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This week Labour is announcing our first Budget in 14 years. While I’m not in a position to confirm or deny its contents, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the context in which this Budget is taking place. While it has become cliché to refer to the note left by a former Labour Treasury…
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Honestly, I’ve been dreading today. With all the discussion in the press over the last few months of massive cuts to public services and spending, talk of hiking up taxes when people are already struggling, and knowing that the state of the UK’s economy–£2.8tn in debt and with a £22bn black hole–meant that tough decisions…
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While MPs are necessarily involve themselves in many things to serve their constituency, constitutionally MP’s have one role: making laws. Generally this is limited to voting on bills as they work through Parliament, but occasionally MPs have the opportunity to put forward laws of their own. Every year 20 MPs are randomly selected to have…
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“The economy, stupid” that was how Bill Clinton’s campaign manager summed up his key 1992 campaign message. In truth, look into the detail and almost every election tends to be about the state of the economy, it was certainly the focus of the Labour Party’s General Election campaign this year. 14 years of economic incompetence…
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Parliament resumes sitting this week after the conference recess, following quick on the heels of the summer recess. While this was a far shorter summer recess than usual, and Parliament sits on more days than most legislatures, it still invited the usual criticism that MPs spend all their time on holiday. The logic is easy…
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Childcare has become increasingly inaccessible to many. The demand for spaces is now such that I know of parents in Crawley who are booking nursery places before their children have actually been born, and for those who do have a place the cost involved is hard to afford. Following decades of declining real wages, most…
