A round-up of the week's political news from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Scotland
• A Holyrood committee revealed that the Scottish Government bill for foreign travel was more than £10 million more in 2009-10 than 2004-05.
• Scotland’s largest teaching union voted to ballot members on strike action over cuts.
• The Tories’ only MP in Scotland told critics of the party’s Scottish review to “put up or shut up”.
• Lib Dem Scottish secretary, Michael Moore, told Holyrood not to expect greater tax varying powers until at least 2015.
• Speaking in Glasgow, Labour’s leadership hopefuls called for Scotland’s voice to be at the heart of the UK party.
• CBI Scotland said: “Complementary sources of funding public sector capital projects should not be dismissed for ideological reasons.”
• Unemployment across Scotland rose by 7,000 as Scottish Councils suggested that 10,000 jobs might have to go as the cuts begin to bite.
• Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill reiterated his call for Holyrood to gain powers over drink drive laws.
Wales
• Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan formally announced that a vote on further law making powers for Cardiff Bay will not now happen until next year.
• Unemployment in Wales fell by 10,000.
• North Wales Police Chief Constable, Mark Polin, warned that front line police might have to be shed to address the cuts down the line.
• The BBC faced criticisms that it was downgrading its commitment to broadcasting in Wales.
• The Welsh secretary was jeered as she attacked Labour’s handling of the public finances in a speech to Assembly members.
• Research by the Welsh Local Government Association showed that local government across the country faced deficits worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The association’s chief executive, Steve Thomas, said: “If the cuts do hit in a very severe way I’m afraid it’s going to hit head count.”
• Labour’s former finance minister, Andrew Davies, warned that the Lib Dems “could be facing meltdown in Wales”.
Northern Ireland
• Following the publication of the Saville Inquiry, David Cameron responded by declaring: “I am deeply sorry.”
• A “disaster in terms of time and expense” was how justice Secretary, Ken Clarke described the Saville inquiry.
• The Sunday Times revealed that Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi, will pay a total of £2 billion to victims of Irish terrorism for his role in supplying weapons to the IRA.
• The BBC reported that Conservatives were split on their link with the Ulster Unionist Party.
• David Cameron admitted that he found it “painful” to work with Martin McGuinness.
• Europol accused the IRA and some members of Sinn Fein of being behind “one of the biggest and most sophisticated counterfeiting operations ever uncovered in Europe”.
• Finance minister Sammy Wilson warned that tackling the UK deficit would mean pain for years to come for Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland saw the number of unemployed rise by 100.
• The Church of Ireland’s Archbishop, Alan Harper warned: “It is becoming clear that there is a tangible risk to the economy through banks seeking too rapid a restoration of their own balance sheets.”
Quote of the Week
“As a consequence of this report and of what will flow from it, we all now have the possibility of moving forward together with a more accurate and shared appreciation of one of the key moments of our turbulent and troubled shared history.”
Bishop of Derry, Ken Good, expressing his hopes following the publication of the Saville Inquiry report
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4 Responses to “The week outside Westminster”
DrKMJ
The week outside Westminster: http://bit.ly/b8oqsg via @leftfootfwd
Fact checking
Oh dear, oh dear.
You claim: “Lib Dem Scottish secretary, Michael Moore, told Holyrood not to expect greater tax varying powers until at least 2015.”
Your evidence says: “He does not query that the earliest extra tax powers can be introduced is April 2012, but when asked if Holyrood can expect to get them by 2015, therefore before the next election, he replies: “Yes.”
So how does ‘sometime before 2015’ equal ‘not until at least 2015’ ?
The week outside Westminster « The best Labour blogs
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Mr. Sensible
It is good to see that we now have the truth about exactly what happened on Bloody Sunday.
However, as I said yesterday I don’t think pressing charges would be the best idea as it could reopen old wounds.
I would be interested to see where Mr Bury thinks we should go next.