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Does political pressure shape pandemic decisions? – BBC News

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The Scottish government has reiterated plans to lift Covid-19 restrictions in the coming weeks despite a spike in cases. What political pressure are ministers under, and how has it shaped decision-making throughout the pandemic?

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Scotland’s exit from lockdown appears to be following the same pattern as much of the rest of the pandemic.

The rhetoric from politicians in Edinburgh is notably more cautious than that of their counterparts in London, but ultimately they are all traveling on the same path.

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There is an extra set of steps on the Scottish route – moving to level zero on England’s “freedom day” of 19 July, before scrapping most legal restrictions three weeks later – but the destination and determination to reach it are the same.

Scottish ministers may not use words like “irreversible” or “guarantee” in the rather more flamboyant style of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but they still bat away any notion of a delay or change of plans.

Listen to whoever is sent out to do the latest round of interviews, and they generally find a way to glide smoothly past questions about pressing the brakes again.

This seems a curious thing on the surface – why would a government which has cultivated a reputation for caution wave away the record case numbers which have left Scotland dominating the Euros in the worst way?

The answer is the same as it has been since the world turned upside down in March 2020. Politicians face a fiendishly complex situation, a minefield of competing harms, priorities and uncertainties.

And for a number of reasons, it makes sense for governments across the UK to pick their way through this minefield along a similar path.

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To start with, the virus is a unifying factor – it has no interest in borders, and scientific advice has been broadly similar wherever you live.

Leaders are loathe to stray far from the twin totems of The Science and The Data, especially given the prominent role of advisers and clinicians in fielding questions and communicating strategy.

On the political side, parts of the pandemic response have been run from Westminster because they sit in reserved areas – things like border control and the furlough scheme. The vaccine programme – the biggest factor in the current move away from restrictions – is also a UK-wide success story.

And for all the differences in style and presentation, the big decisions under devolved control have mostly gone the same way north and south of the border – from stay-at-home orders to care homes and Christmas.

This is not to undersell the value of good presentation, incidentally. Particularly in the early days of the pandemic, clear and consistent messaging was one of the most important elements in guiding the public through a fast-changing and frankly scary situation.

It’s also not to suggest that anyone has been taking decisions on the basis of anything other than what they genuinely think is best for the country (the bad news for political partisans is that if you accept this is the case for one government, it necessarily also applies to others which take exactly the same actions).

It is however much easier to pitch a message – particularly one as nuanced as the spiderweb of rules and regulations we have lived under for a year-and-a-half – when it chimes across the political spectrum.

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There is a measure of political cover in acting together. Before the inquiries have even begun, we have already heard former Health Secretary Matt Hancock defend the discharge of patients from English hospitals into care homes by essentially saying “well the Scottish government did it too”. Nicola Sturgeon also frequently points to the fact governments the world over are wrestling with similar issues.

And equally when administrations do dare to take diverging paths, it sparks immediate questions. Why can people in Carlisle have X when folk in Gretna are stuck with Y?

The pattern is perhaps reinforced by the fact that opposition parties are in a similar bind.

The major parties are in government in other parts of the UK, and thus need to have one eye on decisions made elsewhere before castigating ministers here for doing the same. Even the opposition are locked into a “four nation” approach of sorts.

The Conservatives are keen to make hay about Scotland’s record-high case rates, but given SNP ministers are treading broadly the same path as those in Whitehall they have to do so without demanding much in the way of change.

Labour meanwhile is in charge in Wales, where ministers have not yet set any dates but are making very familiar noises about the weakening link between infections and serious illness.

If opposition MSPs were to suggest a completely radical approach, it would raise questions about why their colleagues, who are actually in charge of something, don’t agree.

They also have fewer opportunities to set out their own stalls at the moment, given Holyrood is in recess until September – only reconvening for two virtual sessions at major decision-making junctures.

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By late summer, it seems likely that any differences between the few remaining restrictions in Scotland and England may be largely cosmetic.

However, it is unclear whether they will be required by law, or if it will simply be a matter of guidance – and thus effectively the same as the arrangement in England.

Remember that when the face mask regulations were introduced, it was clear that there was not going to be a huge wave of enforcement. The idea was that putting the guidance into law underlined to people that it was a serious matter, encouraging more to comply – which they did, overnight, without the need for fines to be dished out en masse.

The big question is whether the post-pandemic landscape will be defined in the same way as the response to the immediate crisis. Will all corners of the UK seek to build back from Covid in the same way, or will different visions take hold?

