Sky News has learnt that radical Muslim groups around the world intend to burn American flags in protest at plans by a Christian church in the US to burn copies of the Koran. […]
At least 3,500 people have been forced to leave their homes as a wildfire burns in Colorado, with dozens of properties already consumed by the flames. […]
A British holidaymaker has drowned in a doomed attempt to save his elderly father when he got into difficulties in rough seas off the coast of southern Spain. […]
1.45pm WATCH: Nick Clegg: "We must rebalance the economy" David Cameron: "My father - an amazingly brave man" 11.45am Tory Diary: What's happened to the Government's review of Sinn Fein's expenses? ToryDiary: Clegg and Cable point to Coalition tensions over... […]
6pm WATCH: Jeremy Hunt says BBC should be inspected by National Audit Office 4.00pm Gazette: Ian Cameron, the Prime Minister's father, has died 2.15pm ToryDiary: Four reasons why Tory members are probably too upbeat about the political climate 12.45pm Parliament:... […]
5.30pm Parliament: Andrew Mitchell praises British people for £47m of donations to Pakistan Floods Appeal 2.45pm Lee Rotherham on CentreRight notes the extent to which EU taxpayers subsidise pro-EU think tanks Noon ToryDiary: Three reasons why appointing Stephen Green as... […]
5.15pm ToryDiary: Voters agree that Margaret Thatcher was better PM than Tony Blair 5pm ToryDiary: On Andy Coulson, the BBC is dancing to Labour's tune Noon: Matthew Elliott on CentreRight: Why Janice Small was right (in February) about AV 10.15am... […]
Now this should swiftly dispel any worries that the Office for Budget Responsibility is partisan in the government's favour. Robert Chote, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and scourge of Osborne's "regressive" Budget, has been appointed as the body's new chief. It is, in many repsects, the most sensible and obvious choice […]
Nick Clegg’s speech today is meant to be one of a pair with David Cameron giving the other tomorrow. The speeches mark an attempt to set out an agenda for the government that goes beyond deficit reduction. The idea is that Clegg’s speech called ‘horizon shift’, which is all about making government policy more long term, goes hand in hand with Cameron’s speec […]
A noteworthy directional shift from Nick Clegg in his speech this morning. Instead of priming the us for "savage cuts," as he once did, the Deputy PM is now deemphasising the severity of what's to come: "Some of the hyperbole I have heard is just preposterous – this idea, that somehow, it is back to the 1930s. After the spending round, we […]
Some day soon – unless the coalition has already lost its bottle – a bill will be introduced to 'part-privatise' Royal Mail. It has to be done. But it will be a tough sell, for four reasons. First, the market for the Royal Mail's product is shrinking. It's a big fish, but its pool is getting smaller. It carries 75 million letters a day, b […]
A third post-mortem of Ian Tomlinson, the man who died after being pushed to the ground at G20 protests last year, has been withheld from the coroner. […]
The pressure for Britain's murder law to become more flexible is growing, after the second director of public prosecutions (DPP) in a row came out in favour of reform. […]
William Hague has told MPs he is seeking to counteract anxiety among Foreign Office staff about spending cuts by combating the department's "institutional timidity". […]
Over 90% of environmental health officers (EHOs) have encountered private landlords who routinely harass or illegally evict their tenants, an investigation by the charity Shelter has claimed. […]
Plenty of university graduates are working in low-skilled jobsYoung people often worry whether the qualification for which they are studying will stand them in good stead in the workplace. According to the OECD, college and university leavers are better placed in the labour market than their less educated peers, but this advantage is not even in all countrie […]
Working days lost due to labour disputesWORKERS on London's underground rail network begin a strike on Monday September 6th, while across the channel French workers are also on strike in protest at attempts by the government to change the retirement age. Both countries come fairly high on the list of countries that lose working days to labour disputes. […]
The internet has become too important for governments to ignoreGOVERNMENTS are increasingly finding ways to enforce their laws in the digital realm. The most prominent is China’s “great firewall”. But China is by no means the only country erecting borders in cyberspace. The OpenNet Initiative, an advocacy group, lists more than a dozen countries that block i […]
Galloping inflation in American college feesFOR decades, college fees have risen faster than Americans’ ability to pay them. Median household income has grown by a factor of 6.5 in the past 40 years, but the cost of attending a state college has increased by a factor of 15 for in-state students and 24 for out-of-state students. The cost of attending a privat […]
China now has more warships than America, according to the IISSTHE International Institute for Strategic Studies (better known as the IISS), reckons China now has more warships than America, which long possessed the biggest fleet. As it can be hard to distinguish a warship from other boats, the IISS uses its own definition of what counts and what does not. T […]
The best-selling political memoirs in BritainTONY BLAIR, Britain's former prime minister, published his memoirs on Wednesday September 1st. The few people who have already read them cover to cover report that, in addition to the familiar stuff about how awful his relationship with Gordon Brown was, Mr Blair admits to being manipulative and to having a d […]
How America's opinion of the Iraq war has changedOVER seven years after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, America's direct military involvement is now coming to an end. President Barack Obama will set out his new policy in a speech from the Oval Office on Monday August 31st. American public opinion on the war has changed enormously during that ti […]