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Natalie Bennett
:Jobs You Can Build a Life On: The British Economy Isn't Delivering
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Alice Farmer
:A real life 'Hunger Games'
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Mehdi Hasan
:As a Muslim, I Struggle With the Idea Of Homosexuality - But I Oppose Homophobia
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Francis FitzGibbon
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Maria Miller
:Equal Marriage Will Preserve the Institution of Marriage
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Austerity until 2020, so says David Cameron today. It is not at all clear though what he means by this.
The Queen's Speech provided further evidence of the 'omnishambles' which this Tory-led government has become. No vision, nor purpose and no direction. This is the best way to describe the Queen's Speech.
Let's not forget the humble pasty started life as a portable lunch for ordinary working fishermen and tin miners. Ken McMeikan, CEO of Greggs, summed it up well when he said: "people simply can not afford to pay 20% more for everyday food."
The proposals for a 'Pasty Tax' have certainly caused a stir in Westminster and across the country. It will have been hard to avoid the media furore on this, one of a series of measures in last month's budget which have attracted criticism from across the board.
On average, 23 babies a year die from abuse and neglect, and thousands more grow up without the care they need to help them to thrive. I believe we have a moral duty to invest in services that can stop this from happening, but if that doesn't convince politicians, I hope the economic case will.
I know it's not quite April Fool's Day but, as I read through the myriad of news stories, Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds I trawl through each morning the announcement that draymen - as opposed to fuel tanker drivers - are to go on strike did make me laugh out loud. Or LOL, as the youngsters might put it...
Until Labour face up to the unpleasant truths of their role in the country's present economic crisis, their rhetoric is going to fail to convince. Playing the political game with aggressive putdowns which play to the gallery will only get them so far.
YouGov's lastest poll for the Sunday Times confirms the main messages from our immediate post-Budget poll for the Sun: that the Budget is seen as unfair, that most people disbelieve government assertions that the rich will end up paying more tax, that pensioners are being unfairly penalised - and that Tory support has slipped a little but without boosting Labour's rating.
Can we all agree we're bored of the budget, that the hashtag #grannytax was definitely not the reason Twitter was invented, and move onto the real story of the week: Tulisa's sex tape. No, of course you haven't watched it! You and everyone else in the office, I'll bet. Except, it's not just about the sex tape now (let's face it, Z-listers punting those out onto the interweb are two-a-penny), it's about a lesson in how to turn utter humiliation into iconic triumph.
In the run up to yesterday's budget I called on the Chancellor to come out fighting for the UK's smallest businesses, a sector that contributes £82 billion to the UK economy annually - freelancing. As the dust settles on the Budget, how well did the Chancellor do?
YouGov's first post-Budget poll for the Sun finds that Wednesday's announcements have dented Conservative support; they are now on 34%. They have never been lower since the 2010 election, though they have touched this number on a few occasions.
Smokers are angry, understandably so. This isn't a war on tobacco, it's a war on the consumer, the overwhelming majority of whom are law-abiding people who want nothing more than to be able to buy and consume a legal product in peace.
With the challenges facing the British economy and the huge pressure on many families' finances, George Osborne didn't have much room for manoeuvre in today's Budget. There was no spare cash for giveaways so he made a series of careful trade-offs which, overall, will leave ease the pressure on lots of households and allow most of them to keep more of their own money.
Most progressives will have been astounded that a Chancellor who told us in his statement that "I regard tax evasion and - indeed - aggressive tax avoidance - as morally repugnant", then went on to reward it with his most controversial policy.
