The G7, whose foreign and development ministers met this week in London, published a famine prevention and humanitarian crises compact – a call to action in recognition of the situation.
The Global Report on Food Crisis, published this week, showed the number of people in need of urgent support was the highest in the report’s five-year history, and that 155 million people are facing food shortages.
Save the Children’s analysis, which applied confirmed aid cuts in Africa and Asia to funding for basic nutrition programmes, combined with known cuts to nutrition funding in other countries, suggests UK assistance here may be cut in half from 2019. In humanitarian settings, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funding to nutrition was £396m in 2019 and estimated to be £218m in 2021, a 45% cut. UK aid funding to basic nutrition was £122m in 2019, £111m in 2020 and £26m in 2021, an 80% cut, it said.
Role call: the former ministers who found private sector jobs Rob Davies and Georgina Quach
David Cameron’s lobbying efforts on behalf of his employer Greensill Capital have shone a spotlight on the often lucrative corporate work on offer to former cabinet members and junior ministers with valuable experience of government and a bulging contacts book.
While the former prime minister’s overtures to serving ministers are unusual in that they prompted an unprecedented formal inquiry, there is nothing new about senior politicians taking private sector jobs after they leave office. Indeed, some of Cameron’s closest allies and cabinet appointees have been among the most enthusiastic corporate jobseekers.
Dame Cheryl Gillan, Welsh Secretary under David Cameron and staunch opponent of HS2 – obituary
She campaigned to protect the Chilterns against HS2 and housing development and in 2019 announced Boris Johnson s Tory leadership victory
5 April 2021 • 4:16pm
Cheryl Gillan with her dog Tizzy after he was voted Westminster Dog of the Year in 1996
Credit: Brian Smith
Dame Cheryl Gillan, who has died aged 68, was a combative Conservative MP who was Welsh Secretary in David Cameron’s Coalition, but made a greater impact campaigning against the HS2 high-speed railway being driven through her Chesham & Amersham constituency.
She was a forceful personality in the Commons, seen by some as overbearing and often rebuked by the Chair for raising bogus points of order. She was also the first woman to turn out for the Lords & Commons cricket team, having been a useful all-rounder at Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
5 Apr 2021 at 17:12
I was and am proud to call Cheryl Gillan a friend. I was so sad to learn this afternoon that she had died. She had been in poor health for some time and had been devastated by the death of her beloved husband Jack Leeming at the age of 91 in 2019. She was absolutely devoted to him and cared for him lovingly in his latter years. They were a real team. He might have been older than her but they were so well matched.
I first met Cheryl in the mid 1980s when she interviewed me to be a member of the Bow Group, back in the days when it was highly respected. They didn t accept any old rif-raff! Then after she was elected we met occasionally, but it was in 2005 that our friendship blossomed. She was on David Davis s Shadow Home Affairs team and a key supporter of his in the leadership contest. She was what one call a real trooper. There were a few big egos in that team and she would delight in puncturing them. She was happy to accept any task for the team no matter how
7 Mar 2021 at 16:29
Last week I did an interview with Justine Greening for her podcast, Fit for Purpose, which you can listen to here.
They ve transcribed some of it. Enjoy!
Iain Dale Podcast
Political commentator, broadcaster, author and podcaster Iain Dale talks to us about doing his dream job, feeling out of place in the world of politics and the best piece of advice he’s ever been given.
Q// Are you doing your dream job?
A// I am doing my dream job. When you work for a commercial station (LBC), you constantly get asked whether you would rather work for the BBC. I always say no because I couldn’t do what I do on the BBC - I do three hours with no script whatsoever, I’m the editor of my own programme so I decide what we’re going to do along with my producers and we don’t very often disagree on anything.