Hello from The National.
Here are this week’s most compelling and exclusive stories from the UK and Europe.
BIG PICTURE
Reboot UK
As the UK plods along under the inevitability of a 2024 general election, more than a few people are asking if that plodding is not precisely the problem.
This week our City of London columnist Chris Blackhurst points out the lack of follow-through when a scandal is exposed, such as the Infected Blood affair or the Post Office debacle.
Yes, a familiar pattern plays out but has a watershed been reached?
There’s the incident, outrage, appointment of a senior judge to preside over an inquiry, a drawn-out interrogation, publication of their report with a series of recommendations, acceptance by the government of the day of their findings, and expressions of contrition all round.
The report is shelved, little happens, the next disgraceful incident breaks out and the whole palaver is repeated.
Nothing changes. No heads roll. Those who were responsible for this latest stain on the national psyche have long since left the stage. No prosecutions are brought.
Monetary compensation is offered – and often, that only creates a separate row as to whether it’s enough and how it should be awarded.
As Wednesday plays out, the blood scandal that has dominated the week is fading.
The government has its best shot of electoral survival to concentrate on. Inflation has fallen closer to the two per cent threshold - from 3.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent in figures just announced. It is the economy, stupid.
Financial analysts often talk about places like Australia being at the whim of a commodities super-cycle. Increasingly I wonder if a variant of that is true of the UK – the finance world.
Britain's financial services companies and related professions paid a record £110.2 billion ($140.12 billion) in tax last year, enough to cover the government's entire annual education budget.
According to PwC's figures, the financial services sector alone contributed about £79.3 billion and the related professional services sector added another £30.9 billion, record figures for both sectors.
The overall figure represents 12.3 per cent of the total tax receipts received by the government, and is equal to about £1,643 a person in the UK.
Payroll levies from financial firms were 14 per cent of all employment taxes in the 2022-2023 financial year.
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Assad or Syria
The trial of three Syrian security officials accused of involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes opened in France on Tuesday.
The intelligence officers – Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan, former director of the Air Force intelligence service, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former head of investigations for the service in Damascus – will be tried in their absence.
Lawyers hope the verdict serves as a warning against efforts to restore ties with President Bashar Al Assad's government after 13 years of civil war. The four-day hearing is taking place at the Paris Criminal Court.
“It's the first time that such high-ranking officials are judged,” said lawyer Clemence Bectarte.
The lawyer represents Obeida Dabbagh, who filed a complaint in France eight years ago and requested an investigation into the November 2013 arrest of his brother Mazzen and nephew Patrick at their home in Damascusand subsequent death in detention.
The death certificates were issued in August 2018, stating that the father and son died in 2014 and 2017. Their bodies were never returned.
Their grim fate is “emblematic of the fate of thousands of other Syrians”, said Ms Bectarte.
Driving upheaval
A structural shift in the world's economy is powering dramatic trends towards regionalisation and away from globalisation.
That is the finding of a report laying bare the scope of the shake-up facing businesses.
The Future of Trade: Decouple and Reconfigured by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre said heightened geopolitical tensions and economic risks have meant trade is increasingly focusing on the regional rather than the global.
As a result, supply chains are resetting as companies “prioritise reliability and security over cost”.
“Regionalisation is the new reality driven by geopolitics,” said Dr Hamad Buamim, chairman of the board at DMCC told The National.
Introducing the report, which is a compilation of interviews with more than 150 business leaders, experts and trade specialists as well as data analysis, DMCC's chief executive and executive chairman, Sultan bin Sulayem said that “geopolitics and macroeconomic uncertainty are driving the formation of new trade hubs and corridors, restructuring supply chains in the process”.
“Global trade is going through a period of profound change and with it a new range of opportunities for businesses.”
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Norway recognises Palestine
This morning, Norway has recognised the state of Palestine in a highly symbolic move that is expected to be followed by Ireland and possibly other countries later in the day.
"The Norwegian Government has decided that Norway will recognise Palestine as a state," said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in a statement.
"In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security."
Norway’s formal recognition of Palestine as a state will enter into force on May 28. "A number of other likeminded European countries will also formally recognise Palestine on that same date," said Mr Store.
The recognition of Palestinian statehood by a number of Western countries comes eight months after the start of the Israeli military operation following the Hamas-led incursions into Israel that killed around 1,200 people and has led to a death toll above 35,000 in Gaza.
Most Western countries have so far not recognised a Palestinian state and said that it can only take place as part of peace negotiations with Israel, effectively granting Israel a veto power.
Those who defend recognition say that it will bring more security to the entire region.
"So many countries in the West say they support a two-state solution but only recognise one [Israel], so there's a contradiction," said Haizam Amirah-Fernandez, professor of international relations at IE University in Madrid.
"Successive Netanyahu governments have tried to prevent any possible negotiation and claim there is no way of establishing a Palestinian state. That is what led us to October 7 and its aftermath," Mr Amirah-Fernandez told The National.
OTHER STORIES THIS WEEK
| Islamic design forms centrepiece of Chelsea Flower Show garden | |
| What is turbulence and why is it getting worse? | |
| Why starvation is at the core of the ICC's allegations against Israeli officials |
