Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
Expect a rise in VAT
April 28th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In a piece in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, economics editor Larry Elliott provides a very accessible summary of yesterday’s assessment by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) of what sums of money the three parties need to save if they are to meet their declared deficit reduction target and what proportion of these savings the parties […]
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Saint George’s day
April 23rd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I’ve travelled to 53 countries all around the world and one thing I’ve found almost everywhere is pride in one’s nationality. People are proud to be American, Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Israeli … Here, in the United Kingdom, people are proud to be Scottish, Welsh or Irish and, if they are from that part of UK, […]
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The second leaders’ debate
April 23rd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Last night, I watched the second of the three televised debates between the three main political leaders, this one hosted by Sky. The first debate was livelier than I expected and this one was even more engaging. Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron upped their game and did better, while Nick Clegg held his ground […]
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Volcanic ash over Europe (2)
April 20th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
So many people and so many events have been impacted by the volcanic ash over Europe which has grounded flights for five days now. On Friday, I attended a seminar on postal services at the London office of Consumer Focus and my colleagues Rick and Keillin from Northern Ireland were unable to catch their flight […]
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The first leaders’ debate
April 15th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I was in China when the British General Election was called and missed the first week of campaigning, but it seems that the first week was quite low-key and there was no real movement in the polls. Tonight the election began in earnest with the first of the three leaders’ debates on ITV from 8.30-10 […]
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Volcanic ash over Europe (1)
April 15th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
When I first heard the announcement over loudspeakers on the London underground, I thought that I had misunderstood the news. But no, it really was a warning that volcanic ash from an eruption in Iceland was preventing flights from all UK airports. In all my six decades or so, I’ve never heard anything like it. […]
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Ending the vulture culture
April 13th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
When a General Election is called in the UK, all proposed legislation then in progress in Parliament is subject to a bizarrely named and opaquely executed process known as “wash up”. The Government and Opposition agree which legislation can be rushed to the Statute Book with anything politically controversial usually dropped and much horsetrading. I’m […]
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50 days to General Election
March 17th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Here in the UK it’s exactly 50 days to the certain date of the General Election (Thursday 6 May 2010). Today I downloaded onto my iPhone the Labour Party election app. As well as information on Party policies and political news, apparently it is the first UK political app to allow Party supporters to quickly […]
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Now it gets really interesting
March 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In an exclusive, the “Times” today reveals the results of a poll of political opinion in 100 key marginal seats. Populus, who conducted the poll, puts both Labour and Conservatives on about 38 per cent in the seats it examined. The article points out: “The poll shows that the switch of voters from Labour to […]
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Brooke, Ashcroft and the FoI
March 2nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Oh, the irony of it … As dramatised in the BBC4 programme “On Expenses” broadcast a week ago, although the “Daily Telegraph” did a brilliant job in exposing the scandal of MPs’ expenses, this came only after years of effort by the tireless American-born campaigner Heather Brooke. In fact, the BBC itself – for which […]
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