Blogs

Government  

• Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, today unveiled the timetable for introducing the UK's tough new Australian-style points based system for migration, during a fact finding visit to Sydney. According to GNN, the new scheme, which will be phased in from early 2008, will enable the British Government to manage migration to the UK more effectively, tackle abuse and attract the most talented workers into the UK economy.  
• Most first-time buyers purchasing a home with a 'E, F or G' energy rating could benefit from grants to help improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) - A-G energy ratings for homes similar to consumer friendly fridge ratings - will be part of Home Information Packs (HIPs), which will be required for all homes being marketed from 1 June. Subsidies of between £100 to £300 are typically available from energy suppliers to help fund the costs of insulation, and other energy efficiency improvements. In addition some first-time buyers could be eligible for Government grants of up to as much as £2,700. The Government is now thinking of linking grants for energy efficiency measures to new EPCs. In a speech on HIPs, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said she will be hosting a major meeting of energy suppliers, local authorities, and the Energy Savings Trust (EST), to develop new measures to help home owners implement the recommendations in EPCs.  
• The government has defeated Labour rebels over calls to give more help to people whose occupational pension schemes have collapsed. Ministers saw off an amendment to the Pension Bill, also backed by Tories and Lib Dems, by 22 votes. Ministers said the government should not write a "blank cheque", but Tories argued more help was needed with "heart-breaking" pension cases. About 30 Labour backbenchers had been thought likely to back the amendment.  
• Leaders across central government made a commitment that every eligible employee will be helped to gain basic skills and a level two qualification (broadly equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A* -C). This commitment covers over 475,000 people working to deliver public services in nineteen departments. Permanent Secretaries from fourteen of the departments joined Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service (who made the skills pledge on behalf of the Cabinet Office), at a signing ceremony organised by Government Skills, the sector skills council for central government.  

Conservatives  

The time is drawing nearer and nearer where Tony will have to finally announce he is stepping down and the long, long awaiting "leadership contest" can finally begin. Since the Labour conference last year where Blair had them screaming in the aisles, this government has been completely paralysed and achieved next to nothing. As I have argued before, this is probably better than what they normally do, but it does beg the question what have we been paying for all these months?

Government  

• Tax dodgers who kept their money in Britain are to get a similar amnesty to those who hid money offshore. A long-awaited deal unveiled on Tuesday offers a reduced penalty to anyone who comes clean over unpaid tax. People who evaded tax and kept their money in Britain will be offered a deal similar to the "offshore disclosure facility" announced by Revenue & Customs for people who hid money overseas. They have until June 22 to tell the Revenue that they intend to pay their tax, and until November 26 to pay a penalty of 10 per cent of the tax due, along with unpaid tax and interest. The small print of the deal suggests that someone with irregular tax affairs in the UK "can expect the same treatment" as someone with an offshore account. Revenue & Customs said it had felt obliged to offer the same terms to everyone. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/dd973606-ed24-11db-9520-000b5df10621.html
• Labour's immigration minister has conceded that the record inflow of immigrants could be harming the worse off and has ''deeply unsettled the country''. Liam Byrne admits in an article today that the issue is now near the top of the list of voter worries - and could cost Labour power. He says it is ''not racist'' to debate immigration - even though Labour attacked the Tories for raising it during the 2001 general election. Mr Byrne's comments, in a pamphlet published by the Policy Network think-tank, marks the latest milestone in a staged Labour retreat from the immigration policy it has embraced since 1997. A few years ago, David Blunkett, the former home secretary, said there was ''no obvious upper limit'' to the numbers that could come legally to Britain. But Mr Byrne says: ''We have to accept that laissez faire migration risks damaging communities where parts of our anti-poverty strategy come under pressure. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/18/nmigrants18.xml
• It appeared inconceivable last night that David Miliband, the environment secretary, would run against Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, after he stated that he was "not a candidate" for the job. In a BBC interview, Mr Miliband once again fell short of categorically declaring that he would not run against the chancellor in any circumstances. But with three weeks to go before Tony Blair's expected resignation announcement, Mr Miliband's repeated insistence in public that he will not put himself forward as a candidate is killing off any sensible speculation that he will run for the job. In his first public comment on the issue after the Easter break, Mr Miliband res-ponded to questions: "I've meant what I said, I am not a candidate. "We've got an ex-cellent prime-minister-in-waiting in Gordon Brown, and I'm getting on with my job as environment secretary." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5ab80588-ed49-11db-9520-000b5df10621.html

