe the May elections across the EU could serve as an ideal and timely electoral launchpad for their fledgling party, and plan to use the slogan #rulemakersnotruletakers. The 11 independent MPs will begin selecting candidates this week. All but four have said they want to carry on. The leader of the Labour MEPs, Richard Corbett, who has put himself forward again, said the elections would be seen as a big opportunity by smaller UK parties from both sides of the Brexit divide. Equally, from the pro-Brexit wing, Ukip and Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party would be hoping to mobile anti-EU feeling and a sense of betrayal that Brexit had not been delivered. Tusk, meanwhile, wants EU leaders to offer at a summit next Wednesday what he has described as a “flextension” in which the UK would be given a year-long extension with an option to come out early if and when a Brexit deal is ratified. Government sources said this could mean that the UK parties take part in campaigning for the European election, but could then pull out as late as 22 May, if parliament were to have agreed a Brexit deal. The Government is determined to work constructively to deliver the Brexit people voted for, and avoid participation in the European Parliamentary elections.”

Leave supporters are losing faith in the Conservatives to lead the Brexit negotiations, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer. With Brexiters in the cabinet also fearing that the issue is being mishandled by Downing Street, the poll showed that only 41% of leave voters trust the Tories most to lead the negotiations – the lowest level since January 2017. Overall, 32% of voters trust the Conservatives most to handle the Brexit negotiations, compared with 21% who think Labour would do a better job. The Conservative lead of 11 points on this issue is the lowest recorded by the pollster so far this year. In terms of overall voting intention, the Conservative lead has been cut to two points from the four-point lead it enjoyed last month. The Tories are on 42% of the vote, with Labour on 40%. May’s lead over Corbyn on who would make the best prime minister has dropped from 13 points to 10 points. The poll shows the public is shifting towards wanting to stay in the EU’s single market. However, the public remain unmoved on whether or not to have a new referendum. Opinium interviewed 2,005 adults online between 5 June and 7 June.

The state’s second district, represented by retiring Republican Frank LoBiondo, is also considered a likely Democratic win this November. This year’s congressional elections have become charged by the #MeToo movement and Trump’s bombastic tenure. It took John Alexander more than nine years to get back the $200 a municipal court judge ordered seized from his personal belongings. Asbury Park Press Read more Could New Jersey Go Back to Paper Ballots? Phil Murphy’s proposed revenue raisers if I were still a legislator. Associated Press Read more Murphy, State Governors Challenge Trump’s Title X Abortion Restrictions President Donald Trump and his administration have received pushback from several Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Phil Murphy, on a move to restrict Title X-funded health providers from referring patients for abortion. Press of Atlantic City Read more Lawmakers Advance Jersey City Payroll Tax Bill A plan to create a 1 percent payroll tax for Jersey City businesses advanced Monday when a state senate committee approved the bill by a party-line vote. NJ.com Read more Editorial: NJ Voting Technology Must Include Paper Record As New Jersey voters go to the polls in this year’s June primary elections, it is sobering to note that the voting machines on which the great majority will be casting their ballots represent “fatally flawed technology” that is in sore need of updating. The Record Read more Editorial: Root Out the Evil in Municipal Court System It has been 71 years since the authors of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution that created the current municipal court system warned about the dangers if the system was left in the hands of locally elected officials.

