As Sunny Hundal notes on Liberal Conspiracy: A weekly briefing by the City of Westminster’s ‘Counter Terrorist [sic] Focus Desk’ (see here– PDF file) calls for al anarchist activities and events to be reported to the police. Next to an anarchist symbol, the briefing states: Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and
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The USA is about to commit one of the biggest, if not the biggest, frauds in history. It is giving notice of its intention to default ion its creditors, not because it can’t pay, but because it won’t pay. Or rather, a group of far-right wing, Christian fundamentalist politicians, rightly called ‘dangerous charlatans‘ by the Guardian this
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According to the Guardian: The Treasury select committee sees HM Revenue & Customs barely able to function, as a result of real-terms cuts to its budget every year since its formation. I trust you will forgive me for saying “I told you so”, many times over. Start here. Working with the TUC and PCS I
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The attck on the NHS took a subtle new turn today – in the Guardian, of all places. First the was the suggestion that GPs are making more mistakes. They are. I suyspect that’s true. The reason why is easy to explain. Average GP consulting rate per patient has risen in the UK from a little under 4 visits a year about a
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The FT reported today that David Cameron’s strategy chief, Steve Hilton, wants to abolish maternity rights and all consumer protection legislation. The ideas are barking mad. I always find it amazing that a party where many obsess about the unborn child shows so much contempt for the ones that are born and their mothers. As for
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From Private Eye: Good to see that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) knows who the real tax-dodging villains are in Britain. Having let Vodafone and Goldman Sachs off millions in tax, it’s been commendably ruthless with… a small charity for disabled children. … The charity has been whacked with a £16,000 tax bill, dating from
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Great article from Reuters on this issue, here. I admit I contributed. As Lynnley Browning, who has just shifted to Reuters from the NYT noted: Things were rosy in the giant software company’s just-ended fiscal fourth quarter, which produced record sales of nearly $17.4 billion, a 30 percent increase in after-tax profit, and a 35
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As the Guardian has reported: GlaxoSmithKline lent its support to the UK economy on Tuesday by pledging to hire more staff and pay more taxes – in stark contrast to its US rival Pfizer, which is shutting a key centre in southern England. Glaxo’s chief executive, Andrew Witty, reiterated that the government’s patent box – which will
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What follows is not new: I wrote it late last year, in the main. But it remains wholly relevant, as George Osborne’s pathetic economic performance today showed. So I repeat it without apology. ——– People want an alternative economic policy. People deserve an alternative economic policy. And they want it now. What follows is an
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