This England

The BoE said the purpose of its latest purchase of long-dated government bonds was to restore financial stability rather than boost inflation. The central bank ...

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England took emergency action Wednesday to stabilize U.K. financial markets and head off a crisis in the broader economy after the ...

government bonds from today in order to restore orderly market conditions,” the Treasury said in a statement. government has resisted pressure to reverse course but says it will set out a more detailed fiscal plan and independent analysis from the Office for Budget responsibility on Nov. The pound traded at $1.0628 on Wednesday in London, after rallying from a record low of $1.0373 on Monday. The Bank of England said it would buy long-term government bonds over the next two weeks to combat a recent slide in British financial assets. But the bank’s next scheduled meeting is not until November, and the lack of immediate action did little to bolster the pound. “This would lead to an unwarranted tightening of financing conditions and a reduction of the flow of credit to the real economy.″ The British pound plunged to a record low against the U.S. The central bank warned that crumbling confidence in the economy posed a “material risk to U.K. dollar Monday following the government’s announcement, and yields on U.K. [EXPLAINER: The British pound has taken a plunge. The move came five days after Prime Minister Liz Truss’ new government sparked investor concern when it unveiled an economic stimulus program that included 45 billion pounds ($48 billion) of tax cuts and no spending reductions. LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England took emergency action Wednesday to stabilize U.K.

Michael Winterbottom's dramatisation of UK's Covid response portrays former prime minister as buffoonish and vain yet essentially well intentioned.

As a critique of the UK government’s response to Covid, This England is unflinching. Winterbottom resists the temptation to paint Johnson’s wife, Carrie (Ophelia Lovibond), as a hurrah-for-hockey Sloane archetype — compared with Johnson she’s the sensible one, exasperated by the Game of Thrones-style goings-on at 10 Downing Street. Somewhere on the way to slipping beneath those prosthetics, Branagh seems to become rather fond of the mercurial former prime minister. ‘You have to experience it for yourself’](/culture/tv-radio/2022/09/24/revitalised-ray-darcy-revels-in-ploughing-pageantry/) Here there are shades of the director’s Welcome to Sarajevo, his 1997 indictment of western indifference to war crimes in the Balkans, which reached cinemas while people were still dying in Bosnia. Michael Winterbottom’s This England is two dramas in one.

Though some episodes capture the human tragedy at the heart of the Covid pandemic, Sky's Boris-led lockdown drama is let down by some truly dross ...

Granted, it's nigh on impossible to exactly replicate his mess of straw-coloured hair or his droopy jowls, but this is something else: in certain lighting conditions, he better resembles Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise. It's always in the most emphatic register possible, delivered to the back rafters like the perennial theatre man he really is. [Boris Johnson](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/boris-johnson-resignation), the bumbling, foolish Boris we all came to know, being a character he played, at times, very well. [Christopher Nolan](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/oppenheimer-film-christopher-nolan)'s Dunkirk. For all of the 61-year-old's eminent talents, Branagh's Boris looks nothing like the real deal, underscored by the series' gambit for realism: we don't actually see the Boris impersonation for a good five or ten minutes, the earliest days of his Brexit ascent recounted by way of archival montage. Though he might not always get it bang on, Branagh is difficult not to admire because he really goes for it in every performance.

This England, the Sky Atlantic series which sees Kenneth Branagh portray former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has arrived to mixed reviews.

"Billed as 'a fiction based on real events', it combines an account of the government's reactive, insufficient and often careless handling of the crisis with a strange, intriguing and speculative character study of Johnson." "Branagh does a great job of impersonating Johnson's gait, mannerisms and mien (although he looks older around the eyes than the ex-PM), without really telling us much that's new about the man. "Those who are drawn by the Sky mini-series' focus on the goings-on at Number 10 will find a truncated story." "It used to be said that journalism provides the first draft of history," wrote Neil Armstrong. "The problem is that other dramas have told this story far better - think of Jack Thorne's terrific Help, starring Jodie Comer as a carer. Carol Midgley, writing in the Times however, opined the show was "brilliantly realistic", offering four stars.

The purchases are designed “to restore orderly market conditions,” the central bank said, after days of turmoil that followed the government's plan for ...

It had insisted there would be a “high bar” for the bank to deviate from the plan, which would over the next year reduce its holdings of bonds by £80 billion through sales and redemptions, to £758 billion. The market turmoil and the central bank’s intervention reveal the extent to which the government’s plans are at odds with the bank’s monetary policy goals. The intervention has also forced the central bank to pivot off its intended course of selling bonds next week, after it bought them to support the economy through the pandemic. Among the questions, he said, are: “Are we trying to contain inflation? There had been concern about how the sharp rise in bond yields would affect pension funds, which tend to be large holders of long-dated government bonds. This would lead to a reduction of the flow of credit to businesses and households, it added. As bond prices plummeted, the investment funds needed to provide more collateral and were forced to sell bonds to raise cash, cementing losses. It characterized the program as “large and untargeted” and said it was likely to worsen inequality. In an extraordinary intervention, the bank said it would undertake large-scale purchases of British government bonds in the coming weeks. “Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to U.K. Its recent declines make it one of the worst performers against the dollar. “The purchases will be carried out on whatever scale is necessary to effect this outcome.”

