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Despite the idiots who complained about the 5p plastic bag charge (viewing it as another tax rather than an incentive to actually use/waste less), single use plastic bag use by shoppers in England has plummeted since the introduction of the charge eighteen months ago. It is estimated that plastic bag consumption has dropped by around 85%. Even though plastic bag use has fallen, they are still used and thrown away in huge numbers and with reckless abandon (around 500m of them every year...

Student debt in the United Kingdom was well on its way to reaching crisis proportions before the recent changes in student finance instituted by the government. With the changes, student debt and the accompanying economic and societal problems it is creating is expected to triple from its present level of about £101 billion to more than £298 billion in 30 years. Although the $1.3 trillion in student debt in the United States dwarfs the UK’s debt load, on an individual...

In a major speech to diplomats at London's Lancaster House today, PM May promised a clean break from the EU and Britain will leave the single market membership; leading to Nick Clegg to call the Toires "UKIP-lite." Theresa May finally put a tiny bit of meat on the bones with a 12-point plan for leaving the EU - two months before she pulls two-year exit trigger Article 50. She is aiming for an "associate membership" of the customs union and, arguably,...

The Prime Minister has changed the landscape for business following today's defining Brexit speech, according to the Confederation of British Industry. Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said "ruling out membership of the Single Market has reduced options for maintaining a barrier-free trading relationship between the UK and the EU", but added that "businesses will welcome the greater clarity and the ambition to create a more prosperous, open and global Britain". Theresa May's today said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single...

A teenage girl was horrified when she found a dead horse was found dumped on a lane - frozen solid. Emily Standen was walking home when she came across the black and white horse that was frozen to the lane - and has been trying to track down the owners ever since. The 16-year-old, from Five Oak Green, Kent, who has been riding horses for 12 years, launched a Facebook appeal to help find the owners - but so far...

A crisis-hit NHS trust has been forced to stop serving salads to patients because hospitals can no longer afford them. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust scrapped the healthy food option after telling suppliers they are so much in debt they cannot pay them until April. A leaked memo revealed how the situation had become so bad at the cash-strapped hospitals they could no longer provide the cold food items on menus. Communications officer David Burrows said in the memo: "Unfortunately,...

Phillip Hammond's comments this week that Britain could change its economic model after Brexit negotiations have confirmed once and for all that we made the vote to leave the European Union completely blind. Talking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag he unleashed a thinly veiled threat that Britain could use its corporate tax as a form of leverage in Brexit negotiations, possibly becoming the tax haven of Europe if it is shut out of the EU’s single market. But is that really the...

As world leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Dr Richard Dodgson, Lecturer in International Politics at Newcastle University, is warning that the gap between rich and poor will only be reduced if political leaders are willing to challenge the status quo. He says: “As the World Economic Forum kicks off, the eyes of the world are on Davos. This gathering of the great and the good from across the globe is positioned as an opportunity for the world’s...

By Jacqui Hunt, Europe Director at Equality Now The US election has been a catalyst for a global grassroots movement that is bringing together many who feel deeply concerned about how the hard-won rights of women and girls are currently under threat or are being denied. On Saturday 21 January, the day after Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, over 200,000 people are expected to take part in the Women’s March in Washington,...