The UK general election result could
delay Brexit talks and be negative for the economy, credit ratings
agencies Moody's and S&P have warned.
The Brexit negotiations
with the EU were due to start on 19 June but Moody's said the fact that
the Conservatives had lost their majority would delay the start of the
talks.
It will "complicate and probably delay Brexit negotiations," it warned.
Moody's said it could also further pressure the UK's public finances.
The
"inconclusive" outcome of the general election could mean the
government places less of a priority on cutting the budget deficit. This
would be negative for the UK's credit rating and make it more expensive
for the country to borrow money.
As a result, Moody's said it
expected fiscal risks to increase, because in its view the budget
deficit will increase this year and next.
"The election outcome,
with significant gains for the Labour Party, which had campaigned for
increased public spending, will likely be seen as a 'vote against
austerity', it added.
"The public debt ratio will rise further
and for longer than we had expected, placing the UK among the few highly
rated European sovereigns whose public debt is still rising."
However,
Moody's said the election result suggested an "electoral shift" away
from the "hard Brexit" that Prime Minister Theresa May, had ostensibly
sought.
As a result, Moody's said the government may now consider
"softer" Brexit options, which would be positive for the country's
credit rating, it said.
"Hence, a move towards "softer" versions
of Brexit - potentially with continued access of some sort to the single
market - might now be considered," it said.
'Another snap election'
Meanwhile,
S&P Global Ratings released a note saying the outcome of the snap
election and the hung parliament should have no immediate impact on the
UK's rating.
"Our ratings on the UK already take into account a
less predictable policy framework following the vote to leave the EU in
June 2016," it said.
It also said it believed the lack of an overall majority for any one part was likely to delay Brexit negotiations.
"Furthermore, we do not exclude the possibility of another snap election," it added.
Separately,
S&P economist Jean-Michel Six said "In terms of the [UK's} outlook
for growth, it's clear that things are not going in the right
direction."
"This latest bit of instability can only weaken the business environment and consumer confidence, " he said.
Standard and Poor's (S&P) said the UK credit outlook remained negative.
Moody's rates the UK credit worthiness as Aa1 negative, one notch above the other two main ratings agencies, including S&P.
Campaigners have appealed against a
ruling which gave the go-ahead for four controversial wind farm projects
in the firths of Forth and Tay.
RSPB Scotland had objected to the developments which, they say, threaten thousands of seabirds.
After winning the initial challenge, an appeal was lodged by Scottish ministers and the ruling was overturned last month.
The charity has confirmed it has started a legal challenge.
It is seeking permission from the Inner House of the Court of Session to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
The
Scottish government has declined to comment on the legal action, but
stressed its belief in the importance of offshore wind projects.
Image copyrightPA
After last month's ruling, one of the developers, Mainstream
Renewable Power, said it would immediately press on with construction
work. The company estimates its project alone would create 500 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent operational roles. The Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo projects were approved by Scottish ministers in 2014. It has been estimated that they could generate up to £1.2bn for the Scottish economy and power 1.4 million homes. But RSPB Scotland raised concerns that the wind farms risked birds like puffins, gannets and kittiwakes.
'Worrying precedents'
Director
Anne McCall said: "RSPB Scotland continues to fully support the
development of renewable energy and the vast majority of projects
continue to pose no significant threat to birds or other wildlife. "However,
we are concerned that this judgment could set worrying precedents for
the protection of wildlife across Scotland and the UK. "In light
of our concerns we have decided to start the appeal process by applying
to the Inner House for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court." A
statement from Mainstream Renewable Power said: "We are committed to
working with all our partners, including the RSPB, to deliver this
nationally-significant infrastructure project and the vitally important
jobs and investment that it will create. "Neart na Gaoithe is a
£2bn project capable of supplying all the homes in a city the size of
Edinburgh with clean energy and is the only project out of the four
offshore wind projects in the Forth and Tay to hold a Contract for
Difference (CfD)."
Climate change
It
added: "Rapid advances in offshore wind technology have enabled us to
reduce the number of turbines to be installed from 125 in the original
consent application in 2012, to a maximum of 64 turbines today." A
Scottish government spokesman said: "Protecting the environment and
fighting climate change are key priorities for the Scottish government. "Offshore
wind has an important role to play in Scotland's energy future, and
offers valuable opportunities to reduce the carbon emissions which lead
to climate change and create jobs too.
A woman has been arrested on
suspicion of murder after a man was "pushed into a moving tram" and died
at Manchester's Victoria station.
The man, believed to be in his
30s, was pushed, causing him to fall between the platform and tram,
Greater Manchester Police said.
A Metrolink driver reported a collision at about 19:45 BST on Sunday, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said.
A 31-year-old woman is being questioned in police custody.
