The influential Commons Public Accounts Committee has warned that government plans to install "smart" gas and electric meters in all UK homes by 2019 may benefit energy companies at the cost of consumers - particularly the old and vulnerable.

The new meters will mean energy firms won't have...

Luke Bozier, a former senior Labour adviser and co-author of the Labour Business report, defected to the Conservatives on Monday. Bozier is the newest addition to a long line of people who have defected from their party to join the ranks of their former enemies.

Some MPs...

The second week of 2012 has been an eventful one. We have seen Miliband's big speech on the economy greeted with a shrug of dismissal, Michelle Obama accused of being "some angry black woman", rumours of a military coup in Pakistan, a rising Mormon presidential hopeful in the United States...

The government is revising guidelines on the conduct of bailiffs to stop "unscrupulous" practices in the industry.

Announcing the change, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said: "Bailiffs are an important part of the justice system so the few unscrupulous bailiffs must be stopped from putting people in harm’s way or...

The current clash between David Cameron and Alex Salmond over a future Scottish referendum for independence is the latest confrontation in a 2000-year history of rivalry between England and Scotland.

At the moment the two leaders are locked in a political, legal and perhaps constitutional...

MPs are calling upon the government to cut car insurance premiums by clamping down on personal injury claims.

The House of Commons Transport Select Committee also called on the government to make it tougher for whiplash victims to claim compensation on Thursday - in an attempt to...

UNISON, Britain's largest trade union , voted on Tuesday to give the union's negotiators the green light to continue discussions with government ministers on changes to changes to the local and NHS pension schemes.

The union represents 1.3 million primarily low-paid workers in local government and the...

The Labour Party launched the 'Borrisstoppers' advert in the Evening Standard on Tuesday evening, designed to highlight Boris Johnson's above-inflation fare hikes.

Funding for the ad comes from Labour's 'chicken fundraising appeal'.

Labour claims that Johnson is refusing to engage Ken Livingstone -...

Ed Miliband's speech in London has garnered a mixed reaction from the press and the Twitterati. The speech was big in vision and style, but lacking in detail. This led people to focus instead on the listing ship in the background on the other side of the River...

David Cameron faced stern reactions from business leaders as well as calls for stronger action from his political rivals in the wake of his executive pay plans.

Cameron's plans to allow shareholders to veto executive pay came under fire throughout yesterday and today. But just ahead of the...

Immigration has no impact on unemployment, according to research released on Tuesday by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Their findings directly contradict claims made by Migration Watch UK on Monday, who suggested a "correlation" between Eastern European immigration and record levels of...

‘The Iron Lady’, the biographical film on Margaret Thatcher, has caused quite a lot of controversy over its historical accuracy and portrayal of the elderly former PM.

David Cameron remarked that: “It's really a film about ageing, dementia, rather than a wonderful prime minister” while...

The first week of January is usually a quiet time for news. But 2012 is different - we have seen the teaching union threatening strikes, Tea Party favourite Michele Bachmann step out of the US presidential race, William Hague push for reform in Burma, Shadow health minister Diane Abbot's controversial...

The health sector of Unite have rejected the government's "politically motivated" final offer on pensions, raising the possibility of more strikes.

In a strongly worded statement, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey says: "The government's attacks on public sector pensions are politically motivated, as part of an overall design to...

The news about the death of an Afghan BBC journalist, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, has served to remind both journalists in the field and postgraduate journalism students such as myself about the dangers of conflict reporting.

On Sept. 8th, NATO declared that the soldier responsible for the death...

I often question why optimism is such a rare commodity in politics. The cynicism of British politicians grinds to no end. This haze of disingenuous polemic which is so often volleyed across the front benches is a product of the political system itself. The system needs to become more optimistic.

The riots in London were widespread. Shops were looted, houses burnt and cars destroyed. The media has been arguing over the causes of the riots and what motivated the rioters. The basic divide seems clear: the right-wing blame social media and the left blame income inequality and funding cuts.

One...

The Australian government recently resorted to using YouTube to deter asylum seekers from attempting to enter Australia illegally. Having posted a video up of Malaysian asylum seekers entering a detention centre, boarding a plane and then then re-entering Malaysia, Australia continues its harsh approach towards asylum seekers.

Although the...

Imagine looking at a police officer for 5 seconds and then hearing him say your name.

Police officers in the USA now have technology which can register a person in seconds. BI2, a Massachusetts based company, has just released MORIS (Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System), enabling a police officer...

Following the London Riots, the media is applying its usual paintbrush to the youth spectrum.

The London riots, which have kicked off over the past three days, has led to the tarnishing of the image of young people in the media. The images of young people brandishing pieces of wood,...