NEW: Wes Streeting has issued a private ultimatum to pharmaceutical companies to accept the government’s latest offer on drug pricing by Friday or he will publicly end the talks, raising the stakes in negotiations over how much the NHS should pay for treatments. With @hannahkuchler.bsky.social
NEW: Several councils run by Reform UK have resisted efforts by the party’s Elon Musk-style “Doge” unit to access personal and commercially sensitive data, slowing the progress of the highly controversial cost-cutting drive.
A supercomputer at Edinburgh university is set to receive £750mn as part of Wednesday’s spending review, reversing a contentious decision to suspend funding made in the early days of Sir Keir Starmer’s government
SCOOP: A supercomputer at Edinburgh university is set to receive £750mn as part of Wednesday’s spending review, reversing a contentious decision to suspend funding made in the early days of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
NEW: Ministers are considering a softening of their contentious welfare reforms that could allow up to 200,000 people to keep their disability benefits, as the government seeks to stave off a backbench rebellion.
NEW: England’s drug approval body has resisted pressure from pharmaceutical companies to loosen its process for recommending drugs and is pressing instead for the NHS to speed up the rollout of approved medicines.
NEW: Senior figures around Reform UK have drawn up plans for a think-tank called RESOLUTE 1850 that aims to attract Maga donors from America, according to a 17-slide presentation leaked to me
NEW: Elon Musk has expressed an interest in backing an alternative to Reform UK, following a spat that erupted last week between Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe, sources tell me 1/5
Very reassuring to see traditional conservatives like Jeb Bush and David Cameron getting their priorities straight in these dangerous times. Oh wait. www.ft.com/content/9fab...
After the AfD's surge on Sunday, far right parties are the most voted-for of any grouping in Europe, for the first time in history: www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID.
This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.
What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.
Elon Musk: "We will make mistakes. We won't be perfect ... so for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was ebola prevention."
NEW: Wes Streeting plans to ask employers to invest in vaccinations and medical check-ups for staff as he looks to reduce ballooning government spending on hospital care.