Many of the same calculations will come into play – we have already heard questions about parity between NHS pay deals in different areas, and rows over when UK-wide schemes like furlough are phased out.

But the Scottish government clearly has designs on a very different future north of the border, given its plans for an independence referendum. In that sense, divergence from the UK is the SNP’s core policy.

That said, one similarity remains – how far those plans are progressed in the year to come may depend heavily on the state of the pandemic, and relations between the governments in Edinburgh and London.

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump – CNN

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David shares how he feels about former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Watch the full episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” streaming March 29 on Max.


03:21

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Trump's claims on crime rates clash with police data – NBC News

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Surging crime levels, out-of-control Democratic cities and “migrant crime.”

Former President Donald Trump regularly cites all three at his campaign rallies, in news releases and on Truth Social, often saying President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame.

But the crime picture Trump paints contrasts sharply with years of police and government data at both the local and national levels.

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FBI statistics released this year suggested a steep drop in crime across the country last year. It’s a similar story across major cities, with violent crime down year over year in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

NBC News analyzed crime data to evaluate Trump’s assertions about the topic.

U.S. and big city crime rates

Trump’s campaign often refers to crime levels, regularly pointing the finger at Biden.

“On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed in virtually every American city,” the campaign said in a news release published this month on its site.

Trump himself has made similar remarks.

“Four years ago, I told you that if crooked Joe Biden got to the White House, our borders would be abolished, our middle class would be decimated and our communities would be plagued by bloodshed, chaos and violent crime,” Trump said in a speech last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “We were right about everything.”

Government figures don’t support that characterization.

Reported violent crime dropped 6% across the board when comparing the last three months of 2022 to the same period in 2023, the FBI reported.

The reported drops were especially pronounced in the big cities that Trump often assails, many of which have Democratic mayors. Violent crime dropped by 11% in cities with populations of 1 million or more, according to FBI data, while murders dropped by 20%, rape was down 16%, and aggravated assault fell by 11%.

Reached for comment, the Trump campaign pointed to other reports indicating that certain types of crimes increased in specific cities.

At the national level, the reported rate of violent crime in 2022, the most recent full year with comprehensive FBI data, was 380.7 offenses per 100,000 people. That’s lower than the overall reported violent crime rate from 2020 — the last full year Trump was in office — when the figure was at 398.5.

The lowest reported violent crime rate of Trump’s presidency was in 2019, when the metric was at 380.8 — in line with the 2022 rate.

The FBI said it will release more comprehensive 2023 crime data in October, just before the election.

The Trump campaign, reached for comment, cited certain categories of violent crime, such as motor vehicle theft, as having increased during the Biden administration, according to FBI figures.

“Joe Biden is trying to convince Americans not to believe their own eyes,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, adding that “Democrats have turned great American cities into cesspools of bloodshed and crime.”

New York City crime

Trump, who was born and raised in New York but now lives in Florida, often rails against what he portrays as an increasing crime rate in his former hometown.

Those references to soaring violence have only increased as he faces criminal charges in New York accusing him of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty in that case, must also post a $175 million bond to prevent state Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the judgment from a New York civil fraud case.

“I did nothing wrong, and New York should never be put in a position like this again,” Trump posted on Truth Social about the civil judgment in all capital letters. “Businesses are fleeing, violent crime is flourishing, and it is very important that this be resolved in its totality as soon as possible.”

In a separate post, he claimed that “murders & violent crime hit unimaginable records” in the city.

However, major crimes in New York City are down this year by 2.3%, according to police department data comparing year-to-date figures to the same period in 2023.

Those figures for last year were also far below the highs from recent decades. In 1990, more than 527,000 major crimes were reported, compared to more than 126,000 last year, according to New York police data — a drop of more than 75%.

In 2001, more than 162,000 major crimes were reported in New York. The figure dropped by more than 20% over the next two decades.

At the same time, New York City data indicates that the number of major crimes increased in the past few years, though reported violent crimes like murder and rape were down last year from previous years.

‘Migrant crime’

Trump’s dehumanizing language about migrants has become a mainstay of his political speeches since he first sought office in 2015.

In a news release this month, his campaign said the “border Crisis has created a tragic surge in violent crime against innocent American citizens at the hands of some of the world’s most violent criminals.”

