Majority of Britons want to follow Australia and introduce compulsory voting April 9, 2015 The debate over how to increase voter turnout has produced some controversial proposals. None more so than the suggestion that the UK should follow Australia's lead and compel citizens to vote through force of law. In Australia, citizens can be fined £115 for refusing to vote. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argue young [...]
General Election 2015: What are the parties tweeting about? April 9, 2015 Voters may complain about a certain homogeneity, but there are clear differences between Westminster's biggest parties in the first week of campaigning – according to their Twitter accounts, at least. In the week since the leaders' debate, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have each tried to steer the General Election conversation in their own [...]
Labour and Tories battle over Trident: How much does it cost, how many submarines are there, who wants to abolish it? April 9, 2015 Labour and the Conservatives have become locked in a vicious fight today over the future of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent. Defence secretary Michael Fallon kicked off the debate with a scathing article in The Times where he accused Labour of using Trident as a "bargaining chip" for a possible deal with the SNP after the [...]
Tories plan crackdown on inherited non-dom status as public endorse Miliband’s policy April 9, 2015 After Labour seized the political agenda yesterday with Ed Miliband's pledge to abolish non-dom tax status, the Tories are reportedly planning their own non-dom crackdown. George Osborne is looking at plans to abolish the hereditary aspect of the 200-year-old rule, where sons and daughters of non-doms can inherit the privileged status from their father. The chancellor [...]
Defiant Greek PM Alexis Tsipras cosies up to Russian President Vladimir Putin April 8, 2015 Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras risked straining relations with his Eurozone partners even further yesterday after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to boost ties between the two countries. Dismissing European officials who questioned his intentions for the trip, Tsipras said: “Greece is a sovereign state – it has its undisputed right to a [...]
Ed Balls: I have not U-turned over non-dom rules April 8, 2015 Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls hit back at the Tory party yesterday after being accused of contradicting himself over a new plan to end non-doms’ tax status. Balls, along with party leader Ed Miliband, said that a Labour government would scrap the non-domicile rule that allows people to reduce the amount of tax paid on earnings [...]
Non-dom crackdown: What impact will taxing the global rich have on the UK? April 8, 2015 Tight finances and pressure to break the deadlock in the election campaign combined yesterday in a very focused new round of tax – on the foreign earnings of over 5,000 rich British residents. Labour first introduced a levy on long-term non-domiciled residents back in 2008, and the coalition has hiked it since. In December, chancellor [...]
George Osborne finds magic money machine at Metro Bank April 8, 2015 George Osborne may have solved the British government’s huge annual deficit problem. He’s found a magic money machine! The chancellor was in Kingston yesterday, visiting a branch of Metro Bank in order to hail news that the challenger bank will employ 3,300 new staff, and aim to have a total of 150 branches by 2020. [...]
General Election 2015: Is the Green Party’s boyband video the most bonkers election broadcast ever? Here are five of the best April 8, 2015 The Green party has launched its new Party Election Broadcast. It has David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and Nigel Farage depicted as a rather bizarre boy band, singing a power ballad about austerity. No. Really…. Incredibly, the Green video may not actually be the most bonkers election broadcast a party has ever [...]
Lord Ashcroft marginals poll: Ukip vote share drops 10 points in Conservative held seats April 8, 2015 Tory peer Lord Ashcroft's latest poll from the marginal constituencies shows a mixed picture for the two main parties and heralds bad news for Ukip. This week, all 10 results come from Conservative held seats where Labour is the principle opponent. According to the poll, which is a snapshot of public opinion not a prediction, [...]