In December 2015, the Guardian revealed that Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign was using psychological profiles based on data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook users. Facebook attempted to dampen the impact of Wylie’s whistleblowing interviews by publishing its own mea culpa and banning Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group from its platform, hours before publication but two years after the data breach was first reported. The day after Wylie’s bombshell revelations, US congressional investigators from the house intelligence committee asked Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Nix, to testify before Congress. On Sunday 25 March, Wylie spoke about Cambridge Analytica connections to AggregateIQ, a Canadian firm that worked with different leave campaigns in the European referendum. Play Video 1:18 Soon afterwards, US watchdogs filed a legal complaint against Cambridge Analytica with the Federal Election Commission. How academic at centre of Facebook scandal tried – and failed – to spin personal data into gold Read more Vote Leave has repeatedly denied coordination between the campaigns and said the donation was legitimate under election law. Facebook suspended AggregateIQ, a data firm with which the Vote Leave campaign spent 40% of its budget, on 6 April, following reports that it was connected to SCL. That same week, Zuckerberg faced 10 hours of questioning by members of Congress. Nix was summoned to appear before a British parliamentary committee on fake news the following week for questioning over “inconsistencies” in evidence he had given the committee in February, when he claimed: “We do not work with Facebook data, and we do not have Facebook data.” However, on 17 April he cancelled his appearance, citing the ICO’s ongoing investigation into his company. On 2 May, the same day that Cambridge Analytica announced it was going into liquidation, Chris Vickery of the data security firm Upguard gave evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport committee that the Trump campaign had access to psychological profiles derived from Facebook data, that AIQ and Cambridge Analytica were technologically entwined and that illegal co-ordination of data by leave campaigns was “indisputable”.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has piled further pressure on Amber Rudd to resign as home secretary as he launched a devastating attack on her “inhumane treatment” of immigrants in towns and cities across the country. His intervention, in an article in the Observer, comes as millions of voters prepare to go the polls on Thursday in local elections in which Labour hopes to seize flagship Tory councils in London and other urban areas. 'No basis to remain': woman, 63, told she will be removed from UK to Jamaica Read more But allies said that revelations in the Guardian on Friday that Rudd had in fact been informed of specific targets for the removal of immigrants – having been copied in on a detailed six-page memo giving details of them – were the last straw. What the home secretary and prime minister don’t appear to understand is that the Windrush scandal is the direct consequence of their policies and not just another example of the administrative chaos at the Home Office. We know this because they have repeatedly bragged about this for years.” Rudd’s future and controversy over Tory immigration policy look certain to become a central factor in the many high-profile contests in Thursday’s elections. Timeline Amber Rudd's apologies The home secretary has issued five apologies in the last week – four of them over her department's handling of the Windrush crisis and immigration targets. 26 April 2018 On Thursday afternoon, Rudd was forced to issue a hasty clarification after appearing to leave the door open to the UK staying in a customs union with the EU. 27 April 2018 In a series of late-night tweets, Rudd apologised for not being aware of documents, leaked to the Guardian, which set out immigration removal targets. ‘I wasn’t aware of specific removal targets. I didn’t see the leaked document, although it was copied to my office as many documents are."

A pro-Trump advocacy group controlled by Ms. Mercer has gone silent following strategic disputes between her and other top donors. Through a spokeswoman, Ms. Mercer declined to answer questions about her role in Mr. Trump’s circle or the Facebook meeting about Cambridge Analytica. Mr. Michelsen met informally with a Facebook acquaintance who was accompanied by a Facebook lawyer, according to a person briefed on the meeting, and both Cambridge Analytica and the Mercers were discussed. Ms. Mercer declined to say whether she and Mr. Michelsen had discussed the purpose of the meeting or whether he had briefed her on it afterward. The family has also donated $4.5 million to Republican candidates and super PACs during the 2018 election cycle, putting the Mercers among the top 20 donors in the country. That grant, the Mercer foundation’s first recorded contribution to DonorsTrust, could herald a shift in the family’s philanthropic strategy. The donor records a contribution to DonorsTrust and recommends potential recipients, while grantees receive a donation from DonorsTrust charitable vehicles. Public records show that Ms. Mercer, her sister Jennifer and Mr. Nix serve as directors of Emerdata, a British data company formed in August by top executives at Cambridge Analytica and its affiliate, SCL Group, according to British corporate records. Mr. Ko, who declined to comment, is a substantial shareholder and deputy chairman in Mr. Prince’s Africa-focused logistics company, Frontier Services Group. Emerdata has a second Hong Kong-based director, Peng Cheng.

