UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
Hung parliament haunts Conservatives
      A once unthinkable prospect is striking fear into the hearts of the Conservative Party faithful as they gather for their last conference before the British election — that the party could fall short of winning a parliamentary majority.
After months of big opinion poll leads, the opposition Conservatives looked set fair to win the election, expected in May, ending Labour’s 13-year grip on power.
But, even though Britain is just emerging from its deepest recession since World War Two and Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown is unpopular, the latest polls show the Conservative lead narrowing to as little as five points.
That means there is a growing likelihood that the election will result in a “hung parliament”, where no party enjoys overall control, for the first time since 1974.
from MacroScope:
Britain heading for rude awakening?
 
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There is a divisive election ahead for Britain, the threat of a ratings downgrade on its sovereign debt and a deficit that has ballooned into the largest by percentage of any major economy. UK stocks, bonds and sterling, however, are trundling along as if all were well. What gives?
For a fuller discussion on the issue click here, but the gist is that all three asset classes  are being support by factors that may be masking the danger of a broad reversal. UK equities have been driven higher by the improving global economy, bonds held up by the Bank of England's huge buying programme and sterling by valuation and the distress of others.
from FaithWorld:
Did Jesus headline Glastonbury before Springsteen?
Jesus Christ may have visited an English town now renowned for a raucous modern-day music festival to meet ancient druids, a new film argues. "And Did Those Feet" explores the theory that Jesus accompanied Joseph of Arimathea on a visit to the area around the southern English town of Glastonbury.
(Photo: At the end of Glastonbury Festival 2009, 29 June 2009/Luke MacGregor)
The Glastonbury Festival held on a farm near the town draws some of the 21st century's biggest music stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, Neil Young and U2 to the world's largest open air music and arts festival.
Drawing the line against the Taliban
Fight them there or fight them here?
Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells poses the question in the Guardian in a piece made grimly relevant by Wednesday’s shooting dead of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman.
Howells says troops should be brought back from Afghanistan and that the billions of pounds saved should be used to beef up homeland security in Britain – drawing the front line against al Qaeda around the UK rather than thousands of miles away in Helmand province.
from FaithWorld:
Climate change debate spurs warm feelings in London
It is rare that religion and science find agreement, but that is what happened when Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks spoke at a meeting on saving the earth from climate change.
"The great Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson published a book in 2007 called "Creation", subtitled An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," Sacks told leaders of all the major faiths meeting at Lambeth Palace in London on Thursday.
from The Great Debate UK:
Will politicians come clean on tax hikes?
As political parties step up their campaigning ahead of a general election due by June 2010, voters need to know exactly how politicians plan to tackle a projected deficit of 175 billion pounds, says Stephen Herring, senior tax partner at accountancy firm BDO LLP.
In a report titled "Time to Break the Silence" BDO suggests there will not only be cuts in public spending, but substantial business tax increases.
from FaithWorld:
Will Queen Elizabeth give the pope a warm welcome next year?
One can guess what Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will say to Pope Benedict when the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion travels to the Vatican later this year. The more interesting question might be what Queen Elizabeth is likely to say when she hosts the pope next year.
(Photo: Queen Elizabeth, 13 June 2009/Luke MacGregor)
The timing of the trips couldn't be more intriguing, especially the second one. The pope is due to visit Britain in September 2010 and is expected to preside there over the beatification of the late Cardinal John Henry Newman, a famous 19th-century convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
from Global Investing:
Global FTSE 100 shrugs off parochial UK GDP data
Britain's FTSE 100 seems to be almost impervious to any bad data that can be thrown at it. GDP data shocked the market showing the UK unexpectedly contracted in the third quarter.
Sterling tumbled more than a cent against the greenbackand gilts jumped while the FTSEurofirst 300 pan-European equity index trimmed gains considerably.
from Global Investing:
Pity Poor Pound
Britain's pound has long been the whipping boy of notoriously fickle currency markets, but there are worrying signs that it's not just hedge funds and speculators who have lost faith in sterling. Reuters FX columnist Neal Kimberley neatly illustrated yesterday just how poor sentiment toward sterling in the dealing rooms has become and the graphic below (on the sharp buildup of speculative 'short' positsions seen in U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data) shows how deeply that negative view has become entrenched.
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 While the pound's inexorable grind down to parity with the euro captures the popular headlines, the Bank of England's index of sterling against a trade-weighted basket of world currencies shows that weakness is pervasive. The index has lost more than a quarter of its value in little over two years -- by far the worst of the G4 (dollar, euro, sterling and yen) currencies over the financial crisis. The dollar's equivalent index has shed only about a third of the pound's losses since mid-2007, while the euro's has jumped about 10% and the yen's approximately 20% over that period.
Clouds of change: Buzzwords from conference season
Opposition leader David Cameron has delivered his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester.******Cameron told delegates there would be “painful” cuts in public spending, promised to send more troops to Afghanistan and stressed the importance of confronting “Labour’s debt crisis.” He also pledged to modernise the pension system, “break the cycle of welfare dependency” and cut back on bureaucracy to make life easier for entrepreneurs.******Cameron’s speech brings conference season to an end. Leaders of the three main parties — Cameron, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrats — have all laid out their plans for Britain ahead of a general election due by June 2010.******The ‘word clouds’ below have been generated using the complete texts from each of the leaders’ keynote conference speeches, in the order they were given. At first glance there are some striking similarities and fascinating overlaps — but we will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.******How did you think each of the leaders performed? Who did you find the most convincing? Is David Cameron ready to lead the country?******Keywords from Nick Clegg’s speech:******
******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Keywords from Gordon Brown’s speech:******
******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Â ******Keywords from David Cameron’s speech:******
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The Wall
