England lost out in the bid to host the 2018 World Cup today, despite having arguably the best presentation, with Prince William, David Beckham and David Cameron making the case for football to come home. Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup, with rank outsiders Qatar – a country with an appalling human rights record – being selected to host the 2022 World Cup.
Wagner’s dreams of snow-capped glory may have gone up in smoke yesterday, but there’s still hope for those hoping to stick it to Simon Cowell – and do the same to the Clegg-eron coalition over their savage cuts agenda. Captain SKA’s hit video “Liar Liar” – featured on Left Foot Forward ten days ago – will go for Christmas gold against whoever wins the X Factor, going on sale from December 12th.
Polish extremist Michal Kaminski’s resignation from the Law and Justice Party has opened up a power vacuum in the ECR, David Cameron’s far-right European Parliament grouping, reports Left Foot Forward’s man in the corridors of power in Brussels, Ben Fox.
The debate over school sport reached Prime Minister’s Questions today, with Ed Miliband putting David Cameron on the spot over cuts to the school sport budget. The Leader of the Opposition urged Mr Cameron to “overrule” Michael Gove, warning him he “will live to regret” the £162 million abolition of School Sport Partnerships, which have a proven track record of success.
David Cameron’s enterprise adviser Lord Young resigned today after saying people were better off after the recession. Young had told the Telegraph: “For the vast majority of people in the country today, they have never had it so good ever since this recession – this so-called recession – started.” Labour leader Ed Miliband described the remarks as “disgraceful” and said people would feel “insulted” by his comments.
Nearly 50,000 people have viewed a music video against the coalition’s cuts, which features a montage of Nick Clegg, George Osborne and David Cameron droning on about us “all being in this together”, and even a star-turn from Mr Clegg’s (alleged) political inspiration – Mrs Thatcher.
What is the government’s version of a ‘Big Society’ all about? According to a strong statement from a new Christian network called Common Wealth – in which I should straight away declare my interest as a supporter – it’s an ideological con trick aimed at co-opting civil society groups (including churches and charities) into the Conservative/Lib Dem agenda to shrink the responsibilities of government so that the poorest get to pay for an economic mess created by the wealthy.
David Cameron rapped Vince Cable over the knuckles at Prime Minister’s Questions today – insisting the business secretary’s claim that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were “Maoist and chaotic” was actually “not his view”.
The prime minister performed a u-turn today over the appointment of two vanity photographers to the public purse today – having only last week said they would “save the Government and the taxpayer a lot of money”. Former Tory party staffer Andrew Parsons and WebCameron filmmaker Nicky Woodhouse will now be paid by the Conservative party, and not the civil service.
Simon Kuznets, the Nobel Prize winning economist who helped develop GDP, recognised such flaws when warning the US Congress in 1934: “The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of the national income.”
