The final week of parliament before the summer recess was quieter nonetheless there were still some important announcements. Vince Cable was announced as leader of the Liberal Democrats after no-one stood against him, The BBC announced Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, the Conservatives announced an extra £1.2 billion for schools, banned microbeads in Cosmetics and Atari announced their first games console for 24 years.
Sadly, the first female to win maths most prestigious prize passed away after a battle with cancer, Maryam Mirzakhani was a professor at Stanford University and at just 37-years old, she is a massive loss to the mathematics community.
The UK in brief
Last Sunday night saw a mosque in Manchester suffer a suspected arson attack, with the classroom and prayer rooms gutted by the fire. The police have stated the cause is unknown but suspect that it was arson. The Manchester Nasfat Islamic Centre has been at the centre of anti-Muslim abuse in the past with pig heads thrown inside during prayer time on two occasions and people have urinated outside the building. The secretary, Monsurat Adebanjo-Aremu, said that this was third major fire this year and that it makes them feel unwanted within the community.
The Education Secretary, Justine Greening, announced that an extra £1.3 billion would be put into schools. This come after months of complaints, including from Conservatives MPs, that the ‘funding formula’ was going to cut school budgets by 3%.
Whilst it is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the issue created by the Conservative government as schools face a funding crisis. Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, pointed out that the Conservative Manifesto promised an extra £4 billion but the hadn’t even managed half of this.
The other issue is that the money itself isn’t extra, it is in fact coming from elsewhere in the education budget, this was later admitted by Ms Greening.
The problem is that schools have been cut approximately by £3 billion and school spending per pupil has fallen around 4-5%. A researcher from the independent think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Luke Sibieta, has stated that the extra 2% would not reverse the cuts that have already taken place due to the money coming from savings elsewhere.
michael gove announced in his first speech as Environment minister that the government were to press ahead with their ban on microbeads in cosmetic products. After a public consultation and recommendation from parliament, the ban is a positive step to protecting marine life. This comes after increasing evidence that the tiny plastic particles are a risk to marine life and even human life.
This ban has been hailed by Greenpeace UK but the Marine Conservation Society says the ban should have a wider reach that includes products that could be flushed “down the drain”. The cosmetic industry resisted the calls for the ban to be included on ‘leave-on’ products such as make-up and sunscreen as they would have to reformulate 90% of their products which would be ‘expensive’ and ‘difficult’.
World news
Germany’s patience with Turkey has run out after a Turkish court ordered six human rights activists, including a German trainer, to be arrested. German foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, cut loose two days later and has since proposed rolling back EU economic assistance and suggested his government could stop providing export credit guarantees to companies doing business in Turkey. He also said, “we cannot advise anyone to invest in a country where there is no longer legal certainty and even companies are being accused of supporting terrorists.”
Poland’s right wing authoritarian government have passed a law that puts the country’s judiciary system under the direct control of the justice minister and the president.
They pushed ahead with the reforms despite mass protests and condemnation from the international community. The EU plan to hit them with a September deadline to reverse the changes and they believe they have two possible avenues of infringements to follow.
Law-enforcement agencies have shut down two ‘dark-web’ marketplaces, AlphaBay and Hansa. After news broke that AlphaBay had been taken down, users flocked to Hansa unaware that the site was compromised after authorities took control for a month to gather information about vendors and customers. However, history suggests that other websites will take their places.
Finally, Sean Spicer quit as Donald Trump’s spokesperson in protest to the appointment of Wall Street Financier, Anthony Scaramucci, as communications director. But has since played down the divisions in the White House stating that he has ‘no regrets’ over his 6-month stint in the White House.