November 2010
In defence of the liberal arts – why the government must think again
Last week thousands of students and academics marched on parliament to protest against sweeping changes to higher education funding. The coalition government has announced an astonishing 80 per cent cut in public funding for higher education. As a result, fees will treble to £9,000 per year. Students will foot the bill as government withdraws.
Cornwall floods will be more frequent and severe following cuts to defences
The overnight flooding in Cornwall, which police have called a “major incident”, was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions today. Mr Cameron described it as “a very difficult night” (though thankfully there are no reports of any casualties), praised the police and coastal services for doing a “fantastic job” and said the government “stand ready to help in any way that we can”.
Rebuilding the progressive left
Back in June, Left Foot Forward wrote about a project being run by a collective of community organisers, environmentalists, campaigners, Labour and Lib Dem activists, bloggers, writers, and development workers. A wider group convened again this week to hear the interim findings of the research.
Welsh Lib Dem council set to privatise adult social services
Later today, Welsh budget minister Jane Hutt will present the Assembly government’s draft budget in what amounts to the toughest fiscal environment since the birth of devolution. She will do so as it emerged that Liberal Democrat run Swansea Council is considering outsourcing its entire adult social services department by 2012 to save costs.
Osborne to help Ireland: a “shining example of long-term economic policymaking”
George Osborne "stands ready" to help Ireland in the midst of economic crisis. It's the least he can do after cheerleading their disastrous economic policies as a "shining example".
UK’s leading climate sceptic admits he’s driven by “ideological war”
NASA has announced that this year is the hottest year so far, just as climate scientists predicted it would be. This has been accompanied by the fastest decline in Arctic sea ice in satellite records, and other extreme weather events around the world, many of which were also predicted by climate scientists. It is against this backdrop that one of Britain’s most prominent climate change ‘sceptics’ has admitted he’s driven by “ideological war”.