Brexit bravado, spiders and Yorkshire’s wheels in motion
Brexit talks resume today in Brussels and with less than a year to go before exit day, the stakes are high. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, will also be in Dundalk, Ireland to address a meeting of the All-Island Civil Dialogue on Brexit. Playing Harry Potter to his Voldemort will be Tory Brexit procrastinator-in-chief Jacob ReesMogg, who will be luxuriating in an LBC phone-in.
Turn the clock back to 2014 and Yorkshire was vying with London to host the Tour de France Grand Départ, and were it not for the stalwart efforts of Welcome to Yorkshire’s Chief Executive Sir Gary Verity, the Tour de Yorkshire would not now exist. God’s Own County stole a march on the capital and in so doing started a new tradition, the Tour de Yorkshire, now into its fourth year. This year’s race will begin in Beverley on Thursday and finish in Leeds on Sunday. Both men’s and women’s races have been expanded, with an extra day added. In total, there are around 7,800 metres of climbing over the race’s 711 kilometres.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will be guest speaker today at an Irish Embassy reception in London. Mr Williamson will address the reception, which is being held in honour of The Journalists’ Charity.
Mr Williamson, known for his love of dangerous spiders, having kept a tarantula on his desk during his previous position, might be interested in another engagement later on in the week. On Wednesday, London Zoo’s Friendly Spider Programme will unveil its cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnotherapy programme, designed to ease or eliminate arachnophobia – not something the Secretary of State for Defence offered during his tenure as chief whip.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is expected to make a keynote speech tomorrow at the launch of the internet giant’s annual F8 developer conference, in California. He will talk about new ‘apps’ and other products, in addition to referencing recent controversies surrounding the company’s use of personal data.
Thursday sees Theresa May - and other political leaders - face the biggest test of local opinion since last year’s election. Though the national focus will be on London where Labour expect to make sweeping gains, the party hopes to take overall control of Kirklees and Calderdale councils. It will also be a major shock if the party’s candidate Dan Jarvis, the Barnsley MP, does not become the first mayor for the Sheffield City Region, a result which is expected to be announced on Friday. If elected, he will champion the One Yorkshire devolution agenda.
Elections for city, metropolitan borough and district councillors take place on May 3, with 10 authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber holding votes for some or all of their representatives. Across the country, all metropolitan boroughs other than Doncaster and Rotherham – which had boundary changes in previous years – have elections. A number of local authorities, including Leeds, Hull and Harrogate, will hold ‘all-out’ elections, with every council seat up for grabs.
Have we reached ‘peak smartphone’? This could be the central question for technology giant Apple as it unveils its latest quarterly results tomorrow. Although profits are still expected to be in the billions, the stockmarket is worried that people are keeping their smartphones for longer. Still, Apple shouldn’t be overly concerned – it has a cash pile of about $285bn.