In her crucial statement this week, the chancellor would do well to reject the Gradgrind mindset There are two inconvenient if fundamental truths about Britain’s economic and budgetary stasis. The first: Labour’s ceaseless repetition about its terrible legacy has led its army of critics from left and right almost to dismiss the profundity of our economic plight as political staging. Yet a succession of feckless, intellectually bankrupt Conservative governments really did leave a disastrous mess. The second: while there must be a determined response, it must be more than regressing to the Gradg ..read more

A complex corporate network is enabling big landlords to avoid business rates by claiming religious exemption – and costing cash-strapped councils millions The windows are painted over, the woodwork is rotting and weeds have sprouted through the paving outside. The former Duke of York pub in Clapham, south London, is not in the best of shape. It certainly does not look like somewhere used for regular prayer services ..read more

Yisroel Liebb of New Jersey claims pilot broke lock and pulled him out with his pants down, leaving him exposed An Orthodox Jewish passenger says a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to other flyers during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston. Yisroel Liebb, of New Jersey, described his trip through allegedly unfriendly skies in a federal lawsuit this week against the airline and the US Department of Homeland Security, whose officers he said boarded the plane upon landing and took him away in ha ..read more

Keir Starmer has been dealt a fresh blow to his living standards pledge in advance of the spring statement Living standards for all UK families are set to fall by 2030, with those on the lowest incomes declining twice as fast as middle and high earners, according to new data that raises serious questions about Keir Starmer’s pledge to make working people better off. The grim economic analysis, produced by the respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), comes before the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, makes her spring statement on Wednesday in which she will announce new cuts to public spending rath ..read more

Further reductions can only increase disability and child poverty, and further undermine public services Rachel Reeves faces her toughest test yet as chancellor when she delivers the spring statement this Wednesday. In response to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast, which will be published the same day, she is expected to announce further cuts to public spending in several areas, alongside the cuts to disability benefits that the government set out last week. Ministers have spent the past week arguing that these cuts do not technically constitute austerity because they will ..read more

Government says lessons need to be learned after the substation fire that caused chaos for 300,000 passengers The government has launched an urgent investigation into the power shutdown that crippled Heathrow airport, with experts warning it was a “wake-up call” about vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure. The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has commissioned the independent National Energy System Operator (Neso) to investigate the incident and assess the UK’s energy resilience. The regulator Ofgem warned it would “not hesitate” to take action if there were any breaches of stan ..read more

Hopes of growth hang deflated, borrowing takes its toll and spending cuts loom • You can buy a copy of this cartoon ..read more

The co-founder of LinkedIn and Democrat donor remains confident that AI can be good for all of us – if its introduction is handled in the right way Reid Hoffman is a prominent Silicon Valley billionaire entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding the professional social networking site LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft. He’s also staunchly anti-Trump. The longtime Democrat donor threw his support behind Kamala Harris in the race for the White House. Hoffman spoke to the Observer about technology in the new political milieu and his new book about our future with artificial intelligence, Supe ..read more

Could Norman Foster’s £2bn design for the club, which will be seen 25 miles away, turn out to be a case of hubris before ruin? There’s a phenomenon in architectural history whereby great empires build their grandest monuments just before they fall. The Parthenon was completed just before Athens embarked on the devastating Peloponnesian War. Manhattan’s most celebrated skyscrapers went up on the brink of the Great Depression. The British inaugurated the imposing government buildings of New Delhi 16 years before the end of the Raj. I won’t say that this will definitely be the case with the £2bn ..read more

Lionesses in talks over payments for Euro 2025 FA’s offer believed to be lower than other countries England Women are facing another impasse with the Football Association over bonuses, with the squad yet to agree to the terms they have been offered for their European Championship defence this summer. A dispute over bonuses interrupted the Lionesses’ preparations for the World Cup two years ago, with the FA initially refusing to offer performance-related payments after Fifa introduced individual player fees. That led to negotiations being paused on the eve of the tournament after concerns the ..read more