It appears to have a centrist policy platform that borrows ideas from both left and right. | Andrew Rawnsley Read more Senior figures from the worlds of business and charity are understood to be involved, as well as former supporters of the main parties, including a number of former Tory donors. Some form of political movement could be launched later this year. While figures from across the political spectrum are said to be involved in Franks’s project, much of its policy platform appears to be aimed mainly at a liberal, centre-left audience. A source said some Brexit supporters are involved. However, there are plans to reach out to MPs deemed to meet its non-partisan approach. The formation of a new party could represent a challenge to both the Lib Dems, who remain in the doldrums, and Labour, which is divided over Corbyn’s leadership and has been plagued by accusations of antisemitism by some members. What is said to unite those involved is a frustration with current party politics and the short-termism of professional politicians. It remains unclear how they intend to navigate Britain’s “first past the post” electoral system. It formed part of a liberal alliance that secured 7.8m votes at the 1983 election, but ended up with just 23 seats.

In an interview with the Observer, Starmer said: “At the end of last year, the EU and UK government made a political agreement that there would be no hard border in Northern Ireland. “However, the content of the withdrawal agreement is not legally binding. Labour’s attempt to work with other parties reflects a genuine fear that negotiations on Brexit could founder on the border issues, leaving the future of cross-border trade in doubt. Don’t let the Brexiters turn Ireland into a new Cyprus | Andrew Adonis Read more Starmer said there had been signs that the government had been backsliding on its commitment to having no infrastructure on the border because it could not find another solution, other than remaining in a customs union, which Tory MPs will not accept. As a result, it was vital to hold it to its word to prevent what would be a disastrous economic and political outcome and a threat to peace. “You need to do this on a cross-party basis,” said one prominent Labour MP. “Tory MPs will be reluctant to defeat the government by backing a Labour amendment. They would not do it because they would be accused of working to put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.” While the EU signed off last week on plans for a 21-month transition period after Brexit day on 29 March next year – during which Britain will remain effectively in the EU – the main sticking point on a final deal remains the unsolved problem of the Irish border. May has said there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. But she has come up with no clear or convincing plan about how to prevent the flow of goods from Northern Ireland into the Republic and vice versa, once the UK is outside the customs union and single market.

The claims that Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from millions of Facebook profiles to target voters in the US general election in 2016 raises tough questions for both companies. In what appeared to be a damage limitation exercise, the social network preempted the stories that appeared in the Observer and the New York Times over the weekend by banning the political strategy company from its platform while it investigated the claims. But this goes much deeper than that. Facebook’s 2.2bn active users might well wonder, how safe is their personal data? And is Facebook doing enough to secure it? ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower Read more And why did Facebook only react on Friday, when it must have known there was a potential problem many months, if not years, ago. In August 2016, it sent a legal letter to Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, asking him to destroy any data he held that had been improperly collected. More troubling still is the apparent lack of any systematic response to ensure the same type of breach does not happen again. What are the Cambridge Analytica Files? Facebook may also find its users asking uncomfortable questions about the social network’s own use of data.

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele on Friday blasted a comment from a Conservative Political Action Conference spokesman in which the CPAC official said that the RNC picked Steele to lead the party because "he was a black guy." "I wanted to talk to [CPAC chair] Matt Schlapp first, but I think it’s painfully stupid what he said," Steele told the Observer when asked about a remark CPAC communications director Ian Walters made at a dinner during the conference. "If he feels that way I’d like him to come say that to my face," Steele added. "And then I’d like him to look at my record and see what I did. I can’t believe an official of CPAC would go onstage in front of an audience and say something like that. I’ve been a strong supporter of CPAC for many years and I thought they raised them better than that here." In a speech at CPAC's Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday, Walters reportedly criticized Republican thinking surrounding the decision to pick Steele to lead the RNC. Walters did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on Friday night. Steele told the Observer that Walters's comment "shows a lack of maturity and a lack of understanding of the work we did and the work we continue to do." Steele, who led the RNC from 2009 until 2011, has spoken critically of President Trump in the past, including on Friday, when he blasted Trump's proposal to arm trained teachers on school campuses as "delusional."