British PM Theresa May’s key adviser quits over Brexit

One of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s key advisers, Lord Andrew Adonis, has announced he is quitting his role, describing Brexit as a “populist and nationalist spasm”. Adonis, who was appointed as her infrastructure adviser in 2015, said May was “pursuing a course fraught with danger” over the UK’s EU departure, the BBC reported.

Lord Andrew Adonis, later insisted it had been his decision to leave, as his “differences with the government had become too great”. (Photo: Reuters)

The one-time Secretary of State in Tony Blair’s Labour government resigned as chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. He was already a high-profile campaigner against Brexit. A government source said: “He’s been moving closer towards the exit door with each new onslaught he makes against Brexit. He’s now walked through the door before he was pushed.”

Adonis later insisted it had been his decision to leave, as his “differences with the government had become too great”. In his letter to 10 Downing Street, Adonis, who would now sit in the unelected House of Lords, told May: “The European Union Withdrawal Bill is the worst legislation of my lifetime.

“It arrives soon in the House of Lords and I feel duty-bound to oppose it relentlessly from the Labour benches.” He told May her government “is hurtling towards the EU’s emergency exit with no credible plan for the future of British trade and European cooperation”.

He also claimed that Brexit was causing a nervous breakdown across Whitehall, Xinhua news agency reported. He said: “If Brexit happens, taking us back into Europe will become the mission of our children’s generation, who will marvel at your acts of destruction.”

There was no immediate official response from 10, Downing Street. Leading Brexiteer, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said the departure of Adonis was “long overdue”.

Comments

Australia spends over $8 billion in four years on US-made weapons

Australian government has spent more than billion on weapons and military equipment from the US in the past four years.(In Picture: Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull) The Australian government has spent more than $8 billion on weapons and military equipment from the US in the past four years, a report has found. More than half of the money was spent on Information Technology (IT), telecommunication, broadcasting, engineering and research contracts, Xinhua news agency reported. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) analysis, released on Thursday, found that from 2012-13 through 2016-17, $8.01 billion were spent by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) on US Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The sales were administered by the US Department of Defence which has responsibility over the transfer of American equipment and weapons. Andrew Davies, a defence expert from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), said the figure was not surprising considering technological advance

Queen's message hails terror-hit London and Manchester

The Queen will pay tribute to London and Manchester in her Christmas Day broadcast for the way in which they dealt with this year's terror attacks. Looking back over the events of 2017, the Queen says both cities' "powerful identities" had "shone through". The Queen will also praise the Duke of Edinburgh for his support, in the year of their 70th wedding anniversary. She will spend the day at Sandringham with the Royal Family, including Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle. It will be the first time someone who is yet to marry into the Royal Family will have joined its Christmas celebrations. What's a royal Christmas like? Meghan Markle to spend Christmas with Queen In pictures: 70 years of royal marriage The Queen was absent from last year's Christmas morning service at the estate in Norfolk because of a heavy cold. Theme of home The Queen recorded this year's Christmas message to the Commonwealth a few days ago

Heat wave leaves thousands of Australian homes without power

Crews worked through the night to restore power, but some homes were likely to remain affected until Monday evening, United Energy, majority-owned by Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure Holdings, said. (Representational photo) More than 10,000 homes in Australia’s second most populous state were stuck without power on Monday as a surge in demand amid scorching heat overloaded the grid, in the latest blow to the nation’s stretched power sector. The outages on distribution networks, which hit more than 50,000 homes on Sunday, came less than a year after Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, was hit by blackouts during a heatwave, and 16 months after a state-wide outage in South Australia. The latest blackouts, however, were caused by grid failures, rather than supply shortages, which had sparked a national debate over the nation’s rush to adopt renewable energy at the expense of coal-fired generation. Temperatures topped 40 degrees C (104°F) over the weekend in the state of Victoria,

I GLOBAL NEWZ

Search This Blog