Author: Tom Wooldridge
This week in politics
| September 9, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
George Osborne this week suggested that he is considering abolishing the 50p tax rate that applies to any individual who earns over £150,000 per year. This applies to 310,000 people, the richest 1% of the population. Due to estimates made by Labour when they introduced it in 2009, it would bring in £1.3bn in revenue for the 2010-2011 financial year, £3.1bn for the 2011-2012 financial year and £2.7bn for the 2012-2013 financial year. Osborne has asked HM Revenue & Customs to find out how much is collected in this tax and it could be dropped as early as 2013. This is an absurd suggestion that has unfortunately been endorsed by 20 economists, including one that used to sit on the monetary policy committee. It has… more
This week in politics
| September 2, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
Ed Miliband is trying to shape the political agenda this autumn on the issue of police cuts. Labour have calculated that the police can take a 12% cut in funding before frontline services are affected and the government is cutting their funding by 20% by 2015. He is planning to force a vote on the issue through an E-petition, these are on a dedicated website and if a petition gets 100,000 signatures then it will be sent to a back bench committee of MPs who will consider scheduling a debate on the issue. If Ed gets his way, the government will be forced to debate it and Labour will push for a vote on the policy. This could be contentious with the current internal review… more
This week in politics
| August 26, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The news of the week is Libya; the five month bombing campaign has finally resulted in Gaddafi losing power. It came together with NATO flying over 20,000 sorties and dropping bombs on 7,000 of those sorties – they also enforced a no-fly zone and bombed regime buildings and armoured vehicles that put civilians lives at risk. This was their mandate from UN Resolution 1973 and they have been criticised since April for not sticking strictly to this. They developed a command system with the rebels to order in airstrikes and western forward air controllers played a major part in the campaign. These are rumoured to be French and British Special Forces, and the Qatari Government has funded private contractors that… more
This week in politics – part 2: US presidential special
| August 20, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under international, this week in politics |
The US Presidential election had its first major event last week, the Ames Straw Poll. This is the first Republican event, where candidates can attract support from the electorate and, if successful, it can help a candidate bring significant donations in, attract attention and support from the media, and support from voters nationally. It takes place in the state of Iowa and involves a dinner for high paying guests, whose money goes to the Republic State Committee, but also a vote that anyone over 16.5 years of age and who is a resident of Iowa can vote in for a fee of $30. Some candidates such as Michele Bachman paid her own supporters’ entry fees to vote in the poll.… more
This week in politics – part 1
| August 19, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The riots began on August 6th in Tottenham following the shooting of a suspected drug dealer Mark Duggan by armed police. The family then went to the police station to ask to speak to a senior policeman, and after being refused they were joined by three hundred people from the community. A peaceful march degenerated into riots which eventually claimed five lives. Three of the five were protecting the shops in the community when they were tragically killed. Although there were widespread riots in London, there were also riots in Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol as well as smaller riots in some towns such as Gloucester. The bulk of them happened in poorer areas where unemployment is high, particularly youth… more
This week in politics
| July 29, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The top international news that has been developing over the last week has been the challenge of raising America’s debt limit. It hit $14.3tr on March 16th this year, and government spending has been covered since then by the federal pensions pot which will need replenishing. Congress must approve a raise or America can’t borrow any more money which would stop defence payments, social security payments and interest on their debt; this would be a debt default and lead to higher interest rates on their debt in the future as well as global financial problems. Raising the debt limit used to be a common occurrence that passed easily but with the Tea Party having extensive influence in the House of Representatives,… more
What is slacklining?
| July 28, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under lifestyle, sport |
Slacklining is best described as a cross between a tightrope and a trampoline. It has been used by climbers, surfers, snowboarders and other extreme sports fans to improve their strength, particularly in the core muscles, and balance for many years. It’s now becoming more popular as a sport in its own right with events being held all over the country since May this year. This phenomena began in the 1970s in Yosemite National Park, which is a rock climbing heaven, where many of the world’s best rock climbers avoided working and spent all their time scaling 1000-metre cliffs. The sport began in the evenings, when they would tie a rope to two trees and walk on it. This was as technical as it got until the… more
This week in politics
| July 22, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The news of the week was The News of the World again: Murdoch Jr and Sr appeared in front of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport this week, but what grabbed the headlines weren’t their answers, but the man pictured below who put shaving foam in the face of Rupert Murdoch. There is a link to the clip here - this is the best bit of the hearing. Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch followed PR advice they had been given, appearing sincere; “This is the most humble day of my life” is what Rupert Murdoch ‘claimed’ at the start of the hearing. They followed legal advice and didn’t incriminate themselves; Rupert repeatedly claimed he was a hands-off owner of… more
This week in politics
| July 15, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
I will start off with the story that has dominated the papers over the last week; phone hacking. The questions got bigger this week with Rupert Murdoch being forced to drop his BSkyB bid and News Corp as a result losing £2.6bn in value. It was finally released officially that phone hacking was not just a “rogue reporter”, but a widespread problem among the News of the World “journalists”. It was also revealed that The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun “blagged” the personal financial details of Gordon Brown and got hold of records indicating his son’s illness was held in private medical records. What do all these news agencies have in common? Rupert Murdoch. This time last week I was cut off from… more
This week in politics
| July 4, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
I would first like to apologise for the belatedness of this article, it was supposed to come out at the weekend but unfortunately this one is late. This Week in Politics will be released at the weekend with a brief roundup of the week’s major news. Next week’s edition will also be late due to me being away for the weekend. The biggest story of this week was the general strike on Thursday 30th June. As many of you will know, this had been rumbling along for a while and the NUT (National Union of Teachers), ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) and UCU (University and College Union) all balloted over three weeks ago for strikes. The funniest element of this ongoing story happened… more