EU

Government  

• Tony Blair has urged his successor to retain his "unique foreign policy" in order to maintain international influence. At his monthly press conference on Tuesday, the prime minister unveiled his policy review on 'Britain in the world'. He said it was a description of the principles that have guided the government in foreign affairs in the past 10 years and a prescription for action in the future. Blair argued that three elements had characterised his international attitudes. "Firstly we have been prepared in a way that few other countries have, to combine what you might call 'hard and soft power'," he said. "Secondly it has been a foreign policy that has been underpinned by two alliances," he added, referring to relations with the US and EU and saying he had "eschewed" demands to choose between them. And "the third thing is that it has been to a considerable degree driven by values", the prime minister argued.  

Conservatives  

I haven't mentioned the NHS for a while, but it was always going to come back. So here goes - the National Health Service's £12.4 billion national computer system. It's not a particularly new story, but confirmation of what we all feared has come out yesterday from the Commons public accounts committee. If there was a "Loser of the Year" award for the worst conceived policy or project, the NHS IT system would win hands down.

Government  

• Gordon Brown faces an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the Commons today over his handling of the pensions crisis. While the Conservative motion is certain to be voted down by Labour MPs, the Tories said it would be the first time in nearly a decade as Chancellor that Mr Brown had been forced to the Commons to defend his actions. He faces further embarrassment tomorrow when the Government faces possible defeat over a cross-party attempt to secure improved compensation for the victims of collapsed occupational pension schemes. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/17/npension17.xml  
• Millions of patients are "unlikely" to see any "significant clinical benefits" from the National Health Service's £12.4 billion national computer system by the time all of the money has been spent in 2014, MPs warn today.
  

Government  

• As the government's controversial Mental Health Bill is considered in the Commons, campaigners have called on MPs to amend the legislation. The Bill has been criticised by professionals in the field and ministers suffered a string of defeats on the legislation when it was considered in the House of Lords. Ahead of the debate, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are taking part in a joint press conference at which they will be expressing their concerns about the plans. And before Monday's parliamentary vote, mental health charity Mind criticised plans to allow compulsory treatment of patients after they are released back into the community. It said the far-reaching powers would specify a treatment regime which patients would be obliged to comply with in their own home.  
• Health should be the top priority for government, a survey has suggested. A poll of nearly 2,400 people by the Royal College of Nursing found that health was ranked above law and order, defence, education and the environment. And nearly half of those questioned agreed ministers should introduce a dedicated NHS tax. It comes as the government is predicted to reduce the record increases in funding the NHS has been receiving in recent years. The NHS budget will have trebled by 2008 after rises of over 7% a year in real terms since 2002. Many predict the spending review in the autumn is likely to lead to increases of about half that from 2008-9. Critics have said if this does happen it will actually feel like a budget cut.  

Liberal Democrats  

The government is being urged to get VAT removed from school clothing - and quite right. It is the government that back schools having a uniform promoting the benefits of equality, i.e. no fancy Dans coming in with all the latest street wear, while the spotty kid with an interest in robots and computers gets bullied for wearing his older brother's hand me downs (it's not cool to be clever these days, in fact it's positively frowned upon; another feather in the cap of the famous line "Education, education, education").

The problem with this is kids come in all different sizes so even though VAT is waived for the under 14s, the fact that we have a nation of fat kids means that adults can fit in to much the same clothes as the kids - therefore it is done by size not age. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that some shops were selling boys' blazers with a 52in chest and trousers with a 42in waist. Who breeds these monsters?! Of course, if the VAT was waived just for school uniforms by age, then it would be easy to enforce as you would assume (hope) that only a school kid who had to wear the uniform would buy it... All this does beg the question, should clothes be viable to VAT in the first place - I wouldn't call them a luxury, they are most definitely a necessity. The government is once again cashing in on things that we have no choice but to pay up for. As way of a point to prove it is a necessity, the last thing I want to see is a 14 year school boy with a 52in chest and 42 inch waist walking around in his birthday suit - a powerful argument to scrap VAT on clothes altogether, I'm sure you'll agree.

