violence between the two sides. nearly 170,000 tonnes of grain and sunflower oil leaves on a second convoy of ships out of ukaine after russia s blockade caused global shortages. in the uk, liz truss promises a cut in national insurance, within weeks, if she wins the conservative party leadership race. her rival rishi sunak disagrees and says he wants to give more direct help to those hardest hit by inflation. taiwan accuses china of practising for an invasion of its island after beijing expressed fury over us house speaker, nancy pelosi s visit to taipei. now on bbc news dateline london with shaun ley. hello, and welcome to the programme in which leading uk columnists discuss the week s news with foreign correspondents who write, blog, podcast, and broadcast to audiences in their home countries from the dateline: london. 18 months after margaret thatcher first became prime minister, underfire even in her own party as half a million more people lost theirjobs and facing calls
now on bbc news, dateline london with shaun ley. hello, and welcome to the programme in which leading uk columnists discuss the week s news with foreign correspondents who write, blog, podcast, and broadcast to audiences in their home countries from the dateline: london. 18 months after margaret thatcher first became prime minister, underfire even in her own party as half a million more people lost theirjobs and facing calls for a policy u turn, she delivered a speech that still defines her you turn if you want to, the lady s not for turning . this week, the woman who would be her successor u turned. america s third lady, nancy pelosi, did not, going ahead with a visit to taiwan, despite chinese warnings beforehand and missiles after. nor did the bank of england u turn, going ahead with the half point rise in interest rates. the governor had said the bank was minded to impose the largest single hike in a quarter of a century. here to discuss all that are marc roche, an e
you turn if you want to, the lady s not for turning . this week, the woman who would be her successor u turned. america s third lady, nancy pelosi, did not, going ahead with a visit to taiwan, despite chinese warnings beforehand and missiles after. nor did the bank of england u turn, going ahead with the half point rise in interest rates. the governor had said the bank was minded to impose the largest single hike in a quarter of a century. here to discuss all that are marc roche, an economist and journalist who was born in belgium, and writes from here for the french news magazine, le point. isabel hilton, who s been a foreign correspondent and broadcaster she founded china dialogue, an independent organisation concerned with the environmental challenges facing that country. and with us in spirit, if not in person because a family member has covid yasmin alibhai brown. she was forced to flee her native uganda by idi amin the 50th amnniversary of the expulsion of as
you can in birmingham, as mark says, they re working for the state, its preposterous. what happens when they move or get promoted? but it s also the kind of triviality of it that bothers me. this country seems to be staring over a cliff, and neither of them frankly seem to have very much to say about the very big issues. and what they do have to say, liz truss seems to be on a collision course with the bank of england, arguing it s had the wrong response. conservatives are critical of the bank anyway, saying it didn t act fast enough against inflation, it directs itself, they put up rates of half of 1%, as it warned it would do. the governor said on friday that in terms of what they had heard that they hadn t moved fast enough, he rejected that and said it s an approach to buying assets, this quantitive easing programme
yes, absolutely. but there s this far bigger picture too, and taiwan is actually flourishing, for a while, and after what happened to hong kong, i would not underestimate the fear they feel. that s interesting what you said about hong kong, because you could argue that one thing that has changed, and which mightjustify america taking a more combative approach over taiwan, is what china has done in hong kong, its change of approach. i was talking to victor gao this week who is saying it s just a continuity, there s always been a national security law it clearly wasn t like the national security law, and you can criticise the british for lots of things, there was clearly no democracy in hong kong before the handover, they were heading towards some elective process but it hadn t really been on the agenda. but it clearly wasn t the hong kong under the british,