Europe - Clegg Vs Farage

Europe - Clegg Vs Farage

Boost for British Economy

Chancellor George Osborne MP delivers budget speech.

With the general election in little more than a year away, the Chancellor George Osborne seeks to position himself with the Tories as tax cutting party for hardworking Britons.

The Chancellor received a further boost as Britain's economic prospects are set to get even better. Research carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) shows that consumer spending is set to rise by 1.5% which in turn will help growth reach its highest point since 2007.

The study comes just after figures show that unemployment fell below the 7% threshold which has been previously put in place by the Bank of England as the trigger for the raising of interest rates. We have also learned that after a six year period of high inflation, wages have finally crept up above the rate of inflation.

Though conscious of the good economic news, Mr Osborne is aware of the criticism from the Labour party that workers have yet to feel the benefits of the recovery, though many fear that the Cost of Living mantra may not be enough to persuade the electorate in the run up to the election, especially now we see inflation coming down.

The report also brings hope with regard to other measures which indicate that the recovery is becoming more balanced and makes the case that rate of growth in the British economy will pave the way for tax cuts worth up to £7 Billion.

Household consumption accounted for more than 80% of the growth which we saw last year and is furthermore set to half to around 46% as businesses feel more confident about 'splashing their cash.' With that said, business investment is set 10.1% in real terms this year.

Wrong, Ed

Prime Minister Under Fire as Minimum Pricing is Dropped

The Prime Minister David Cameron is under increasing pressure to reveal the conversations, if any, which took place between himself and his election guru, Lyton Crosby in what has been the continuation of the controversial lobby scandal.


In what was a rowdy session of Prime Minister's question time, the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Milliband was on the attack, continually pressing the Prime Minister to give an answer over the accusations.

Rowdy scenes at PMQ's today.

'He has caved into big tobacco... in a disgraceful episode', Milliband shouted over the dispatch box this afternoon, with the Prime Minister responding by clarifying that Mr. Crosby had never sought to lobby the government on anything.

Later on today, the Home Office Minister, Jeremy Browne MP confirmed that the proposed minimum pricing for alcohol would not be implemented along with plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, which have been put on hold.
This has led to the eruption of a political row in which the government has been accused of rolling over as a result of the pressure from the alcohol and tobacco industries.

Firstly, we must review the situation at hand, the Labour opposition are supposed to be doing much better at the moment, are they not? They are an opposition party tasked with holding to account a government in the mid term, but yet they are the ones who are being held to account. The influence of the trade unions in rigging candidate selections and chosing the official policies o
f the Labour Party.

In a time where unemployment is falling, the deficit has come down and the outlook for the economy as whole is looking better, where are their alternative policies?

What we are indeed faced with is a desperate opposition party in which their shadow ministers have become the story instead of creating the story. They have become the embarrassment instead of creating the embarrassment and they are the ones being held to account when they should be holding ministers to account. This is an attempt to push the spotlight and the blame away from where it is desperately needed right now.



Minimum pricing for alcohol has been dropped

I personally welcome the decision taken by the government to drop the minimum price of alcohol and the plain packaging of cigarettes because I have always felt that it has been another example of the state 'getting too big for it's boot', so to speak.
We should avoid at all costs a state in which ordinary hard working people are hit with an increase in alcohol per unit in the super markets when all they desire is a bottle of wine or some cans of lager after a difficult day at work. It is another classic case of punishing the many for the behaviour of a few.
As for the plain packaging of cigarettes, for those who actually believe that plain packets for cigarettes will actually improve the state of public health are, I am afraid, misguided. People are already addicted to tobacco and I am sure the last thing which gets people smoking in the first place, is the artistic and enticing designs on the packaging.

These plans were right to be dropped, they wouldn't work and hit those in the pocket who like a casual drink after work. This is common sense, not the work of some inside adviser who has ties with the tobacco industry. Nice try Mr. Milliband, but this is convincing nobody.

Prime Minister's Questions: 17 July 2013

Pay Rise for Politicians?

After the darkest of periods in history for our politicians in Westminster over their expenses, the perception of many that members’ of Parliament are there to line their own pockets returns to the minds of those not easy to impress, the Great British Public of course.

MP's currently earn £66,396 per year.

The Commons expenses Watchdog, IPSA, has proposed that members’ of parliament should receive a pay rise of around £6,000 or a 9.26% hike taking effect from 2015. This is part of wider changes to be implemented by the regulator in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal.

The Chairman, Sir Ian Kennedy made clear that it was simply ‘wrong’ that MP’s should continue to receive low pay and also went on to comment about the previous expenses scandal in which too much restraint was the root cause of the abuse of expenses, or in other words, MP’s were paid the low pay which MP’s received in 2009 led them to claim on expenses in order to almost ‘top up’ their salaries.
Sir Ian has been subject, quite rightly, to criticism even from MP’s over the proposed rise in pay, it is a move that will seem out of touch, further damaging the confidence that the public have in our Westminster politicians.

All three major party leaders have also condemned the move by IPSA, a statement was released from Number 10 earlier today expressing the view of the Prime Minister in which it stated that 'the cost of politics should be going down and not up.' A perfect reflection you might think to everything else going on around the country. The cost of most things must come down, especially in the public sector where cuts are being made to reduce the budget deficit. It would seem only fair that MP's feel some of the pressure.

All three party leaders condemn the proposal.

Labour Leader, Ed Miliband said 'I don't think MP's should be getting a 10% pay rise when Nurses and Teachers are facing either pay freezes or very low increases and people in the private sector are facing similar circumstances' 

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg added that this was simply the worse time to be advocating a double digit pay increase for MP's.


The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, however, has publically supported the proposal, saying that members' of parliament are paid around the same as primary school head teachers and there are many of them around my constituency. 'I cannot think of another job where there are only 650 of these roles in the whole of Great Britain that are paid this sort of money.'  As controversial as this argument is at a time of cuts and pay freezes, does Mr Bridgen have a point? Of course I am only playing the devil's advocate but what sort of people would we attract if there was a pay increase? Would we attract more highly qualified people who currently earn more than an MP, who could perhaps do a better job than most of them? Everyone will no doubt come to their own conclusions, but I can safely say that at a time where people are struggling, it would not be in the interest of the public to press ahead with such an increase.