Category: this week in politics
This week in politics
| November 4, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The growth figure for the UK in the third quarter, from July to September, was released by the Office of National Statistics this week. Growth was an unexpected 0.5%, but despite this the Chancellor, George Osborne, is going to have to revise down his growth forecasts whilst increasing the debt forecasts for the fourth time this year. Although many economists and financial experts welcomed the news, they proceeded to repeat warnings about how close Britain is to a double-dip recession. This is even more likely when the effects of the European crises are taken into account, particularly as the UK’s main trading partner is the EU. A double-dip recession will increase the UK’s debt as benefits claimants rise and tax… more
This week in politics
| October 28, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The first elections following the Arab Spring took place on Sunday 23rd October in Tunisia. This was the first free election in the country since 1956 when a revolution removed the French from power. The results of the elections will dictate the 217 assembly members who will write a new constitution and form a caretaker government; there will be further elections in the future when the structure of the government has been created. The winner is expected to be the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, which claims to have won 40% of the seats – the party was banned under the leadership of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The results were expected on Wednesday 26th October, however due to unexpectedly large… more
This week in politics
| October 14, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
Liam Fox, the defence secretary, has had a tough week this week after the Guardian released information about his relationship with Adam Werrity. It began with the business card Werrity had been handing out which claimed he was Fox’s adviser; the Guardian followed this story up with information that Werrity had run a health consultancy and worked with a private health company while Liam Fox was Shadow Health Secretary. When Fox became Shadow Foreign Secretary in 2005 and subsequently Shadow Defence Secretary, Werrity set up the Atlantic Bridge Charity (ABC) based in Fox’s parliamentary office until the last election. The financial information ABC recorded with the Charity Commission had some anomalies considering the lifestyle that Werrity was living, and was shut… more
This week in politics
| October 7, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The Tory Party Conference this week came from Manchester, a strange choice considering the city’s traditional and current support for Labour. Theresa May made headlines over “cat gate”, her false claim that the courts barred one man from being deported because he had a cat. In actual fact the decision was made due to the Home Office not following the correct deportation procedure. This was May’s attempt to disown the Human Rights Act and Article 8, which has a “right to private family life” clause, and was quickly denounced by Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, although No. 10 still supported May. David Cameron’s speech on Wednesday 5th October was full of rhetoric and vague policy. Cameron mentioned ending the vetting and… more
This week in politics
| September 30, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
This week saw the grand event that was the Labour party conference; it was the usual situation of media management that all three parties are exceedingly good at. It seemed to succeed – even the word ‘strike’ didn’t make big headlines despite some quite harsh words by some from the Labour ranks. The unions seemed quite pleased with Miliband, feeling he listened to them more than Brown and Blair ever did, and this is important when they make up most of the party donations. Ed Miliband seemed to have more substance in his speech than Clegg did and even more than past conferences. The policy ideas included a bonus tax to build an (unrealistic) 25,000 homes a year and cutting… more
This week in politics
| September 23, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
This week saw the enticing events of the Lib Dem Conference, held in Birmingham. It was largely the same as last year with lots of rhetoric that will be forgotten by next week. Chris Huhne (Energy and Climate Change), Vince Cable (Business) and Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) all talked about the government taking action to tackle the declining economic growth. This was in stark contrast to Clegg yesterday who said that the government can do something but aren’t. This was the same week Osborne (the Chancellor) said Britain was likely to miss its borrowing target this month, with estimates suggesting we borrowed £15.9bn last month (excl. the cost of the bank bailout) compared to £14bn in August 2010,… more
This week in politics
| September 16, 2011 | Posted by Tom Wooldridge under this week in politics |
The independent commission, dispatched by George Osborne in June last year, which was looking into reforming the banking system reported this week. This was led by Sir John Vickers, a professor at Oxford University, who led the Office of Fair Trading from 2000-2005 and before that was Chief Economist and member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. He is returning to academia following this report. The report was commissioned to look into “structural and non-structural reforms” to “promote financial stability and competition”. Basically, avoiding another economic crisis similar to that of 2008-2009. He has suggested splitting the banks into two: retail and investment banking. Retail banking is your personal bank accounts, small and medium size business… more
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
