Labour should hold a referendum on whether Britain should rejoin the EU | Letter
The prime minister’s comments about seeking closer relations with the EU are to be welcomed as a step in the right direction (Starmer calls for ‘ambitious’ new UK-EU ties as Trump threatens to quit Nato, 1 April).Yet a piecemeal approach to repairing the damage done by Brexit is unlikely to succeed.A genuinely “ambitious” plan would be for Labour to announce a referendum on whether the UK should open negotiations on re-entry to the EU, promising a general election to secure a mandate to implement the proposal should the British public vote in favour.It would allow the government to seize the initiative, providing it with an issue around which to rally a broad base of electoral support.This would also expose the increasing reluctance of Reform UK and the Conservatives to defend Brexit and silence accusations of the betrayal of British voters.
But above all, it would provide a practical route for restoring Britain to its rightful place within the EU, at a time when shifts in the global order make that task more urgent than ever.Prof Philip Murphy Director, History & Policy Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Oil rises above $110 as Trump deadline looms for Iran to reopen strait – business live
In other news, the American billionaire Bill Ackman’s hedge fund has offered to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) in a deal that values the world’s biggest music company at more than €50bn (£44bn).Pershing Square, the New-York based hedge fund, has offered to buy the business, which is home to artists including Taylor Swift and Elton John, in a cash and stock deal.Ackman said in a statement that while the company, which is led by the British-born Sir Lucian Grainge, had done “an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance”, its share price had lagged owing to issues “unrelated to the performance of its music business”.Shares in UMG, which have been listed in Amsterdam since 2021, have lost more than a quarter of their value in the past year alone.The company is one of the “big three” record labels, alongside Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group
Universal Music receives takeover offer from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square
Billionaire Bill Ackman’s hedge fund has offered to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) in a deal that values the world’s biggest music company at more than €50bn (£44bn).Pershing Square, the New-York based hedge fund, has offered to buy the business, which is home to artists including Taylor Swift and Elton John, in a cash and stock deal.Ackman said in a statement that while the company, which is led by the British-born Sir Lucian Grainge, had done “an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance”, its share price had lagged owing to issues “unrelated to the performance of its music business”.Shares in UMG, which have been listed in Amsterdam since 2021, have lost more than a quarter of their value in the past year alone.The company is one of the “big three” record labels, alongside Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group
An AI bot invited me to its party in Manchester. It was a pretty good night
Two weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I’d agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.Despite all this, it was a pretty good night.In early February, a class of new, powerful AI assistants went viral. The assistants, called OpenClaw, represented a step change in the rapidly improving capabilities of AI – in large part because, unlike other AI agents, they could be untethered from guardrails and set loose upon the world
Kurt Strauss obituary
My father, Kurt Strauss, who has died aged 95, was a senior engineer who worked for more than two decades at the Electricity Council, the government body that coordinated electricity supply in England and Wales before privatisation in 1990.He worked for all of that time within the council’s overseas relations branch, managing international relationships, technical exchanges and consultancy services while rising steadily through the ranks to associate director. German by birth but brought up in the UK, he was a passionate European who spoke French and German, and was therefore well suited to those responsibilities.Kurt was born in Degerloch, a suburb of Stuttgart, into a Jewish family. In 1937 his parents, Viktor, who worked in the family down and feather business, and Marianne (nee Melzer), sent Kurt’s older brother, Helmut, to safety in Britain, where he ended up at a boarding school, Sidcot, in Somerset
The Masters is a welcome oasis in golf’s fractious world, despite its stuffy foibles | Ewan Murray
It is easy to poke fun at the prissy traditions of the Masters. Golfers, never mind spectators, enter a state of panic over what horrible fate may befall them should they break the rules inside Augusta National. It is preposterous in so many ways; adults consumed by fear over missteps at a golf tournament. People do not typically feel this way inside the Sistine Chapel.This year, there are reasons to be grateful for Augusta’s unapologetic approach
Michigan defeats UConn to win NCAA men’s basketball championship – as it happened
I’m waiting for a Final Four MVP (or MOP, as they call it – Most Outstanding Player) announcement. And here it is …It’s Elliot Cadeau. Well deserved.On that note, we’ll wrap this college basketball season. Back again in November
UK City firms report fastest turnaround in fortunes in 30 years
UK manufacturers ‘will pay £940m a year more in business rates due to Reeves changes’
UK’s leading AI research institute told to make ‘significant’ changes
Google to tap into gas plant for AI datacenter in sharp turn from climate goals
‘You have to have a bit of heartache’: Justin Rose on his bid to avoid being Masters nearly man
Sir Craig Reedie, key London 2012 Olympics figure and former BOA chair, dies aged 84