(Bloomberg) --
Pride flags are flying over London for today’s annual LGBTQ parade. More than 1.5 million people attended last year, organizers said.
The government plans to apologize in Parliament for the historic treatment of gay veterans as soon as next week, following a damaging probe detailing a “culture of homophobia” that pervaded the British military for decades.
Meanwhile, divisions in the Conservative party are taking their toll on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He has complained to close colleagues that his government never gets credit for making hard decisions in the public interest.
He’s feeling the heat after a month that laid bare the parlous state of the economy, mired in persistent inflation, rising interest rates that are burning mortgage-holders, and the threat of recession. The average home price fell 4% from its peak last August and business confidence plunged in June, posting the biggest drop since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The latest woe is Britain’s failing water industry. News that Thames Water may require a government bailout to stop it from collapsing under more than £14 billion of debt has prompted estimates that hundreds of billions of pounds are needed to fix the system.The utility’s record is an environmental disgrace, Martin Ivens writes for Bloomberg Opinion, and one that feeds into a larger narrative of national gloom. Climate Minister Zac Goldsmith quit on Friday saying the UK has withdrawn leadership on climate and nature and he accused Sunak of apathy toward the environment.
Mining companies Glencore, Anglo American and Rio Tinto were the biggest decliners in a first half that saw UK large-cap stocks have their worst performance since 1999 relative to European counterparts. One bright spot is the pound, up more than 5% this year and the biggest gainer among the world’s largest economies in the first half.
And we still haven't heard the last of Boris Johnsons's WhatsApps. The government was accused of “significantly” undermining the investigation into its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by refusing to hand over all of the former prime minister's messages with his staff to the official inquiry.
With so much bad news floating around, maybe the UK should take a page from its Commonwealth partner Australia, the first country to legalize psychedelic trips to treat mental illness. MDMA and psilocybin, better known as ecstasy and magic mushrooms, were cleared for selective treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.