UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from Matt Falloon:
Labour lays down policy gauntlet
The Conservatives might be wishing they could have held their party conference before Labour.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's address to his party conference in Brighton on Tuesday has thrown down a flood of new ideas, policies and initiatives from faster cancer diagnosis to choosing how Britain votes in what read more like an mini-election manifesto than a speech.
Brown played to his strengths (policy) and avoided trying to overcome his well-known weaknesses (not much of a political entertainer) in public. Trying to be someone else could have been a disaster for a man way behind in the polls to the Conservatives.
Whether it will be enough to make any difference to the polls remains to be seen -- Labour needs a miracle there after all.
But, for now, going for the policy jugular seems to have done the trick -- giving his browbeaten party something to get excited about and hitting the Conservatives where it hurts.
David Cameron's Conservatives have been accused of not giving enough detail on how they would govern the country if the polls are correct and they are to win power next year.
They will have to start showing their hand soon if they are going to convince voters that they have the ideas to run the country and aren't just a vote for change for the sake of it.
from The Great Debate UK:
Government must deliver on Olympic legacy promise
- Hugh Robertson is the opposition Conservatives' Olympics spokesman. The views expressed are his own. -
With three years to go, it is remarkable that London 2012 is going so well.
London’s Olympics were launched with a massive government miscalculation that resulted in the budget having to be increased threefold, were based on a plan that required us to build two Terminal 5s in half the time and have had to contend with the worst economic recession in living memory.
How should Britain prosecute its drugs strategy?
Britain’s drug strategy is under the spotlight following the UK Drug Policy Commission’s (UKDPC) recommendation that there is too much energy spent on arresting drug dealers and not enough on reducing harm to communities.
Latest figures show that nearly 90,000 people were arrested in England and Wales for drug offences, with over one billion pounds spent on law enforcement, with £17.6 billion the estimated cost of the UK drug markets.
When will Britain bin its plastic bag habit?
Seven leading supermarkets and their customers are finding it slow going to stop using plastic bags.
Over the last three years supermarkets have reduced the number of bags from 870 million to 452 million, just failing to meet a government target to cut the number by half.
How should we fund care for the elderly?
Plans to overhaul care services for the elderly will involve creating a national care service, giving all citizens a basic entitlement and contribution to their care.
Plans outlined in a new Green Paper called “Shaping the Future of Care Together” would require people to buy insurance to supplement state funding.
Is RBS chief Stephen Hester worth £9.6m?
As chief executive for a company that is 70 percent owned by the government, a 9.6 million pounds pay package is quite a tidy sum.
It is a package that makes Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester almost as well as paid as the Real Madrid-bound Cristiano Ronaldo.
Should Joanna Lumley be allowed to dictate Gurkha policy?
While Gordon Brown increasingly draws comparisons to the mortally wounded bull gasping his last at a Spanish corrida, one personality at Westminster has been putting on a show of decisive policy-making that has brought the bloodthirsty crowd to its feet.
Totally at ease with publicity, absurdly photogenic and much loved amongst the electorate at large, actress Joanna Lumley — AbFab’s Patsy to the younger ones, The Avengers’ Purdy to more seasoned TV viewers — has provided Westminster watchers with an object lesson in how to get things done.
Punters cash in on Darling’s budget tie choice
Smokers and top earners were clear losers in Britain’s budget this year, as the government hiked taxes on cigarettes and the highest incomes.
But a lucky few must have been cheering in front of their televisions during the 51-minute speech.
Can you train a teacher in six months?
As the recession closes one door for bankers, another quickly opens.
The government’s latest educational wheeze is to allow teachers to qualify in just six months, half the current one-year time period.
Schools Minister Jim Knight wants to attract “more outstanding people” to the profession and hopes the scheme could help those such as bankers, who were excellent mathematicians and had been made unemployed, switch careers.
Can parents stop kids boozing?
The government has recommended that parents should not allow children to drink alcohol until they reach the age of 15, in the latest attempt to stop the growing tide of juvenile drinking.
It says its research has found clear parental guidelines make a difference.
“Evidence … shows that things that families do … to point out the negative and health effects of alcohol lead to children drinking much later nearer to adulthood and drinking moderately in adult life,” says Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson.
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The Wall
