Today’s UK headlines, summarised and analysed.

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Good morning,

Brief overview: The Guardian runs with an exclusive interview with billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Wealthy clients of Appleby face a problem after the Bermuda based law firm was hacked. A Freedom of Information request by the Financial Times reveals the UK loses £5.8bn in corporate tax a year as companies register their profits over seas.

Outside of the headlines: China has freed Gui Minhai, one of the five jailed “Hong Kong booksellers”, although his daughter has been unable to make contact with him. Nicaragua became the 189th nation to sign the Paris climate deal. Twitter brought in new transparency measures; political adds will now be given a purple label.

Poll of the day:

source via YouGov

Cartoon of the day:

The Daily Mail

Owned by: Daily Mail and General Trust, owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere

Editor: Paul Dacre

Political leaning: Right / far right

Daily circulation: circa 1,490,000 (10 million views per month from personal computer and 20 million from mobiles)

Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Drivers used as £1bn cash cows

Police have ‘gone soft’ on serious road crimes, instead choosing to fine drivers committing minor road crimes instead. The Daily Mail states that police are issuing fines for people breaking the law for what it deems to be minor offences: parking, speeding and running red lights. The current statistics show that 12 million penalty notices are handed out a year — equivalent to ‘one every 2.5 seconds’.

Afterthought: The trick here would be to not break the law. Not breaking the law = no fine.

On top of what was already a pretty weak article, it should go without saying that running red lights and speeding are not ‘minor crimes’ because both these acts play a huge part in the high death and injury count drivers cause every year.