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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK economy grew 0.5 per cent in February, beating analysts’ expectations and providing some positive news for chancellor Rachel Reeves as she contends with the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.Friday’s monthly GDP figure from the Office for National Statistics was above both the 0.1 per cent increase forecast by economists polled by Reuters and January’s figure of zero growth, revised up from a previous estimate of a 0.1 per cent contraction.ONS Director of Economic Statistics Liz McKeown said: “The economy…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A think-tank affiliated with Reform UK has been pledged more than £1mn in funding and has begun hiring staff, according to people briefed on its activities, as donors and supporters seek to strengthen the policy platform of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party.The developments around Resolute 1850 come after the Financial Times reported last month that senior figures around Reform had drawn up plans for a think-tank modelled on US party-affiliated research groups.The Center for Renewing America and the America First Policy Institute,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a director and screenwriterIn 2014, I directed the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, both winners of the Booker Prize. In 2023, I shot The Mirror and the Light, completing the trilogy. If we were to attempt to make either in 2025, we would not succeed.Colin Callender, who persuaded Hilary to make the TV rights available, offered each of the major streamers the chance to collaborate on the original Wolf Hall series. They all passed. Six…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Of all the fancy kosher restaurants in central London, Tony Page Marylebone has to be the best. It is also the only fancy kosher restaurant in central London. You can tell it’s fancy because the chicken soup with matzo balls comes topped with a bamboo dim sum steamer, like a jaunty hat, containing noodles, carrots and chopped thigh so you can complete the dish yourself. You never got that at my Great-Aunt Muriel’s house. It’s good chicken soup, as it damn well…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Creditors are increasingly struggling to recover unpaid debts in England and Wales as justice system funding pressures have led to “extremely slow and ineffective” enforcement of court orders, a body chaired by a senior judge has found.The Civil Justice Council, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, warned that businesses and individuals face “very significant delays” reclaiming what they are owed even after securing judgments against debtors from the County Court.“The inability to enforce effectively through the County Court has…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A large white lorry loaded with rubbish careens around a corner and down a cul-de-sac in the quiet east Birmingham suburb of Sheldon. Gary Fryar hops out of the truck and starts loading black bin bags that have piled up against pebble-dash walls.“Since I put the post on Facebook we’ve done six different jobs like this one,” says Fryar, the enterprising co-owner of a waste collection service who has started to market himself to residential clients feeling the impact of a strike…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK growth will be hit by the “chilling effect” of uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s trade war, a top Bank of England policymaker has warned, as markets gyrate in the wake of the US president’s partial retreat on tariffs. Sarah Breeden, deputy governor for financial stability at the BoE, said on Thursday that “overall, tariffs are likely to lower UK growth”, but added that it was too soon to untangle the inflationary implications stemming from the barriers.“If nothing else, the chilling effect of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The head of the British military has visited Beijing for the first time in a decade, in a visit announced only by the Chinese government. General Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the joint staff department of China’s central military commission, met for talks with Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, UK chief of the defence staff, in Beijing on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by China’s defence ministry. “The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on China-UK relations and military-to-military relations, international and…

This article is an on-site version of our The State of Britain newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every week. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood afternoon. I’m Laura Hughes, the FT’s public policy correspondent. There has never been a more interesting time to write about health policy and this week was no exception. On Tuesday, health secretary Wes Streeting faced a grilling from MPs on the health and social affairs select committee. Unsurprisingly, he was challenged on the cost of redundancies being planned across the NHS in England, as…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Cabinet Office will lose almost a third of its staff as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s cost-cutting drive across Whitehall, prompting union warnings that the move would undermine government plans for reform. About 2,100 out of 6,500 jobs will be axed over the next two years in the department that runs the machinery of government, the Cabinet Office said on Thursday. The department aims to achieve the cost reductions by not replacing personnel who leave via a voluntary exit scheme and…