Exclusive: Six tech leaders dined with investment minister, documents reveal, underlining growing influence of ex-PM’s consultancy Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted a private dinner earlier this year at which a select group of technology entrepreneurs were given access to a key minister, official documents have revealed. The former prime minister, who is a champion of the tech industry, held the dinner in an upmarket London hotel in his capacity as the head of the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) political consultancy. Continue reading...

Footballer turned developer questions spate of flag raisings and says ‘we’re all being turned on each other’ Gary Neville has revealed he removed a union flag from one of his Manchester development sites because it was being “used in a negative fashion”, as he urged his followers to question what it means to be patriotic. In a video posted on Friday, the day after a deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue, the former footballer turned property developer said he believed that “we’re all being turned on each other”, attributing much of the blame for the divide to “angry, middle-aged white men … who know exactly what they’re doing”. Continue reading...