This week, Douglas Carswell MP and Steve Baker MP are putting an interesting proposal before the Commons in the form of their Financial Services (Regulation of Deposits and Lending) Bill. The proposal would clarify the relationship between banks and deposit holders by requiring banks to gain explicit permission to lend out money. Such a reform… [Read More]
Last week saw the first of four planned Tube strikes by the RMT and TSSA unions, writes Stephen Clarke. In a similar vein the TUC’s annual gathering, which began today, saw the TUC’s Chief Brendan Barber call for ‘a broad solidarity of unions and communities under threat’, the threat being the Government’s austerity plan and… [Read More]
The recent OECD report, Education at a Glance 2010, has been seized upon by the media to claim that Britain’s excellence in education is falling. The UK’s decline in graduation numbers – from joint third OECD wide in 2000 to 15th by 2008 – has been used to suggest the country is losing its competitive… [Read More]
The European Union’s summer recess is officially over, writes Natalie Hamill. EU officials are back in Brussels and preparing to do battle over the 2011 draft EU budget. These negotiations are always fraught with disagreements as Member States squabble over contributions and allocations, but this year’s budget talks promise to be even more explosive after… [Read More]
One important result of the financial crisis that began in mid-2007 is the immense proliferation of political debate about subjects that were previously seen as niche or specialist, writes Stephen Clarke. This is undoubtedly a good thing, the less opaque a subject is, the more people can be party to discussions about it.
The Avro Vulcan, an iconic plane, is a masterpiece of British engineering and a symbol of the manufacturing proficiency we once had. While the industry that produced it is no more, the last Vulcan can inspire a new generation to continue where we left off.
Monday marked the two year anniversary of the signing of the ‘Friendship Treaty’ on immigration between Italy and Libya, writes Natalie Hamill. Visiting Italy for the fourth time this year, Colonel Gaddafi punctuated his visit with several provocative claims, not least that the EU should pay Libya €5 billion a year to stop migration flows… [Read More]
Proust’s madeleines may evoke a merry-go-round of warm childish memories, but a trip to Disneyland Paris is the stuff of nightmares, writes Annaliese Briggs.
The internationally respected former Home Office criminologist, Professor Ken Pease, has shown that it will not be feasible to save money by releasing convicted prisoners from jail. According to Prison, Community Sentencing and Crime, not only does the available evidence suggest that offending will not be reduced, the Government’s hope of cutting expenditure on prisons… [Read More]
A survey has found that very few people are intending to buy 3D capable TVs in the coming twelve months. While this finding has been labelled as a ‘surprise’, it is hardly shocking given the rapid (and perhaps temporary) ascent of 3D TVs into the market. The result reflects not the ‘conservative’ habits of consumers… [Read More]