The woman arrested was not the tram driver, police confirmed.
Metrolink customer director Stephen Rhodes said he was "absolutely devastated" to hear someone had died.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the man died at the scene.
There was disruption to services on the Bury line for several hours affecting those attending Parklife festival.
Image copyrightTWITTER
Metrolink issued a walking map to help those travelling from the festival at Heaton Park return to the city centre. Parklife finished at 23:00 on Sunday. The three-mile walk should take about an hour. Some
people questioned the advice on Twitter, suggesting telling young
people to walk the distance in Wellington boots in the dark was
"unbelievable". Others said they thought there would be safety in numbers
Metrolink tweeted there was an "ongoing medical emergency" and advised passengers to avoid Manchester Victoria station. In a statement, Mr Rhodes, added: "My immediate thoughts are with this person's family and friends. "As
this is now a police investigation it would not be appropriate for me
to make any further comment about what happened at this time." He
encouraged those who were able to walk to do so and said 100 buses were
also in place, adding: "I'd ask everyone to please bear with us and be
patient." Metrolink said "a good service" was in operation on all lines on Monday and trams were operating in and out of Victoria.
Russian opposition leader Alexei
Navalny has been detained at home ahead of a planned unauthorised
protest in Moscow, his wife says.
"Alexei has been arrested in the
entrance to our block of flats," Yuliya Navalnaya wrote on Twitter,
adding "our plans haven't changed".
Thousands of his supporters have heeded his call to protest against corruption.
OVD-Info, an NGO, says 121 people have been detained in Moscow and 137 in St Petersburg.
St Petersburg news website Fontanka.ru put the number of detainees there at 300.
There were smaller rallies in other Russian cities.
In
a live broadcast by the Russian liberal TV channel Dozhd, protesters in
St Petersburg could be heard shouting "shame" as they were detained by
police. Among those arrested was Maxim Reznik, the city's legislative
assembly deputy.
Prominent activist Daniil Ken said he was
arrested as he left his home in St Petersburg. He urged people to join a
rally at the city's Champ de Mars square. "Go for me, please!" he
tweeted. He has since been released.
Police earlier detained several people at demonstrations in the cities of Vladivostok, Blagoveshchensk and Kazan.
He was earlier granted permission to hold a rally at Sakharova Avenue
but changed the location - without permission - on the eve of the
demonstration to Tverskaya Street, near the Kremlin.
One of the groups participating in the Moscow rally, which is over government plans to demolish Soviet-era apartment blocks in the city, said it would hold its protest on Sakharova Avenue as planned.
Permission has been granted for demonstrations in 169 locations across the country, some of which will be broadcast live on the Navalny Live YouTube channel. The main rallies are expected to be in St Petersburg and Moscow.
The
protests coincide with a series of official events - including
festivals, concerts and military enactments - due to take place across
the country to mark Russia Day, the national holiday dedicated to the
1990 declaration of sovereignty.
The BBC's Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg,
earlier shared images on Twitter of an historical military
reconstruction in Tverskaya Street, the location of Mr Navalny's
unauthorised demonstration.
A man accused of posting blasphemous content to Facebook has been sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan.
Taimoor
Raza was convicted after allegedly posting remarks about the Prophet
Muhammad, his wives and companions within the site's comments.
The
public prosecutor involved said he believed it was the first time the
death penalty had been awarded in a case related to social media.
Human rights campaigners have expressed concern.
Facebook itself has yet to comment on the case.
The
US firm previously announced in March that it was deploying a team to
Pakistan to address the government's concerns about blasphemous content
on its service, but added that it still wished to protect "the privacy
and rights" of its members.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has described blasphemy as being an "unpardonable offence".
Religious debate
Raza's case was heard by an anti-terrorism court in Bahawalpur - about 309 miles (498km) from the capital Islamabad.
His
defence lawyer said the 30-year-old had become involved in an argument
about Islam on the social network with someone who had turned out to be a
counter-terrorism official.
The public prosecutor said the
accused had been arrested after playing hate speech and blasphemous
material from his phone at a bus stop, following which his handset had
been confiscated and analysed.
Raza will be able to appeal against the death penalty at Lahore High Court and then, if required, in Pakistan's Supreme Court.
The Express Tribune, a local newspaper, reported that the verdict
came days after a college professor was refused bail in another case
involving accusations of blasphemy on social media in Pakistan.
"[They]
enable abuse and violate the country's international legal obligations
to respect and protect a range of human rights, including freedom of
religion or belief and of opinion and expression," it said.
"Once someone is charged, they can be denied bail and face lengthy and unfair trials."
The developments come seven years after a Pakistan court temporarily
blocked local access to Facebook after the social network was used to
promote a contest to draw images of Prophet Muhammad - an act considered
to be offensive by many Muslims.
