New emergency support scheme will give cash to low-income households – and you don’t even need to be on benefits

New emergency support scheme will give cash to low-income households – and you don’t even need to be on benefits

TAXPAYERS will cover millions of households' emergency expenses, including boiler breakdowns and working pattern changes, under a benefits shake-up. Councils have been told to give families in need cash payments rather than vouchers, to protect their "dignity" and allow them to spend their money how they like. Households don't need to qualify for benefits to...

Mystic Nigel has seen the future: a country run by his cabinet of taxidermied Tories | Marina Hyde

Mystic Nigel has seen the future: a country run by his cabinet of taxidermied Tories | Marina Hyde

By welcoming ‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick into the fold, the Reform seer is embracing the uniparty chaos he claimed to be seeing off Like a 1970s rust-belt serial killer, Nigel Farage is painstakingly assembling around him the political corpses of Boris Johnson’s final, terrible cabinet. Think about it. You never see Reform’s defectors after the initial unveiling press conference, and I’m beginning to wonder what happens to them. I think Nigel amateurishly embalms them or stuffs them with horsehair and sackcloth, then seats them round a “cabinet” table in his cellar, where they all silently agree with him at all times, and never interrupt him. But look, I’m prepared to consider more outlandish fan theories too, particularly after the sheer farce of Robert Jenrick’s defection on Thursday. If Nigel’s sloppy-seconding carries on at this rate, the Reform/Conservative party differentiation is going to feel a lot like it did when Bucks Fizz factionalised and split, then mounted rival tours of the UK. Neither music nor the United Kingdom was the beneficiary. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...