Everyone, Everyday: Talking About What Matters
Steve Hoyles 
Following years of price hikes, sewage spills, missed performance targets and financial irregularities, Labour MP Clive Lewis wants to see water companies brought back under public ownership. Privatisation Has “Failed” Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, has said the water industry should be brought back under public ownership following its serial failures since … Read more
Proposals to ban MPs charged with violent or sexual offences from the Parliamentary Estate passed by a single vote. It now means MPs charged with such offences are not allowed into any property used by parliament. Vote Was Incredibly Tight A vote held on Monday to toughen the proposal made by the government passed by … Read more
The government’s plan to allow well-behaved, low-risk offenders to leave prison early has been compromised, according to a watchdog. Reports suggest high-risk offenders have been released as part of the scheme. Full Prisons Prompted the Scheme Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden discussed the scheme: “We want to minimise the use of this scheme, but there’s … Read more
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the government’s additional spending promises have not materialised, despite greater need than ever. Spending Needed More Than Ever With the pandemic creating extra care requirements and waiting lists reaching record lengths, NHS funding is more important than ever. However, the IFS has found that spending has been significantly under … Read more
A major European study has shown that obese workers are more likely to take days off through ill health than those at a healthy weight. 63.8% of UK Adults Overweight The study’s concern is the economic impact. Nearly 64% of UK adults are overweight, making the workforce particularly vulnerable to sickness absence. The Greater the … Read more
Changes to the welfare system mean that anyone working for less than 18 hours a week will be expected to seek more work if they want to keep receiving Universal Credit. Increase in Hours For Claimants Before these changes, people claiming Universal credit only had to work for 15 hours a week. The changes have … Read more
At a speech delivered by the Policy Exchange think tank in central London, Rishi Sunak told the country that we were about to enter some of the most “dangerous” but “transformational” years we’d ever known. Sunak Claims Only Tories Are Thinking About the Future The speech was clearly framed as a pre-election appeal to voters … Read more
Keir Starmer has pledged to rip up the government’s Rwanda scheme and instead use the money to form a specialist force. The new unit will be given powers similar to those of the counter-terror police. Plans to Divert Funds The Labour party wants to use £75m of the government’s allocation to the Rwanda scheme to … Read more
There have been 18 rounds of talks over how Gibraltar sits within the UK/EU relationship, with no clear resolution. These comments aren’t set to help get a deal over the line any time soon. Comments Made After Further Rounds of Talks The exclamation was made by Margaritis Schinas after he was asked about progression of … Read more
Following almost 20 rounds of talks, and lots of diplomatic pushing and pulling, there’s growing optimism that a UK/EU Gibraltar deal can be struck this summer. Much of the Deal is Done According to both parties, much of the deal is already done. The broad terms of what an agreement will look like has been … Read more