Analysis - Tahir Imran, BBC Urdu social media editor
This
is a dramatic time for Pakistani social media. Once considered a
platform where people could express themselves freely, it is now a place
where people worry about the consequences of commenting.
Instead
of acting to restore confidence and safeguarding the masses' right to
freedom of expression, the government has been busy making threats
through TV and newspaper adverts.
This is happening with a clear
understanding about the gravity that accusations of blasphemy can have.
There have been several incidents of vigilantes taking the law into
their own hands after such claims.
Human rights activists accuse
the government of pushing through a controversial cyber-crimes law
without addressing their concerns.
In a country where fewer people
have been convicted of blasphemy than have been killed after being
accused of the offence, this ruling will not calm nerves. And
increasingly people prefer to use chat apps and closed groups to post
content so that their thoughts cannot be seen by the wider public.
The Queen's Speech is written by the government and presents an
outline of its planned legislation for the next Parliamentary session.
BBC
assistant political editor Norman Smith said the decision to delay it
revealed an "ambiguity" about what would go in it - with several
manifesto pledges expected to be watered down or dropped - but also the
need for the Tories to "nail down" DUP support.
A defeat for its Queen's Speech would be tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the new minority government, he said.
One
of the reasons for the delay is also believed to be because the speech
has to be written on goat's skin parchment paper, which takes a few days
to dry - and the Tory negotiations with the DUP mean it cannot be ready
in time.
Theresa May will face questions later from her backbenchers for the first time since Thursday's election.
They are expected to raise concerns about her leadership style, and press for more details on talks with the DUP.
Mrs May's new cabinet will also meet for the first time after a reshuffle.
Speaking
on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Davis said that while the Tory
election campaign had been disappointing, Mrs May was a "formidable
prime minister" and accused people speculating about her leadership of
"the absolute height of self-indulgence".
But Labour leader Jeremy
Corbyn has accused Mrs May of "squatting" in No 10, telling the BBC's
Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the country "cannot go on with a period
of great instability".
The PM finalised her cabinet with a small reshuffle, with Michael Gove returning to a ministerial role as environment secretary.
Mr
Gove, who took on Mrs May for the party leadership after David Cameron
quit, was sacked by the PM in her reshuffle in July last year.
The Conservatives went from 331 seats to 318 in the general election, while Labour increased its number of MPs from 232 to 262.
BBC
political correspondent Iain Watson said the meeting with the committee
had been brought forward by 24 hours, not because of panic within the
party, but possibly as a way of avoiding it.
One MP told him: "The wise heads will need to tell any hotheads to calm down."
The
1922 Committee is made up of all Conservative backbenchers - the name
is taken from the year in which its original members were elected.
Its
primary function is to keep the leadership of the party informed of the
mood among the rank and file, and if a Conservative leader or other
senior figure loses its support they could be in a particularly
vulnerable position.
Graham Brady, chairman of the committee, told
BBC One's Sunday Politics there was "zero appetite" among the public
for another election.
A
number of high-profile members kept their posts in Sunday's cabinet
reshuffle, with Philip Hammond staying at the Treasury, Boris Johnson
remaining at the Foreign Office and Amber Rudd keeping the Home Office
brief.
But some changed jobs too, with Liz Truss being demoted from justice secretary to become chief secretary to the Treasury.
Damian
Green, who was work and pensions secretary, has been promoted to become
the first secretary of state - effectively Mrs May's second in command.
'Diminished authority'
Analysis by BBC political correspondent Iain Watson
Widespread demands for Mrs May to go are not expected at Monday's 1922 Committee meeting.
Instead,
there will be demands for her to consult more, including meeting
regularly with the 1922 executive, and to turn Downing Street from a
bunker into an open house by broadening her range of staff.
However, few MPs expect her position to be strong and stable for the next five years.
One
senior backbencher told me: "It is inconceivable she will lead the
party into the next election. Her authority has been diminished
unquestionably."
Another said: "Party members have been too bruised by her."
"She
has bought herself some time", said another senior backbencher, but
added: "How she behaves will determine how long she's there."
There is a feeling that the party is holding on to nurse for fear of something worse.
After
speculation in the Sunday newspapers that he was mounting a leadership
challenge, Mr Johnson has called for Tory MPs to back Mrs May.
Writing in Monday's Sun,
the foreign secretary said those calling for the PM to step down should
"get a grip", adding the electorate wanted the government to "get on
with the job".
Mr Johnson admitted the prime minister's election campaign did not go
well - "to put it mildly" - and that Tory messages "got lost or
misunderstood".
But he added: "Theresa May led a campaign that
inspired 13.7m people to vote Conservative, in the biggest total tally
of Tory votes since the days of Margaret Thatcher.
