The Telegraph’s Frontpage in the morning of 2022/11/03

By Danny Boyle Good morning. The Bank of England is expected to unveil the biggest interest rate rise since Black Wednesday. On the other side of the Atlantic, US officials are ‘concerned’ about Russian sabre-rattling.

Rising inflation may sink house prices by 30pc

As it tries to control the runaway inflation that is battering British households, the Bank of England is poised to raise interest rates by the most since Black Wednesday today. In a crunch meeting, the nine members of the monetary policy committee will make a decision that could push up the amount that millions of mortgage holders pay every month. It comes after the US Federal Reserve announced a steep increase in borrowing costs for an unprecedented fourth time. The Fed’s decision to put up rates by 0.75 percentage points piles pressure on Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank, to follow suit with a rise of the same scale in the UK. A 0.75 point increase would take the Bank’s interest rate to levels last reached in November 2008. It would mark the Bank’s eighth consecutive rate rise and its largest since policymakers scrambled to protect the pound on Black Wednesday in 1992. Follow our live coverage. As Simon Foy and Tom Rees report, the Treasury is expected to closely watch market reaction, with a decision looming over potential spending cuts and ministers meeting to discuss the defence budget. Markets expect the Bank’s rate-setters to vote for a 0.75 point increase at its monetary policy committee meeting, although they are yet to make a decision. For homeowners with a £200,000 mortgage, this would typically add £84 per month on to their payments. However, property correspondent Melissa Lawford explains why mortgages could get cheaper even though interest rates are rising. PS: The BBC may be told to stop using the term “tax burden” and other phrases as part of a review to avoid bias in its coverage. James Warrington explores how its economics journalism came under attack.

‘Concern’ in US over Russian nuclear weapons talk The United States is “increasingly concerned” after it emerged senior Russian military officials had discussed when and how to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. US intelligence monitored the conversations, which did not involve Vladimir Putin but caused unease in Washington in the wake of aggressive nuclear rhetoric from the Russian president. US officials were clear they had seen no evidence of the preparation of such weapons and that no vehicles capable of firing missiles had been observed moving into launch positions. But the rattling once more of the nuclear sabre by the Kremlin has focused attention on the issue, just as Russia continues to suffer setbacks on the battlefield. Associate editor Dominic Nicholls explains what Russia could do next.

Fleur wins Strictly dance-off after tumble edited out She won last week’s dance-off to remain in Strictly Come Dancing. But it has emerged that contestant Fleur East was allowed to start her performance again after a fall that was hidden from viewers. The singer fell over before her first attempt with partner Vito Coppola and the pair were allowed to restart their routine. Judges sent the pair through to the next round as James Bye, an EastEnders star, was sent home. Read how the tumble was edited out and not mentioned during the results show.

Also in the news this morning NHS | Labour has warned ministers they could not continue to throw “ever-increasing taxpayers’ money” at the NHS. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said “there isn’t going to be an NHS in the future” unless the service was moved away from a “20th-century model of care”. He made the case for reforms as officials seek to close a £7bn funding gap next year, in addition to planned health budget hikes.

Migration | Asylum seekers ‘abandoned’ at London station Manchester Arena report | Victims to sue emergency services More than 150 victims of the Manchester Arena attack are preparing legal action ahead of a report that is expected to heavily criticise the emergency response to the bombing. Network Rail | Train delays worse, despite fewer journeys Three in 10 trains are now late and cancellations are rising, Britain’s railways regulator warned Network Rail in a letter.The percentage of trains arriving on time at stations was 70.2pc in September 2022, compared to 72.6pc in April 2022, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). Royals | ‘It took a long time to realise I felt used by Diana’ What’s alien for hello? | Scientists set to work on meet and greet The University of St Andrews has joined forces with the UK SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Network to establish protocols and procedures if aliens are found.The team warn that although there are measures in place for dealing with threats posed by asteroid impacts, there is no agreed response if a radio signal were picked up from another intelligent lifeform.

Around the world: Missile launch seen as ‘an invasion’

North Korea fired a missile across a maritime border for the first time – an act denounced by President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea as a “territorial invasion”. It was part of a barrage of at least 23 projectiles launched into the sea by Pyongyang, the most missiles ever fired by the North in a single day. As Nicola Smith reports, South Korea fired three air-to-surface missiles into waters back across the sea border.

