Ed Jacobs
Ed writes on devolved and local government. He works as a political consultant at the only Northern based consultancy, The Public Affairs Company. Ed has previously helped establish and run a student news website therundown.co.uk.
The bedroom tax is already ruining Welsh communities
Just over a week since George Osborne declared as “unbelievable” the Welsh government’s opposition to many of his welfare reforms, the BBC has today unearthed evidence demonstrating the extent of the impact of the bedroom tax.
SNP currency plans ‘fanciful’
A House of Lords Committee has declared as "fanciful” any notion, as advocated by the SNP, that an independent Scotland could retain sterling whilst exerting influence over the Bank of England.
Thatcher’s legacy in Northern Ireland
For Margaret Thatcher, Northern Ireland wasn’t just a political minefield but a personal tragedy. Just months before she took office in 1979, her close friend and ally, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary Airey Neave, who led her campaign for the Conservative Party Leadership, was killed when a bomb, planted by republican terrorists, went off from under his car as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster.
Margaret Thatcher’s mixed fortunes in Wales
In 2008, the Plaid Cymru AM Bethan Jenkns declared that plans for a portrait of Margaret Thatcher to hang in the Welsh Assembly was an “insult to the people of Wales". At the same time, the then Conservative AM and now MP for the Vale of Galmorgan Alun Cairns praised the ex PM for having “transformed the Welsh economy.”
Scotland reacts to the death of Margaret Thatcher
With just one MP still in Scotland, the effect of Margaret Thatcher’s reign continues to blight the Conservative party north of the border.
Improving access to mental health services – it’s time to act now
Whilst I disagree fundamentally with many of the government’s reforms to the NHS, a distraction and expense the health service does not need, there is one commitment I do support and one for which ministers must firmly be held to account.