So the government are going to offer incentives to get a few motorists to try out their road pricing scheme. Motorists who become guinea pigs for the governments tax raising plot will be given a discount on fuel duty in return for strapping a little black tracking box in their car. This is as a result of the Government's genuine shock and surprise to just about every single person in Britain when they responded badly to the road pricing plans via the anti road pricing e-petition that got 1.8m signatures and mass media coverage. And who said Labour is out of touch?

Government  

• Motorists will be offered incentives to take part in road-pricing experiments, under government plans to rescue its policy of reducing congestion by charging vehicles by the mile. Rather than forcing drivers to install a black box, to track their cars' movements, ministers hope to encourage volunteers by making the system financially attractive. The Government was taken by surprise by the strength of feeling against road pricing in the petition opposing the idea on the Downing Street website. It attracted 1.8 million signatures, compared with 5,000 for a petition supporting road pricing. The Department for Transport is developing an approach where drivers will be offered a choice: carry on paying motoring taxes or switch to a road-pricing meter in the car that could save money. Drivers could be offered a discount on fuel duty in return for agreeing to pay a distance-based charge, which would vary according to the level of congestion. DfT officials are studying an American trial in Oregon in which drivers who agree to pay a mileage charge have duty deducted from fuel bills. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1658091.ece  
• Tony Blair plans to push through big education and health reforms in his final days in office in an effort to secure his legacy. Once the local election campaign is over, the Prime Minister will make a string of announcements in May and June, including the creation of up to 300 trust schools and an expansion of private treatment centres for the NHS. The self-governing trust schools, pushed through Parliament with the help of the Conservatives, and the network of private centres contracted to work on NHS patients have been deeply unpopular within the Labour Party. But Mr Blair, who accepted yesterday that he has only weeks to go, has earmarked dates in May to set out the plans, as well as fresh proposals on policy for the family. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1657873.ece  
• Every new secondary school will be "green" under a radical initiative being planned by the Government. The Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, has won £100m from Chancellor Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review to ensure all new secondary schools are designed to be carbon neutral or at the very least substantially reduce carbon emissions. Ministers are planning to refurbish or rebuild every secondary in the country by the end of the next decade. The programme will start with £110m to ensure that 200 new schools that are to be built over the next three years are designed to reduce carbon emissions. School designs that include such features as wind turbines, solar panels, insulated windows and low-emission light bulbs will account for £72m. In addition, £10m will be spent on twinning the schools with schools abroad to learn how to tackle issues such as rainforest preservation and planting new forests. http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2452382.ece  
• The cost of seeing a lawyer is expected to rise with the disclosure that estimates for setting up a new legal complaints scheme have soared to nearly £50 million. The Lord Chancellor is proposing new machinery to regulate the legal profession and handle thousands of complaints from the public a year. But the estimated cost of creating the new system for policing lawyers has nearly doubled. On top of this, it could cost another £25 million a year to run the proposed new office for legal complaints. The increased cost, which would be passed to consumers in higher legal fees, is likely to fuel a revolt against the reforms in the Legal Services Bill when they come before the House of Lords today.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1658039.ece  
• Parents could save £200 million a year if the Government scrapped a tax on school uniforms, according to the leaders of a growing campaign to abolish the duty. Campaigners argue that the tax is unjust, especially after the Department for Education and Skills began a campaign against overpriced school kit earlier this year. Graham Minelli, a committee member of the Schoolwear Association, which represents the industry, said: "It does seem a nonsense. The Government argues that school uniforms stop brand wars and stop bullying, and yet they tax secondary school uniform." Parents have to pay the full 17.5 per cent VAT on clothes for children aged 14 and over, including school uniform. However, children's clothes that are larger than certain sizes are taxed so that petite adults cannot avoid the duty. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/16/nkids216.xml  

