Good Monday morning. This is Esther Webber filling in for Alex for the next couple of days.
LETTER FROM THE ITOR: A warm London Playbook welcome to POLITICO Europe’s new itor-in-chief, Jamil Anderlini, who gets start today. He’s written a letter in which he pays tribute to precessor, Stephen Brown, who tragically di in March, and outlines his vision for our coverage. Leaving Hong Kong for Brussels, he writes: “Departing China, where I have work as a journalist and newsroom leader for the last two decades, fills me with a mixture of sadness and relief … It is harder and harder to operate as a journalist as the Communist Party becomes more totalitarian at home and increasingly belligerent abroad.”
Where we come in: “Democracy is in decline and under threat throughout the world, including in its most important bastions in Europe and North America. Young democracies in Eastern Europe are inching towards autocracy. But even more establish systems can slip into complacency and corruption if they are not challeng by a strong, nonpartisan, fact-bas free press. No organization in Europe today embodies that spirit better than POLITICO and its new owner, Axel Springer … While remaining scrupulously nonpartisan, I want POLITICO Europe to stand up for the tolerance, plurality and openness of liberal democracy.”
DRIVING THE DAY
NERVOUS ENERGY: Talks between the government
and industry will continue today and throughout the week as whatsapp number database energy-intensive sectors search for help in the face of soaring gas prices. But as the country ges toward what looks like a tense winter, two of the key departments responsible for dealing with the response are generating more heat than light by falling out with each other in spectacular fashion. And that’s before we get to today’s stories on inflation, driver shortages, welfare cuts and leveling up snafus. If anyone’s looking to the PM for guidance it will have to be by WhatsApp, since he’s currently in Marbella. Well, that’s one way to keep warm without putting the heating on.
What’s at stake: Wholesale gas prices have risen
250 percent this year, putting a huge strain on features and significance of the free businesses that use a lot of it in order to make products such as steel, glass, ceramics and paper. These factories are “on the brink,” as one source told the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, while the Times’s Henry Zeffman reports on fears that if plants shut down they may never open again. CEO of hindirectory British Glass Dave Dalton told the BBC some of the conferation’s members were “teetering on the ge,” while Unite leader Sharon Graham said workers were “worri sick.”
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What to do: The industries affect are widely report to have ask for millions to help pay the bills, but Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng appear to rule this out, saying the government is “not in the business of bailouts.” But in the same interview round, Kwarteng hint at some kind of support package, saying: “I’m working very closely with Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to get us through this situation. I think he show a great deal of flexibility when he allow £500 million to be dispers by local authorities for vulnerable consumers, and we’re working to see what we can do in terms of protecting industry.”