London City Airport given green light for £200m expansion by Newham council February 4, 2015 London City Airport has been given the go-ahead for a £200m expansion by Newham Council. Airport chief executive Declan Collier welcomed the decision as "great result for the capital". Under the plans, the airport will triple in size by 2023 so as to accommodate larger aircraft with routes extending beyond Western Europe to reach [...]
Margaret Hodge backs out of London Mayoral race to support “non-white” candidate February 4, 2015 The field of candidates to succeed Boris Johnson as Mayor of London has just been narrowed. Labour MP for Barking Margaret Hodge backed out of the race for her party's nomination. Instead, she has decided to throw her weight behind one of Labour's black and minority ethnic candidates. The influential chair of the Commons Public [...]
Watch: Ed Balls forgot Labour business leader Bill Thomas’s name. Here are the Newsnight interviews that were even worse February 4, 2015 Labour's attempt to woo the business community appears to be going from bad to worse. On Tuesday, business leaders took the media to lambast Ed Miliband's attack on Boots boss Stefano Pessina and Labour's rhetoric on markets. To counter the charge that his party was anti-business Ed Balls was booked into Newsnight to defend his [...]
Lord Ashcroft Scottish constituencies poll mapped: Labour faces heavy defeat at hands of the SNP February 4, 2015 Lord Ashcroft's long-awaited polls of the Scottish constituencies are finally in and they make grim reading for the Labour party. According to Ashcroft's research, the SNP is ahead in 13 out of 14 Labour-held seats. Some of these seats are not marginals but are held with huge Labour majorities. The seats that received the most [...]
Adam Smith Institute calls on Osborne to back Varoufakis’s Greek debt-swap plan February 3, 2015 Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has found an enthusiastic backer for his debt restructuring plans in one of Britain's premier free-market think-tanks. Greece has abandoned demands for a write-off of foreign debt and has instead proposed swapping the outstanding debt for growth-linked bonds accompanied by a crackdown on tax evasion and budget surpluses. Varoufakis described [...]
Ukip candidate Donald Grewar resigns after praising homophobic BNP website post February 3, 2015 Ukip's candidate for Newport East has resigned after praising homophobic comments made on an article on the BNP's website. Donald Grewar quit his candidacy for the Welsh seat following an investigation by Ukip into his behaviour. A Ukip spokesman said: Mr Grewar agreed completely with the assessment that his actions, while not malicious, were regrettable. [...]
Pensioners should opt-in to winter fuel allowance and jobseekers should get personal welfare accounts, says think tank February 3, 2015 A think-tank with close links to the Conservative Party has outlined a series of changes to welfare that would affect pensioner benefits and Job Seekers Allowance and child benefit payments. Under Policy Exchange's Welfare Manifesto pensioners would be asked to opt-in to receive the Winter Fuel Allowance. Currently, the Winter Fuel Allowance is given to [...]
What to consider when writing a speech February 3, 2015 Writing a speech is a daunting task for anyone. Sitting in front of a depressingly blank piece of paper or a blank screen, you can go around in circles. You are thinking about how to start, what to say, what to miss out, how to get your ideas out, how to communicate in a coherent [...]
Labour’s business woes: Industry leaders savage Ed Miliband’s attack on Boots boss February 3, 2015 Ed Miliband's decision to come out all guns blazing against Boots boss Stefano Pessina may have back-fired after a swathe of business leaders took to the media to condemn the Labour leader. Speaking yesterday at event for young voters, the Labour leader hit back at Pessina's claim that a Labour government would be a "catastrophe" [...]
HMRC to fine 890,000 people for missing self-assessment deadline February 2, 2015 HM Revenue and Customs has said that as many as 890,000 people are facing fines for missing the deadline for submitting self-assessment returns. People who missed the deadline, which was midnight on 31 January, will be £100 out of pocket and even more if they fail to submit a self-assessment form over the course of [...]