A man in the South Korean capital, Seoul, watches TV coverage of the launch. Credit: AFP

Comment and analysis

Allister Heath | Tories have wasted chance after chance The terrible truth is that the Tories in general, and the Right in particular, have failed to shift the country in a conservative direction, defeated by incompetence, the power of the dominant Left-wing ideology and vested interests, and some bad luck. Far from standing athwart history and yelling stop, as William F Buckley demanded, the Conservatives have succumbed to the tyranny of the status quo. + Radical political change requires democratic assent, followed by the reform of bureaucratic institutions, legal changes, brilliant management and great communications. The Tories should become more comfortable with bypassing elites, and directly consulting the public via referendums: this will probably be the only way that the NHS or planning will ever be reformed. Truss should have immediately pledged local plebiscites for fracking. Jeremy Warner | Catastrophic consequences of lockdown Like a major war, the pandemic has left a devastating legacy With seven high-end eateries to his name, the Michelin-starred Jason Atherton is one of London’s leading restaurateurs. Against the odds, they all survived the pandemic – just about. But acute staff shortages – he’s got 350 unfilled jobs – are now forcing him to consider the closure of all but two or three of them. He’s not alone. Tom Kerridge, Rick Stein, Angela Hartnett, Raymond Blanc, and a host of other celebrity cooks that regularly pop up on our TV screens, are all bleeding. The demand is there; the waiters and chefs are not. Brexit has no doubt played some part in this dearth of qualified workers. So many of our restaurant staff have long been from the Continent. But the much bigger cause is the pandemic, which appears to have durably shrunk the available labour force. There are many deeply negative consequences of Covid-19 and the lockdown strategies that accompanied it; absence of workers is just one of the more visible of them. The others are almost too numerous to list. Aggregated together, the picture is one of ruination. It is only now that the full enormity of these costs is beginning to become apparent. Like a major war, the pandemic has left a devastating legacy. From crisis in the public finances to double digit inflation, rising interest rates and growing geopolitical instability, lockdown has changed the world as we know it. It has hugely accelerated the passage from an age of relative plenty, price stability, globalisation and ultra cheap credit, to one of inflation, austerity, insecurity, superpower conflict, and chronic uncertainty. Michael Deacon | It is time to stop grovelling to Greta it’s time for Greta’s groupies both to act their age, and to remember hers. Tories, in particular, should beware. As should be blindingly obvious to them, Ms Thunberg isn’t merely an environmentalist. She’s an anti-capitalist. Tories who cheer her are like turkeys not just voting for Christmas, but posing for a selfie with the farmer first. Telegraph View | The weight of tax is certainly a burden Reader letters | Controls would benefit those in greatest need

Editor’s choice

	Death of the fax | An ode to the machine that launched a thousand romances Farewell then to the fax, the communications engine of the yuppie era, whose screeching whirr was the soundtrack to office life in the 1980s and 90s. Its final death knell was sounded this week when Ofcom proposed rule changes to drop the legal requirement for BT to provide connections for fax services at an affordable price. Cue a wave of nostalgia for yet another artefact from the past – the Sony Walkman, the answering machine and VHS cassettes – to be consigned to the rubbish heap of obsolete technology.
	Crime-fighters | What’s gone wrong with police vetting and can it be fixed? “It is too easy for the wrong people both to join and to stay in the police.” + Female officers report unwanted sexual advances by colleagues who sent them naked selfies and make racist remarks. One told of being sent “extremely sexually graphic” messages by a male officer who subsequently had his behaviour downgraded from “gross misconduct” – a sackable offence – to “misconduct”, for which he was merely given a written warning. + While no one suggests that failures in vetting leading to police corruption, racism or misogyny are a new thing, there is an obvious reason why they might be getting worse: pressure to recruit. After years of complaining about numbers, police were in 2019 given the staffing boost they wanted, when the Conservative government of Boris Johnson vowed to add 20,000 officers in three years. It is an astonishing drive that has already recruited more than 15,000 officers, and is set to be complete by next March.
	Threat to culture | Why our galleries are powerless against art activists In recent weeks alone, activists have attached themselves to a dinosaur display in Berlin’s Natural History Museum, and hurled fake blood at a Toulouse-Lautrec across town in the Alte Nationalgalerie, while a man glued his head to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis in the Hague, days after a Monet was covered in mash at Potsdam’s Museum Barberini.

Business briefing: Glencore ‘flew bribes on private jets’ Glencore bribed government officials using millions of pounds in cash that had been transported around Africa on private jets, a court heard. Ahead of the mining company’s punishment being handed out at Southwark Crown Court, lawyers for the Serious Fraud Office revealed the bribery schemes used by employees to gain preferential access to oil cargoes. Separately, the cost of capping Britain’s energy bills is expected to be slashed by an expected 30pc slide in gas prices this winter.

And finally… for this morning’s downtime

Travel | We place immense importance on our holidays – perhaps even more since the pandemic and the limits that were imposed on travel – so it is little wonder that academics have devoted plenty of research time to the science of the perfect break. Thanks to their findings, and to mark Stress Awareness Day, Amanda Hyde has devised a ten-point formula for a failsafe escape.