Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Welfare cuts have hit children the hardest as families can’t make ends meet, a study has revealed. Due to Tory spending cuts more people live below the poverty line that in 2008 at the height of the global financial meltdown. The report, by the JRF (Joseph Rowntree Foundation) found that 11.6 million people are struggling to make ends meet. Shockingly the majority of these people live in working households. The JRF study says that cuts...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor ANOTHER shocking pay scandal has emerged from the corridors of power. 80 senior MPs who chair debates and meeting could see an increase in their pay packets. Fifty per cent of these are up for an extra £3,700 a year increase, while the rest could be finding an extra fifteen thousand pounds in their bank accounts. Chairs already get up to £15,000 on top of the £74,000 they get for being an MP, the fee...

By Darragh Roche It's not often MP s have the moral high ground when it comes to money. They get paid by the taxpayer, claim expenses for silly things and provide questionable value for money. But when a Commons committee put some simple questions to the European boss of Google, the politicians won a rare victory. People are already angry at Google for apparent tax avoidance but Matt Brittin's claim that he didn't know his own salary was beyond belief....

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor George Osborne’s brother has been struck off after a two-year relationship with one of his own patients. Dr Adam Osborne had been treating her for anxiety and depression but became embroiled into a sexual relationship. The medical tribunal declared that his behaviour was ‘profoundly unacceptable” and that his fitness to practice was impaired by reason of misconduct. During the hearing it was revealed that Osborne attempted to end the relationship; then the woman involved attempted suicide...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Eleven of the twenty doctors who Jeremy Hunt claimed had signed a letter in support of his junior doctor’s contract decisions…have denied it. In the Commons yesterday Hunt used a letter signed by 20 NHS managers, which he said backed his plans. However, eleven of the people named have said they thought the concessions over the final offer were “fair and reasonable,” but they don’t agree that contracts should be forced upon medics. To add...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The speaker John Bercow has lavished public money on entertaining MPs, himself, but not you. He spent a colossal two grand on beeswax candles, not exactly a necessity. He also splashed out hundreds of quid on photos of him getting his grand piano tuned. Bercow put on sumptuous receptions, lunches and dinners at the cost of the tax payer. A one off meal with an Aussie counterpart came to £1,954. He also has a fondness...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Parliament votes to keep MPs' arrests secret from the public - and just one member voted against Anti-EU Tory Chris Grayling has forced through a rule arguing that releasing the names of MPs who have been incarcerated is a breach of their human rights. Only one MP voted against the new proposal. Currently, the names of members who have be arrested was a public record and the Speaker of the House John Bercow would announce...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Labour party is about to be clobbered with a £8m cut in after an overhaul of electoral funding. This could mean the Conservative party could spend four times as much as the Labour Party in the lead-up to the next election. A shake-up of how union cash is used in the party has been called "cynical" and "partisan" and it could ruin Labour's 2020 election campaign. Tom Watson Labour's deputy leader said that their...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Actor Mark Ruffalo, who recently starred in feature film Spotlight, has told the PM to abandon plans for fracking and to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Ruffalo is a vocal opponent of this method of extraction in the US and told the PM he was making "a legacy mistake" in his championing of the controversial process. His remarks were made in an interview with environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth. Ruffalo said: “Mr...