Conservatives  

Government  

• The Labour Party's website is likely to play a pivotal role in the battle to be its next leader, it has emerged. MPs' leadership nominations will be published on the site, although party sources denied reports the list will be updated hourly to boost interest. Nevertheless, opponents of Gordon Brown reportedly plan to use it to show growing support for David Miliband, in an effort to persuade him to stand. MPs can nominate a candidate even if they have not entered the race. If the candidate gathers 45 nominations, or 12.5% of the parliamentary party, they will be entitled to take part in a leadership ballot. They will have until noon on the day after nominations close to decide whether to enter the race or not.  
• A detailed action plan which will help to increase job opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals is published today. The plan, which has been put together jointly by the NHS trade unions, the Department of Health and NHS Employers through the Social Partnership Forum, makes a series of practical suggestions as to what NHS, social care, local government, independent and voluntary sector employers and higher education institutions can do together to identify employment opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals.  
• The Department of Health today announced an agreement that will enable approved industry-sponsored clinical trials to start sooner in NHS Primary Care. A standard form has now been agreed for the pharmaceutical industry to use in seeking permission from NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) for clinical trials to start in GP practices, simplifying the administration of clinical research. This will mean that industry-sponsored clinical trials involving patients in primary care in the NHS can start sooner. It follows the model Clinical Trials Agreement (mCTA) for hospitals announced last year.  

Conservatives  

One hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds. That is how much a dozen local councils in England and Wales have raised through fixed penalties from households putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. This includes households who have put the bins out just a few hours too soon or left their wheelie bins on the road. Is this just another case of local government's desperation to get as much money of their residents as possible through any means?

Government

• Thousands of people across the country have been fined for putting out their rubbish on the wrong day. More than a dozen councils have levied fines since the introduction of legislation a year ago enabling local authorities to pursue residents, a Times investigation has found. Fixed penalties totalling more than £185,000 have been issued to people who put their rubbish out for the binmen too early, even if they breached the council's time limit by only a few hours. Some householders have been targeted for leaving wheelie bins on the street. Campaigners and residents attacked the measures last night, calling them heavy-hand-ed, and urged councils to take a more lenient approach. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1647546.ece
• Schools are not being managed effectively because their governing bodies are filled with "well-meaning amateurs" who do not know how to challenge head teachers, the head of a teaching union warned yesterday. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said school governors were just "rubber stamping" budgets. "The vast majority [of governing bodies] are not fit for purpose," she said. "They are filled with well-meaning amateurs who struggle with the complexities of what takes places in schools." Because governors were volunteers, "they can't be required to be trained" and were "totally reliant on what their head teacher tells them", Ms Keates said. The government's policy of giving more autonomy to schools, particularly through the academies scheme of state-funded independent schools, was exacerbating the problem, she said. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2e09f870-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html
• The introduction of the national minimum wage has boosted productivity because the lower paid now take fewer sick days, a study published today has found. Research into the correlation between pay rates and absence from work was presented to the Royal Economic Society's annual conference by Marco Ercolani from Birmingham University and Martin Robson from Durham University. Low-paid employees are more likely to be off sick than those on higher earnings, the report finds, and this significantly affects the workplace and economy. The direct cost of sick leave in value of lost output is estimated at more than £11bn, about 1 per cent of the country's annual gross domestic product. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2e089d72-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html

Conservatives

• The Conservative leader is helping to restore his party's fortunes in Wales but Scotland appears to be immune to the "Cameron effect". The Welsh Conservatives are regarded by analysts as the most effective and coherent group in the Cardiff assembly. In recent years, they have tried to shake off their image as an English party, warming to devolution and to symbols of Welsh nationhood. By contrast, Scotland, much of it blue territory only a generation ago, is now a Tory desert. Unlike in Wales, where PC took over traditional Liberal, rural seats, the Conservatives in Scotland have ceded ground directly to the nationalists. The Tories regained a foothold in the principality in the 2005 general election, taking three seats. But in polls for the Scottish parliamentary elections, the Conservatives are stuck in a distant third place and could easily fall into fourth. They have only one Westminster MP north of the border. They are so weak they may even fail to make much headway in the Scottish local elections even though they will be run on a new, more proportional system. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a9ae2276-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html

EU  

EU  

• Plans to cut the cost of mobile phone calls between European Union member states may be about to move a step closer after a key vote in Brussels. A committee at the European Parliament has voted to support European Commission proposals to cut so-called roaming charges by as much as 70%. Now a vote will take place in the full EU parliament in the next few weeks. The commission wants the cuts in place by the summer, but they will still need to be approved by EU nations.

