Another u-turn shows what an embarrassing shambles Osborne's Budget has become - Ed Balls
Updated: 2012-05-31 19:50:01
Ed Balls MP, Labour's Shadow Chancellor, in response to George Osborne’ announcement of a U-turn on Budget plans to cap tax relief on charitable donations, said:

Subscribe and save 38 Search Home Blog Opinion Articles Campaigns Life History Subscribe Shop Events Follow us on twitter Home Blog Blog Email a Friend Email this article to a friend Your email : Friend's email : Send Twitter Facebook RSS Email a Friend RSS RSS RSS The agenda 31 May 2012 09:43 Everything happening in politics today Related Articles Live : Jeremy Hunt at Leveson by Vicky Wong 31 May 2012 Cameron's need to explain a vision for Britain by Will Emkes 30 May 2012 Live : Vince Cable and Ken Clarke at Leveson by Vicky Wong 30 May 2012 Live : Theresa May and Michael Gove at Leveson by Vicky Wong and Tom Rollins 29 May 2012 Live : Tony Blair at the Leveson Inquiry by Tom Rollins 28 May 2012 Lansley's NHS Direct headache by Amber Elliott 28 May 2012 What's happening Today Ireland
Who are they, these 'frenzied Eurosceptics' who want a referendum? Well, depending on which opinion polls we believe, they represent anywhere between 72 per cent and 89 per cent of the British electorate. Among the 'few extreme nationalist politicians' whom Ken Clarke blames for the campaign are, one assumes, Peter Mandelson, John Cruddas and Keith Vaz. [...]
It's hard to see what else the eurozone leaders have to do to encourage Ireland to vote 'No' to the FU Treaty. Christine Lagarde and José Manuel Barroso lecture people about austerity while paying almost no tax on their own salaries. Billions of euros are confiscated from ordinary taxpayers to rescue wealthy fools from their poor [...]
Is it possible for a Right-wing government to freeze spending and cut the deficit while remaining popular? As they say in New Zealand, ‘yih’. I’ve remarked before that, while no country is physically further from Britain, none is temperamentally closer. Yet there is a difference when it comes to public expenditure. A slowing of the [...]
Ask the typical Conservative activist whether, if there must be a coalition, she'd prefer one with the LibDems or with UKIP. Most Tories accept the mathematics of the 2010 general election result; but it hasn't changed their view of their coalition partners. They know the LibDems of old. They think of them as dirty campaigners [...]
John Bolton has little time for the euphemisms of modern diplomacy. Asked about the way in which sovereignty has passed from the United Kingdom to the European Court of Human Rights, he replied with characterstic plainness: Britain should renounce the jurisdiction of this court. It’s a question of what do British people want to do. [...]
Subscribe and save 38 Search Home Blog Opinion Articles Campaigns Life History Subscribe Shop Events Follow us on twitter Home Blog Blog Email a Friend Email this article to a friend Your email : Friend's email : Send Twitter Facebook RSS Email a Friend RSS RSS RSS Lib Dem anger over Beecroft grows stronger by Amber Elliott 22 May 2012 10:21 It seems the Conservatives' coalition partners are not convinced by Adrian Beecroft's work on removing employment protection Related Articles June issue preview out today by Ben Duckworth 22 May 2012 Cameron's early coalition plotting by Amber Elliott 21 May 2012 The agenda 21 May 2012 Lib Dem nuclear re-think ahead of NATO by Tom Rollins 18 May 2012 1922 committee election results by Amber Elliott 16 May 2012 PMQs : the European neighbours' problem by
My favourite Ronald Reagan aphorism, in a crowded field, is: ‘I never drink coffee at lunchtime; I find it keeps me awake in the afternoon’. The perfect put-down of hyperactive government by a president who lived up to his rhetoric. At some stage in the last 30 years, the idea got about that we ought [...]
All week, I’ve been casting grumpy glances at the sky. It’s late May, for Heaven’s sake; yet, for seven weeks, we’ve had rain almost every day. The European Parliament rose on Wednesday this week, and I’ve been doing constituency events around drizzly Hampshire ever since: Portsmouth, Southampton, Eastleigh (where I’m fervently hoping for a by-election), [...]
Back in 2006 (and 2007), the blog posted information about the Natural History Museum Bluebell Survey. http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/recording-your-bluebells/ http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/bluebell-survey-2007/ This is an ongoing project, apart from studying the distribution of native and spanish bluebells (and the hybrids, which now may be more common than their Spanish ‘parent’) – the project is also looking at the flowering [...]