NHS and MoD will be urged to buy British tech to drive growth amid Iran crisis
The NHS and Ministry of Defence will be urged to buy British tech, as the government pins its hopes on the benefits of artificial intelligence to kickstart growth in the face of the Iran crisis, Treasury minister Spencer Livermore has said,The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will restate her economic strategy in a high profile lecture on Tuesday, just as rocketing oil prices have raised fears of higher inflation and weaker growth,Livermore, who works closely with Reeves on policy, said the chancellor will highlight three strategic choices – to get closer to the EU, to strengthen regional policy in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and by better connecting Northern cities; and to bet big on the benefits of AI,On AI, Livermore said Reeves is keen to “set out the optimistic case”, despite growing fears about the potential impact of the technology for jobs, particularly among young people,“There are massive opportunities here and I think that’s what we want to try to talk about,” he said.
“Clearly we want to be one of the fastest adopters in the world.”He added: “It’s really important that we talk about the huge opportunities for the economy and the amount of growth that we can get.And if we get more growth, then we’ll have more jobs.”Labour has been criticised for its cosy relationships with US big tech firms such as the controversial Palantir, which has a contract with the NHS.Meanwhile, a recent Guardian analysis showed that AI deals announced with fanfare by the government over the past two years have not yet delivered concrete investment.
Livermore said ministers are keen to use government budgets to support homegrown tech firms, which are often excluded by bureaucracy or institutional caution.“The UK government is too slow to buy new technologies,” he said.“We’re going to set up a rapid innovation procurement taskforce, outside the traditional procurement system.And we’re going to pilot that in defence and in health, so that we can get the state to buy new technologies quicker.And that is really exciting.
”He added: “If you think about AI and the speed with which technology is changing, we’re very rarely the first customer for those companies.That’s got to change.”He also suggested Labour has become increasingly prepared to make the argument for a closer trading relationship with the EU – though without crossing its manifesto red lines, which included no free movement of people.“The consequences of Brexit are showing to be worse even than people thought at the time.And I think this government does now have the confidence to be very honest about that, to confront that,” he said, calling for a “fact-based conversation” about the issue.
Challenged about the damage likely to be inflicted on the economy and public finances if the Middle East conflict proves prolonged, Livermore, who was an adviser to Gordon Brown in the New Labour years, insisted: “The fundamentals of the economy were strong, going into this uncertain period,”Speaking before the latest official data showed zero GDP growth in January, he highlighted Reeves’s repair job on the public finances, and the cost of living measures in the budget,“The spring forecast [on 3 March] was perfectly timed as a sort of backdrop to the strong fundamentals that we had going into the crisis – we had inflation lower than it otherwise would have been, because of the action we’d taken, gilt yields had been falling, we’d actually increased the amount of headroom in the spring forecast,“So I know we’d take decisions which Rachel was fiercely criticised for in the previous two budgets, but were absolutely the right decisions,”As a member of the “Iran Board” Reeves has set up inside the Treasury, he said ministers and officials are drawing up measures to ensure they are “equipped for whatever scenario comes our way”.