Kenneth Branagh's impression of the former coward-in-chief is spot on, but Michael Winterbottom's Covid drama is leaden, artless and a disservice to all ...

To see such recent, terrible times again is so gruelling that, although I stand by my criticisms and have tried to control for the effect, it makes us resistant to engaging with it again. In time, hopefully, we will be able to observe the events from different perspectives, combine and recombine them as stories that aid understanding and dissipate our horrors, allow for questions and posit some answers. The entire project now has the air of only telling half the story and not telling the truth. Care home supervisors and members of the public whose sickening, ventilation and deaths we see are merely sketched in. It is hampered from the off by feeling both too soon and wildly out of date. That awful moist, blustering sound – a semi-croak, squeezed out of a tense throat by a man who can never relax because he has no foundations to rely on – is perfect.

The Bank of England stepped in to buy Government bonds after fears over the UK's economic policies sparked a gilts sell-off.

In an extraordinary statement, the IMF said it was “closely monitoring” developments in the UK and was in touch with the authorities, urging the Chancellor to “re-evaluate the tax measures”. The Treasury responded by reaffirming its commitment to the Bank of England’s independence and said the Government “will continue to work closely with the Bank in support of its financial stability and inflation objectives”. “In line with its financial stability objective, the Bank of England stands ready to restore market functioning and reduce any risks from contagion to credit conditions for UK households and businesses.” “This would lead to an unwarranted tightening of financing conditions and a reduction of the flow of credit to the real economy. The Bank announced it was stepping in to buy up to £65 billion (€72 billion) worth of government bonds – known as gilts – at an “urgent pace” after fears over the Government’s economic policies sent the pound tumbling and sparked a sell-off in the gilts market. The Bank of England has launched an emergency UK government bond-buying programme to prevent borrowing costs from spiralling out of control and stave off a “material risk to UK financial stability”.

Written by Michael Winterbottom and starring Kenneth Branagh, This England reflects on the first wave of Covid and the political failings.

Andrew Buchan does an astonishing Matt Hancock impression, portraying the health secretary as a man given no support in the worst circumstances, but also managing to make dreadful decisions – remember his reward of badges for care workers? “We should be looking into the climate, not worrying about the weather,” he complains. The egos, the lack of seriousness, the timidity to make real decisions, the constant search for ‘good news’ and endless focus groups rather than investing in science or data.

There has been a lot of fuss about Kenneth Branagh playing Boris Johnson in the new drama series This England. There have been newspaper articles and ...

But I’d make her prime minister, I’d make her taoiseach, I’d make her president of the United States. Also, Branagh/ Boris looks so like Boris most of the time that it is a jarring shock when he does not look like Boris. Darius and Natalie were the prime ministers in week one. However, I noted that Jackie and the other contestant in their sixties, Adam, weren’t hugged very much. Danny is the son of Goldie — Goldie! I’m not against Downing Street shenanigans per se; in fact I would have been happy if the whole of This England was a sort of ‘Boris in the bunker’ drama. Then we’re left with a simple reproduction of events, and This England has that in spades. This leaves us with Boris and Carrie, and a bit of Downing Street shenanigans. These things make the Branagh/Boris explode on screen like a bomb, and that’s great television. But he then just bumbles about Number 10 offloading his dog on hapless underlings and quoting a lot of Shakespeare. [Boris Johnson](https://www.independent.ie/topics/boris-johnson-40434227/) in the new drama series This England. From the care home to the hospital, from intensive care to the ambulance at the door of an ordinary house, where loving goodbyes are murmured through an oxygen mask.

Kenneth Branagh has captured Boris Johnson's striding stoop and gibbon arm-swing, but this series is perhaps too kind to him.

Johnson and Branagh’s portrayal of Johnson – indisputably, two show stoppers – distracted him I think, and thus tragedy became farce, a Rada-alumni-and-Old-Etonian end-of-the-pier double act that eventually sent me out into the bar in search of a refund and a strong drink. Around him, as if in a play by Shakespeare, the subject of his long overdue book, the cast divides roughly into plotters and anarchists; even his Jack Russell, Dilyn, is against him, an un-biddable beast. Winterbottom, I felt, had long since made his point, which is basically that when catastrophe came calling on these shores, the worst – the craziest and most disturbed – prime minister in living memory was in office, a man stymied not only by personal entitlement, sexual incontinence, bloated grandiloquence and deluded self-belief, but also by the fact that he’d carefully surrounded himself with bullies, morons, ideologues and, yes, This England’s script may be merciless at points, but it also pays almost as much attention to the prime minister’s seeming loneliness as it does to his government’s ugly and egregious failures in the face of Winterbottom, his co-writer Kieron Quirke, and his co-director Julian Jarrold seem not to know the answer to this question. And of course, the blonde mop, now rapidly thinning.

The central bank warned of a “material risk to UK financial stability” from turmoil in the UK government bond market, which was sparked by chancellor Kwasi ...