"That is a stunning achievement, for which she deserves the support of her party. And she will certainly get it from me."
He also said the proposal of a deal with the DUP to keep her minority government in power was "feasible".
"The people of Britain have had a bellyful of promises and politicking," he wrote.
"Now is the time for delivery - and Theresa May is the right person to continue that vital work."
Michael Gove's 'surprise'
The return of Mr Gove to the front bench as environment secretary has been a shock to some, including the politician himself.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, he said he had been "quite surprised" to be asked to rejoin the cabinet.
He
added: "Of course I knew that today was reshuffle day, but I genuinely
didn't expect this role - although I am delighted to be part of the
government, and delighted to be able to support Theresa."
However, the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin says green
campaigners are appalled at Mr Gove's appointment, pointing to his time
as education secretary, when he tried to remove climate change from the
geography curriculum, and as chief whip, when he blocked the then
environment secretary from important international talks.
Tom Burke, from green think tank E3G, told BBC News: "The environment is something young voters really care about.
"If the Tories really want to reconnect with the youth surge, this is about the worst option they could have chosen."
But others have welcomed the new minister.
One
senior farming industry source said they were happy that a "big hitter"
was taking the top job at the Department for Environment and Rural
Affairs (Defra).
"Defra has long been a backwater, so at last it's not someone in charge who is being put out to grass," he said.
From shipwrecks to terror attacks to
an air disaster involving Paris Hilton, it seems that almost nothing is
off-limits for the prank shows that have become a staple of North
African TV during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
A recent
programme in Algeria earned fierce criticism for fooling a renowned
communist novelist into believing he had been arrested for "atheism and
espionage".
During the segment, 75-year-old Rachid Boudjedra was
forced by fake police officers to repeat the Islamic proclamation "God
is Greatest" and utter the two Islamic testimonies of faith.
The programme, called We Got You was later suspended amid a wave of criticism from civil society.
TV has become an important part of the Islamic holy month, and
broadcasters will often commission special programmes to draw audiences
in as they break their fast in the evening. Prank TV shows have risen in popularity, but have also earned criticism in recent years for taking things too far.
Staged terror attack
Egyptian
actor Ramez Galal has established himself as a major TV prankster, with
a series of programmes featuring celebrities in increasingly extreme
scenarios.
In one edition, he fooled celebrities into believing they were on a
sinking ship, surrounded by floating body parts and an approaching
shark.
In another, victims were locked inside a supposed ancient
Egyptian tomb containing bats, insects and a mummy rising from the dead.
In
2013 during a programme entitled Ramez, the Fox of the Desert, guest
celebrities were fooled into believing the bus they were travelling on
had been intercepted by militants.
The mock militants pretended to shoot the driver dead and then blindfolded and handcuffed the guests.
This was aired at a time when Egypt was witnessing a surge in terror
attacks, particularly in the region of Sinai, where military convoys
were often attacked by armed bandits in desolate areas.
Galal
revels in the controversy. In a trailer for his show, he admits to
"torturing his friends and fellow actors because he loves them".
And
it may be that only the audience is being fooled. Sharp-eyed viewers
often find clues signalling that the guests are in on the prank.
Some celebrities have confirmed that this was the case.
Fatwas
Tunisia's
The Earthquake is another controversial programme which fools guests
into believing they are experiencing a violent tremor.
In one episode, an elderly religious leader insisted on continuing to pray despite the ongoing quake.
The
show was widely criticised on social media for disregarding the age and
health conditions of the guests, who seemed genuinely scared.
Similar
charges were levelled at Algeria's We Got You. Following the episode
featuring Mr Boudjedra, one Algerian novelist said it was "unbelievable
that a famous writer was ridiculously pranked with no regards to his age
or fame".
Religious bodies in the region have recently issued
fatwas (religious edicts) asserting that terrorising people for any
purpose is religiously forbidden.
The shows are also criticised,
like the slew of entertainment programmes aired during Ramadan, for
being a distraction from spiritual dedication during the holy month.
Chasing ratings
Egyptian
media expert Yasser Abd-al-Aziz told the BBC that the prevalence of TV
pranks has forced production companies to push the boundaries of good
taste in order to attract audience and advertising revenue.
But
one popular show entitled The Shock appears to buck this trend, with
more traditional pranks, rather than terrifying ordeals.
The show is filmed in a number of Arab countries, capturing reactions
to staged situations such as a man violently scolding his wife, a
student insulting his teacher or a child standing helpless in the cold
weather asking passers-by for a coat.
It has won over audiences across the the region by exploring how strangers interact in dramatic but everyday situations.
As
Twitter user @Nooruldeen89 put it: "Despite the acts being staged, The
Shock awakens the human in you and makes you rethink your perspective."