But Livermore insisted the crisis only reinforced the need for Reeves’s approach of “securonomics”, which he described as “an active and strategic state,And a state that has a point of view” – choosing which sectors and regions to back with public money, for example,“Clearly, the impact in terms of the British economy will depend on the severity and the duration of this crisis, and no one knows what that is,” he conceded,“We are doing the right things in the Treasury to prepare,”
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump being gifted an Olympic medal: ‘Yet another award he didn’t win’
On Thursday night, late-night hosts discussed an odd White House women’s history month event, the fallout of the war on Iran and why Melania Trump is starting to sound an awful lot like her husband.Jimmy Kimmel spent a chunk of his Thursday night monologue on a White House women’s history month fundraiser hosted by Donald Trump. As part of the event, Melania Trump gave an extended introduction to the president.“You know how some couples as they get older start to sound alike?” asked Kimmel. “Well, while introducing her husband, Melania had an awful lot of nice things to say about herself
Seth Meyers on Pete Hegseth: ‘The face of a man war-fighting with his colon’
Late-night hosts dug into the Trump administration’s vague intentions for the war in Iran, the conflict’s oil-price effect and a Maga rally in Kentucky with Jake Paul.On Late Night, Seth Meyers checked in on Donald Trump’s now two-week-old war in Iran. “The president is maybe sort of threatening/teasing that he might put boots on the ground in Iran? But Republicans can’t seem to agree on whether they support that idea, or for how long, or why,” he explained.The confusion comes from the top: Pete Hegseth, the “defense secretary/morning show host/fifth-year senior who just found out that yeah, he’s gonna need to do a sixth year” who made a big deal about turning the defense department into “the department of war” and “refocusing on the core mission: war fighting”.“And before we go any further: was there a problem with the term ‘warfare’?” Meyers wondered
Sydney Biennale 2026: politics is everywhere – but with nuance, beauty and heart
According to its critics, this year’s Biennale of Sydney, under the leadership of Emirati artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi (the first Arab appointed to the role in the festival’s 53-year history) was destined to be a “hate Israel jamboree” at worst; a hotbed of pro-Palestinian politics at best. These fears – which appear to have originated from pro-Palestine statements Al Qasimi and her parents made in the past – are not borne out by the festival itself, which opens this weekend across five key venues, spanning from the inner city out to Penrith and Campbelltown.In an unusual move for the biennale, Al Qasimi wasn’t present at the vernissage – but with or without her, the resulting festival, the event’s 25th, is complex and nuanced. It’s light on spectacle and slogans; not a political chant but rather a polyphony of voices – more than 80 artists from 37 countries – singing their own songs. The theme, “Rememory” – taken from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved – is reflected in works that look to the past to find answers to present dilemmas and envision better futures
Naples museum to allow visually impaired visitors to experience art through touch
The Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will allow dozens of visually impaired visitors to take part in a rare tactile experience, letting them touch celebrated works of art including the Veiled Christ, which is widely regarded as one of the most striking masterpieces in the history of sculpture.On 17 March, the museum will host an initiative called La meraviglia a portata di mano – Wonder within reach – organised in partnership with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples, offering about 80 blind and partially sighted visitors a chance to encounter the marble masterpieces.Visitors will be guided through the chapel by guides who are also visually impaired in a programme designed to place accessibility at the centre of the museum experience.The protective barrier surrounding the sculptures will be removed, allowing participants, wearing latex gloves, to explore by touch the intricate marble surface of the sculptures including Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ, which depicts Jesus covered by a transparent shroud made from the same block as the statue. The tactile route will also extend to the reliefs at the feet of the sculptures La Pudicizia and Il Disinganno
Jimmy Kimmel on Pentagon splurging on doughnuts: ‘Is this My 600lb Defense Department?’
On late-night shows, hosts poked fun at the Trump administration’s inconsistent messaging on the Iran war, Pete Hegseth splurging on high-end food at the Pentagon and New York’s John F Kennedy Jr lookalike contest.On what Jimmy Kimmel called “day 11 of Jabba the Hutt’s war on Iran”, the host focused on Trump’s mixed messages over the Middle East conflict.“Trump said yesterday that the war could end very soon, which would be encouraging, had be not also told us he’d end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours,” said Kimmel.“He’s going to make a huge mess and walk away like it’s the new toilet in the Lincoln bathroom.”Kimmel then turned to reports that Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, spent $93bn of US taxpayer money last year, including millions of dollars in September on luxury food items: “$2m on Alaskan king crab, $6
Stephen Colbert on US war in Iran: ‘We’re still no closer to learning what the goal is’
Late-night hosts looked into the murky goals, economic impact and disrespect for military protocol of Donald Trump’s war in Iran.“We’re on day 10 of the Iran war,” said Stephen Colbert on Monday evening, “and we’re still no closer to learning what the goal is. Is it regime change? Is it ending a nuclear program? Is it changing the name to Donald Trump’s Iran-a-Lago?”“But we are learning more about the cost,” he noted, as the first week of the war alone is estimated to have cost about $6bn. “Do you know what you could buy with $6bn? Twenty-seven Kristi Noem horsey commercials!” he joked before clips of the very expensive, controversial ad campaign that likely ended Noem’s tenure as secretary of homeland security.Despite the exorbitant cost, Trump said over the weekend that this new surprise war would stop only after Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, to which Iran replied: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave
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