Trump has also focused his energy on high-profile cases such as the death of Laken Riley, who was killed in Georgia while jogging. The suspect is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022.

“Every day, innocent citizens are being killed, stabbed, shot, raped and murdered because of Biden migrant crime,” Trump said in a video posted to his campaign’s X account last week.

However, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the U.S., according to local police department data.

Crime reports have decreased in several major cities targeted by Texas’ Operation Lone Star, a program backed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that flies or buses migrants from the state to Democratic-run cities across the U.S.

Several of those cities — New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia — have had decreases in year-to-date reported crime totals compared to the same period last year.


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Federal government promising a 'renters' bill of rights' in upcoming budget – CBC.ca

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will introduce new measures — including a new “bill of rights” — that he says will help protect those who rent their homes as part of the upcoming budget.

Trudeau said the new measures are specifically geared toward younger people, who are renting more than previous generations.

“It’s about changing the rules of the game in a way that meets young people where they are,” he said on Wednesday.

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Ottawa will work with provinces and territories to develop a “renters’ bill of rights” that would introduce a national standard lease agreement and implement requirements for landlords to disclose an apartment’s pricing history to allow tenants to negotiate their rent.

The new measures will also include a $15-million fund for provincial legal aid organizations that help tenants fight against “renovictions” and landlord abuse.

The Liberals are also proposing to change federal rules so that making rental payments on time will count toward someone’s credit scores, something Trudeau said is meant to help renters looking to one day buy a house.

“If you look at someone who pays a $2,000 [per month] mortgage, they’re getting recognition and credit for that from their bank as part of their credit score,” the prime minister said.

“But if you’re paying $2,000 a month on rent, you get no kudos.”

Typically the government doesn’t discuss what is in an annual budget until it is introduced in the House of Commons. But the announcement was made weeks prior to the release of the Liberals’ next budget, which is slated to drop on April 16.

Releasing tidbits from the budget ahead of time is part of a new communications strategy for the Liberals, sources told CBC News. Trudeau and his ministers are expected to make a number of similar announcements in the run-up to the budget, the sources said.

WATCH | Trudeau says new measures aim to help tenants: 

Liberals promise ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to fight housing crisis

5 hours ago

Duration 2:07

The Liberals are looking to create a ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to help deal with Canada’s housing crisis. Justin Trudeau says the plan is geared toward younger people suffering from a rising cost of living. The Conservatives call the measures meaningless.

Before revealing the planned rental measures on Wednesday, Trudeau took a moment to plug the April 16 fiscal plan, saying that the budget will be about “fairness.”

“For Canada to succeed, we need everyone to succeed,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined Trudeau for his announcement and hinted about further announcements ahead of budget day.

“Over the coming days and in the April budget, we are going to launch a no-holds-barred plan to wrestle down the cost of owning and renting a home,” she said.

Wednesday’s announcements came on the same day that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a report that found a surge in new apartment construction drove housing start increases in several major Canadian cities last year.

But the report also cautions that demand continues to outweigh supply.

The opposition Conservatives, who have enjoyed a healthy lead in recent polls, have made housing — and other cost-of-living issues — a key point of attack against the governing Liberals.

Following his announcement, Trudeau was asked whether he thinks he bears any responsibility for people feeling left behind in the current economy and whether the new measures would be enough to convince younger people to support him in the next election.

In response, Trudeau suggested that a recent rise in the cost of living is not unique to Canada.

“Young people who are key to our present, and obviously key to our future, are seeing a system that is stacked against them. That’s true in Canada but also true elsewhere around the world,” he said. “What we’re focused on now is making sure that young people can see their success in the economy.”

Opposition parties criticize Liberal announcement

Scott Aitchison, the Conservative housing critic, said Wednesday’s announcement was Liberal posturing that won’t get results.

“Today’s photo op is just another set of meaningless measures that won’t result in building the homes Canadians need,” he said in a statement.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan criticized the announcement for not going far enough.

“The Liberals are so out of touch with what Canadian renters are experiencing that they keep offering half-measures instead of a real action,” Kwan said in a statement.

The NDP is calling on the government to invest more in affordable housing while temporarily preventing for-profit firms from buying designated affordable-housing spaces.

WATCH | Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget: 

Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget

9 hours ago

Duration 11:39

The Liberal government unveiled three new proposals Wednesday to better protect renters in Canada. Power & Politics speaks to Marci Ien, minister of women, gender equality and youth, about the proposed protections.

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