All eyes on Thursday turned to the Conservative party's rulemaker, Sir Graham Brady, as he began organising the one-week contest that will select Britain's next prime minister.
Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday, after barely six weeks in office, after her policies flopped spectacularly with markets, voters and MPs.
With no appetite in the party for a drawn-out contest, Ms Truss said the next leader would be chosen within a week.
But it will be up to Mr Brady to set out the rules for the leadership election. The short timeline suggests the grassroots Tory membership will not be given a say, with the decision left to Conservative MPs.
Mr Brady was in Downing Street shortly before Ms Truss's announcement, after a growing number of MPs wrote to him to call for her resignation.
Letters to Mr Brady, in his role as chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, are the mechanism by which Tory MPs can trigger a vote of no confidence if enough MPs demand one.
In the event, no ballot was necessary because Ms Truss accepted that her authority was gone and that she no longer had the support of the majority of MPs.
Sir Graham, the man in the eye of the storm, has seen three prime ministers leave office with varying degrees of his help.
The MP for Altrincham and Sale West, near Manchester, has been chairman of the 1922 Committee since 2010 when David Cameron was prime minister.
In that time there have been votes of no confidence against two prime ministers — Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Questions over Ms May’s leadership largely revolved around her handling of Brexit negotiations with the EU.
Mr Johnson won the confidence vote but it left him politically wounded and he was soon out of office.
For Ms Truss to face an imminent vote, rules must be changed.
Normally, time would be on her side as a newly elected party leader because committee rules say there cannot be a challenge in the first year.
But the committee has the power to change its own rules, something it has done before, and MPs were angry after the budget U-turn and subsequent chaos.
Under the existing rules, 15 per cent of the 356 Conservative MPs would have needed to write a letter requesting a confidence vote.
Sir Graham was a shadow minister during the party's time out of power but he has never had a ministerial post. In 2010, he was made chairman of the 1922 Committee.
He is 55 and married with two children and has largely stayed away from the greasy-pole climb to higher positions of power.
In May 2019, he resigned as committee chairman to consider a run for prime minister in the contest won by Mr Johnson. In the event, he did not enter the race.
Six weeks ago, Sir Graham announced that Ms Truss had won the party leadership contest and embraced her on stage.
Her tenure as prime minister was shorter than anyone at the time could have imagined.
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
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Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
RESULT
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Bayern Munich 4
Leverkusen: Alario (9'), Wirtz (89')
Bayern: Coman (27'), Goretzka (42'), Gnabry (45'), Lewandowski (66')
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
Brief scoreline:
Al Wahda 2
Al Menhali 27', Tagliabue 79'
Al Nassr 3
Hamdallah 41', Giuliano 45 1', 62'
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