Ivan Toney being left on the sidelines keeps him out of this England XI, though the truth is that it's a cracking team already.

That all changed when the club spent a fortune to sign prolific England striker Lawton in 1947, who continued to start for the national side for another two years despite playing in the lower leagues. The late sixties marked the beginning of dark period for the club, with full back Keith Newton the last England international to play for the club until Alan Shearer’s transfer from Southampton to Lancashire. Nicky Shorey’s England debut in a 1-1 draw with Brazil back in 2007 marked the first time someone from the club had worn the Three Lions since 1906. After decades outside of the top flight, Fulham returned in 2001 under the stewardship of Mohamed Al-Fayed and soon had another England international in their ranks after Zat Knight’s debut against USA in 2005 ended a 38-year wait. Charlton’s late arrival on the international scene at the age of 29 in 1965 marked the beginning of several Elland Road stars of the era wearing the Three Lions, as the Whites became a force under Don Revie. Prior to his move to Spurs in 1949, Ramsey had established himself as one of the country’s leading full-backs at Southampton, with his performances leading to an international call-up in 1948 and a debut in a 6-0 thrashing of Switzerland.

The Bank of England on Wednesday launched a historic intervention to stabilize the U.K. economy.

Bethany Payne, global bonds portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, said the intervention was "only a sticking plaster on a much wider problem." Monetary policy is trying to mop up after the milk was spilt," Turner said. "The second thing to watch will be changes to the government's position. "The Bank of England remains in a very tough spot. The market is now pricing a larger hike of between 125 and 150 basis points. 23, but Turner said there is now "every chance" that this is moved forward or at least prefaced with further announcements. "There is clearly a financial stability aspect to the BoE's decision, but also a funding one. The Monetary Policy Committee has so far not seen fit to intervene on interest rates before its next scheduled meeting on Nov. economy](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/bank-of-england-delays-bond-sales-launches-temporary-purchase-program.html), announcing a two-week purchase program for long-dated bonds and delaying its planned gilt sales until the end of October. that provide a guaranteed annual income for life upon retirement based on the worker's final or average salary. These LDIs are owned by final salary pension plans, which risked falling into insolvency as the LDIs were forced to sell more gilts, in turn driving down prices and sending the value of their assets below that of their liabilities. The policies included large swathes of unfunded tax cuts that have drawn global criticism, and also saw the

Two members of England's management team were suspended by the Rugby Football Union from the World Cup Pool B decider against...

[1 Ex-Premiership title winner posts dire 'two more teams' warning](https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ex-premiership-title-winner-posts-dire-two-more-teams-warning-wasps/) [2 'I'm either going to end up in jail or dead... “The RFU fully accepts that the action of those team management members was incorrect and detrimental to the image of the tournament, the game and to English rugby. “The RFU has therefore decided to reprimand those team management members, to warn them as to their future conduct and to suspend them from participation in England’s next game, the match between An RFU statement read: “Those team management members took it upon themselves to substitute balls during the match in contravention of both the laws of the game and the spirit of the game. “This suspension means that they will not be able to be in the stadium for that match in any capacity.” Stridgeon was involved in the delivery of a chosen ball for the kicks, while Alred was on the touchline, suspected of planning the activity.

As Boris Johnson (Kenneth Branagh) becomes Britain's Prime Minister in 2019, it seems all his dreams have come true. Then the Covid-19 outbreak changes his ...

It’s a portrait of a man who lives to be loved, learning what it means to actually be the most important man in the country. Even beneath the make-up, he conveys the cracks appearing in Johnson’s confidence well — a man who can’t cope with giving people bad news, whether it’s the nation or his own family. Alongside that is the juicy semi-fictional stuff, a look behind the scenes at the government’s calamitous reaction to the biggest health crisis in a century.

I saw abject failure, arbitrary death and utter helplessness. This is quite a different story, says former ambulance driver and academic Rod Dacombe.

However, the real problem is that the reality of the pandemic response is left in the wings. For many frontline workers, the experience of the last couple of years has proven too exhausting, too painful, to continue. The problem here is once again born out of the distinction between knowledge and remembrance. But for those with direct, personal knowledge of the pandemic, to memorialise Covid-19 appropriately would mean to confront abject failure, arbitrary death and utter helplessness. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? For many of us there is a disconnection between the ways in which the country at large is deciding to remember the pandemic and what it means to us. However, the longer term remembrance of that pandemic has been quite different. The way we shape our memory of the pandemic matters. I’m not saying that Winterbottom is disqualified from writing about these things because he doesn’t know what it feels like to break someone’s ribs during chest compressions, or hasn’t seen the expression on the faces of family members pleading for help when none is possible. The overall impression it gives is of a nation bravely coming together to defeat the virus, with any errors in policy (the series includes a focus on PPE procurement and delays to lockdown) unfortunate but understandable, given the circumstances. Among those voices was the writer Katherine Anne Porter, who nearly died during the pandemic and remained hospitalised for months. During the pandemic I deliberately killed six people.

Kenneth Branagh plays former British prime minister Boris Johnson in Michael Winterbottom's new six-part TV drama This England.