UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
Poll: Who do you think won the UK election debate?
Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg made history tonight with the first live election debate on British TV.
Who won the debate?
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David Cameron
Nick Clegg
Gordon Brown
No clear winner
View Results
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from The Great Debate UK:
Tariq Ali on how unions fare under Labour rule
Amid a stand-off between British Airways and the Unite union, the Labour Party's main financial supporter, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a planned strike by BA cabin crew workers "unjustified and deplorable" last week and said both sides should return to talks.
Rail signal workers in the RMT union are also threatening to strike, but haven't announced a date.
UKIP plots poll breakthrough at conference
After last year’s unprecedented success in European elections, which saw Labour beaten into third place, it isn’t really a surprise that the United Independence Party faithful were in a buoyant mood at their spring conference.
Certainly the location was unlikely to be the cause — the Jury’s Inn hotel in Milton Keynes is probably unlikely to excite many people – but among the 500-odd prospective candidates and activists there was a palpable belief their party could be about to make a breakthrough in parliamentary elections and win their first seat in Westminster.
Prospective MPs go dating to woo voters
As a group of smartly dressed men and women take their seats, in pairs, at small round tables in the dining room of a converted textile factory in Nottingham city centre, some look nervous, some confident, and others just eager to get started.
But before they can, the rules of “speed dating” must be explained: every 5 minutes one person from each pair will rotate to the next table, until everyone has had a chance to speak to everyone else. A whistle is blown. “Let the first date begin,” cries the host and a hum of conversation quickly fills the basement room.
from The Great Debate UK:
Rory Cellan-Jones on virtual democracy
Direct, real-time communication among politicians and the public through social media platforms is reshaping democracy and the news media, but questions remain about how the fabric of society might change as a result, argued a panel at an event hosted by the BBC on Tuesday evening at Westminster.
The Web provides a de-centralised opportunity for users to communicate from various points on the political-economic spectrum, but gatekeepers are emerging who try and curtail the dissemination of information they find objectionable, suggested panellist Aleks Krotoski, who recently completed work on the BBC series "Virtual Revolution".
Cameron survives Lewisham lion’s den
On the face of it, the booing suffered by David Cameron at the hands of a boisterous group of students and job-seekers at a London college is not a good news story for the Tories.
Facing loud accusations of being a Thatcherite clone and jeers of “No Tory cuts” is presumably not what the Tory spin doctors hoped for when they organised this merry jaunt to Lewisham College.
Lib Dems bag a Tory – Edward McMillan-Scott
David Cameron’s troublesome Euro MP Edward McMillan-Scott is a Conservative no more and has joined the Liberal Democrats. There is no love lost between the independent-minded Macmillan-Scott and the Tories after they expelled him for defying the party over their (anti-)European policy.
He came to the Liberal Democrat’s Spring Conference in Birmingham on Saturday (March 13) and was more than happy to be pictured alongside his new leader, Nick Clegg.
Jeremy Hunt unveils Tory technology platform
As the three main UK political parties vie for positioning ahead of a general election to be held by June, the Conservatives unveiled their “Technology Manifesto” on Thursday in London outlining the key issues they would address if they form the next government.
Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude presented ideas on everything from improving broadband speeds to making government data accessible online.
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The Wall
