By Scott Harker Schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland begin to return this week marking, for many, the end of the summer holidays. Students and teachers in Scotland returned to the classroom two weeks ago; a milestone that is being blamed for a spike in cases north of the border. While the Government has…
Category: UK Government
Dominic Cummings, double feature or In the room where it happened
By Laura Griffiths From Spiderman to SAGE, the double select committee that featured Dominic Cummings today has consumed the day’s news. At the beginning of the session with the Science and Technology Committee, Mr Cummings made what many people wanted to hear – an apology. There was also an acknowledgement that he and others had…
Government continues drive to move more civil servants – and money – out of London
By Joe Cooper The Government today announced a number of new policies in support of its levelling-up agenda with the headline of an £830m investment package to support high streets across 57 local areas, and £10m to support improved teaching standards across local authorities in Plymouth, Ashfield and Mansfield, South Sefton and North Liverpool, and…
Freedom demands a price
By Simon Gentry The first chink of light in the lockdown dark has emerged and for parts of the country it coincided with warm sunny weather, an enticing foretaste of summer. The government are keen it play it down, eager to remind us all to be careful and not get carried away. “Despite today’s easements,…
A viable Labour Government and business risk
By Mark Glover There is no doubt that under Keir Starmer the Labour Party is slowly moving nearer to power. Whilst by no means favourites to win the next General Election, the moderating influence of the new leader and his shadow cabinet leaves voters less inclined to vote against him. If Starmer can combine this…
Nursing a sore spot for Government
By Liam Baker A pay rise called “a pathetic and bitter blow” to Britain’s health workers, rising discontentment among the nursing profession, a Tory government unwavering in its course of action, and a Labour leader unwilling to back the strike action of the nurses. All of this may feel very familiar, but this isn’t the…
Review puts fintech at the heart of government’s post-Brexit vision
By Fraser Raleigh The conclusion of the long-awaited strategic review of UK fintech, led by the former Chief Executive of Worldpay, Ron Kalifa, has provided the government with an important opportunity to set out the vision it wants to project of the UK following both COVID-19 and Brexit. The report comes out at a time…
“Are you ready? Get testing. Go!”
By Tim Le Couilliard Ahead of Boris Johnson’s hotly anticipated lockdown escape map being unveiled next week, journalists are doing all they can to sneak a preview into what may or may not be announced. After all, is there anything else that anyone is interested in at present? Like the population, the media is obsessed…
When blame is not a game
By Fraser Raleigh As the Prime Minister held a sombre press conference last night to mark the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID deaths in the UK, he might have thought back to when he stood at the Downing Street podium all the way back on 12 March last year – two weeks before the first…
Sunak’s fiscal dilemma
By Gareth Jones The Budget is just under six weeks away. It is unclear how the country will be emerging from current lockdown restrictions by that point, but nevertheless, as we head towards 3rd March, the Treasury and Number 10 will be facing a series of very tough decisions about public spending. The economic package that…