by Peter Kyle MP | Nov 28, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
While expectations were already low for this year’s autumn statement, the conventional wisdom was that the chancellor would have at least have to do something for social care. After all, the government’s own regulator of care services, the Care Quality Commission, had...
by Renaud Thillaye | Nov 28, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
In a year not short of unexpected political developments, François Fillon has, against all odds, stormed the French centre-right primary. While has was stagnating between 5 and 10 per cent in the polls until September 2016, Fillon scored an impressive 44 per cent in...
by Jonathan Ashworth MP | Nov 25, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
This week we saw the clearest evidence yet that Theresa May and the Tories are failing our health service. At a time when the National Health Service is facing the biggest financial difficulties in its history, the Tory government has chosen not to invest a single...
by Seema Malhotra MP | Nov 25, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
Wednesday’s autumn statement was a stark admission of two things: the failure of the last six years of economic policy, and the sheer cost of Brexit. It failed on the tests of fairness and fell far short of what we need to properly build a strong future. Many of...
by Stephen Beer | Nov 25, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
The election of Donald Trump will have far-reaching implications for United Kingdom foreign and defence policy. The problem is, we do not yet know what those implications will be. However we can draw some interim conclusions. Trump has expressed admiration for...
by Grace Skelton | Nov 24, 2016 | Grace Skelton
The figures in Philip Hammond’s first autumn statement yesterday confirmed that the dire economic outlook and the pinch most are feeling in the run up to Christmas is well and truly on the Conservatives. This economic mess is theirs and theirs alone. The figures from...
by Gabriel Gavin | Nov 24, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
Yesterday’s autumn statement comes amid an escalating crisis in our prisons. Just this week, unrest at HMP Moorland meant more than 60 prisoners had to be relocated to other prisons after cells and communal spaces were damaged. Undoubtedly, one reason for the...
by Mike Katz | Nov 24, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
Well, if that was his version of a dramatic flourish, it is probably just as well that Philip Hammond concluded his first autumn statement by promising to abolish them in future. That the rescheduling of parliamentary budget statements was the gimmick of the day...
by Allen Simpson | Nov 23, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
There is a well trodden formula to government finance announcements. The chancellor rumbles on about why the economy is heading in the right direction under his watch but doom would surely result if the feckless opposition were in charge. Then after the cleansing...
by Sally Keeble | Nov 23, 2016 | Section: Web exclusive
Philip Hammond’s autumn statement reinforced the position of Theresa May’s as a traditional Tory government – right eye on the business community, left eye on key voters, and everyone else falls through the gap in the middle. There were some welcome measures,...
