Consumers and business fearful for the future
Almost half of all people across Wales are now finding it more difficult to manage financially than during the height of the recession, new research has found.
Green Politics
Inflation adds to the UK’s economic worries
News that UK inflation (as measured by the consumer prices index) eased back to 3.2 per cent in June, from 3.4 per cent in May, merits only the smallest of cheers.
Cows infiltrate Tube to ‘coMOOte’ to work this morning
Herds of activists dressed as cows infiltrated the capital’s morning commute today to mark a new Friends of the Earth drive for rainforest-free food.
IFS: Proportion of tax revenue raised by green taxes likely to fall this Parliament
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published an article today showing that it won’t be easy for the Coalition Government to meet the Conservatives’ pre-election pledge to “increase the proportion of tax revenue accounted for by environmental taxes”.
“Vote with your conscience” on VAT, Murphy urges Scots Lib Dems
Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy has called on Lib Dems across Scotland to oppose what they themselves described as the Tories VAT bombshell before the general election.
The paradoxical stability of welfare expenditure (and why we should be spending more)
Whether they express their views in the élite language of economic or fiscal ‘unsustainability’ or the demotic of ‘welfare scoungers’, everyone apart from a handful of unreconstructed egalitarians seems to agree that welfare spending is too high.
Coalition must prove committment to 10:10 is more than a honeymoon headline
Scrutiny doesn’t stop with the announcement of a real-time web gadget; this Government needs to try harder if it’s to prove that its commitment to 10:10 is anything more than a honeymoon headline.
Dr Vince swings back to the 60s with his vision for BIS
Clegg will not want to lose Cable or see him fail as he is – for the moment- the key member of his praetorian guard in the coalition government. Clegg has precious few true believers in his parliamentary party and Cable is from the more idealistic ‘we can make a difference’ school of why the Lib Dems are propping up a Conservative government.
Commission calls for greater financial freedom for Wales
The Holtham Commission report will heap yet more pressure on the Government to look seriously at how best to fairly fund the nations and regions of the country to address what a House of Lords committee has dubbed an “arbitrary and unfair” system.
Climate ‘scandals’: Why it’s a storm in a teacup and why the media should be apologising
Today the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) confirmed record levels of decline in Arctic Sea Ice. So it’s particularly ironic that this conclusion should come on the same day that everybody in the media is fussing about whethertest