The Home Office is right up there with the best at wasting our money. Its Secretary of State has even described it as "not fit for purpose". But that was before tough, no nonsense John Reid got his hands on it and sorted the whole shambles out. Wrong. Despite knowing many years ago that we would be in this situation if nothing was done, our prisons are full. So what does Reid do? He is wasting £5 million a month in payments for emergency accommodation in police cells. Since our prisons became jammed packed last October, tough John has blown £23m on renting out prison cells. A note for the government's forecasters who are about as accurate as Mystic Meg, the overall cost is double the estimated figure given to MPs last year.

So the government wants us all to ditch our cars and get on public transport? And why should I, you ask? Well, it's a nice little earner for the government for a start. The Office for National Statistics has revealed another spectacular failure for John Prescott (has he had any successes?) and the transport policy of the Labour Government. Bus fares have risen by 52.9 per cent over the past decade. While train fares rose by 46.2 per cent between January 1998 and the start of this year. However, according to the AA, the driver of a small family car has seen their motoring bill rise from 41.52 pence a mile in 1997 to 56.15 pence in 2005 - or 26 per cent. All, I'm sure you will agree, are ridiculous increases in their own right, but it turns out that drivers have got off lightly compared to those who followed government advice.

It is reported today, in the Telegraph, that the Government spends as much as 85p in every £1 spent on health in Labour Constituencies. It is not the first time that we have learnt the Government has been using financial incentives to win votes and I'm sure it won't be the last. There have been the classic Gordon Brown tax freezes and handouts in election years to curry favour with the voters over the past few years. Now details from a Parliamentary question show that of the 46 multi-million-pound hospitals built in England since Tony Blair came to power, 33 are in Labour areas. That amounts to £3.5 billion out of a total spend of £4.1 billion.

Government

• Trains and tracks could be reunited and put under public control for the first time since privatisation, under plans to make Scotland a test case for the rest of the rail industry. Network Rail, the not-for-profit company created by the Government to run Britain's tracks, has held secret talks with Scottish Labour politicians about taking control of trains north of the Border. The move would reverse the fragmentation of the industry after British Rail was broken up and sold off in the mid1990s. Labour's Scottish election manifesto, published on Tuesday, contains a thinly veiled reference to the idea of Scotland pioneering a new structure for the rail industry.

Government  

• A new project focusing on "problem families" who create trouble in the community has been launched by the government. The Home Office unveiled a network of 53 family intervention projects targeting around 1,500 families across England every year. The scheme, which comes as part of last year's Respect action plan, aims to "give a helping hand" to the country's "most badly behaved families". These families are at risk of losing their home, having their children put into care or being subject to anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos). The level of intervention will depend on the scale of the problem, and could see some families placed under residential supervision.  
• Health Minister Andy Burnham today unveiled nearly £50 million wave of new NHS community hospitals and super-surgeries. Six new health centres, two new community hospitals, and eight refurbished community hospitals will open in towns and cities across the country as part of a major drive to provide NHS patients with more minor operations, medical tests and follow-up care outside of large hospitals.  
• The Department of Health today announced £45m in funding for 29 important and substantial research programmes as part of the National Institute for Health Research into areas such as mental health, medicines for children, diabetes, stroke, and dementias, neurodegenerative diseases and neurology. The programmes of research aim to increase understanding of how to manage and treat these types of diseases more effectively, develop new treatments and help prevent ill health developing in the first place.  

Conservatives  

What makes governments and local councils think they know best about just about everything?  If I have a leak in the bathroom, I'll call the plumber not Councillor Jones or my local MP.  If I want finacial advice I am highly unlikely to ask someone in the Treasury, I think I'll stick to the real professionals.  So why does this nannying government insist on telling the real professionals how to do their job all the time?  The latest piece of "we know best" guidance is to teachers.  New guidance published today gives nuggets of advice such as not over disciplining persisten