Politics

The Netherlands would vote 56 per cent in favour of leaving the EU if there was a referendum tomorrow, a new poll has shown. According to the Maurice de Hond poll the country would vote overwhelmingly to leave, with 44 per cent remaining compared to 48 per cent who voted the same in Britain. The poll shows that a majority of Dutch voters would prefer more self-government and are open to different options. For the Nexit supporters, this may mean looking...

If you had to say what is one thing you would never want to imagine, Theresa May and John Bercow showering together is probably top of my list. Well maybe just after Gary Barlow doing anything. Somehow this cropped up in today’s session, but more of that later, as I need to take my mind off it for a moment. See, a troubled mind can be much more serious than the thought of May wearing loofer mitts and gently exfoliating...

Former PM Sir John Major didn’t pull any punches when he attacked the current government’s plan for a hard Brexit. Major believes that her pursuit of a quick Brexit at all costs will harm the NHS and working people. Major said “whole communities” could be worse off and could suffer for years and could put extra pressure on the NHS, already at breaking point with the Red Cross recently claiming the health service was suffering a “humanitarian crisis.” There are...

Donald Trump has set out plans to increase defence spending by a whopping $54 billion as foreign assistance and environmental budgets are slashed. His proposed budget plan for 2018 sees a historically-high nine per cent increase in defence spending, with deep cuts elsewhere, although Social Security and Medicare were left untouched. "We're going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable," Trump said in a meeting with governors at the White House on Monday. The budget will...

Another day another Tory belittles the poor and in need, it didn’t make much difference to the vote in Copeland, but these comments will disgust many. Policy chief George Freeman, said that benefits should only be given to the ‘really disabled’ and not to people who suffer with anxiety. He has faced a huge backlash and now he has said that he ‘hugely regrets’ his remarks. It is unknown if he would have apologised if he hadn’t faced a massive...

Honouring Sir Gerald Kaufman MP who has died aged 86, many tributes today mention the pugnacity as well as intellectual might, influence, length of career, kindness and concern for those most marginalised by society of the outspoken former frontbencher. The controversial Labour was unafraid to tell truth to power even if that occasionally meant embarrassing powerful officials who came before the committees he served in, figures in his own party, or sometimes fellow members of Britain's Jewish community with whom he...

Early last year Jeremy Corbyn was roundly laughed at in the House of Commons for suggesting food poverty, inequality and climate change should also be included in the Government's national security review. The list of priorities had been reserved to armed military responses in the event of an attack and increasing spending on Britain's Trident nuclear detterent from £25 billion to £31 billion. The notion that a deepening crisis was happening right in front of our eyes was, in the eyes of...

It is a huge week for Labour battling the Stoke and Copeland by-elections. In normal circumstances they shouldn’t worry about it, but these are not normal times. Even with UKIP’s Paul Nuttall shooting himself in the foot virtually every day, Labour could easily find themselves shell-shocked when the votes are counted. So today’s PMQs was a chance to offer those wavering Labour voters a chance to hear the Corbyn roar. Perhaps he could even pretend to like nuclear power for...

An ‘appalling’ rise in deadly super bugs E.coli and MRSA is linked to the Conservatives cutting and outsourcing cleaning contracts, according to GMB. Three thousand cleaners have been slashed from the NHS wage bill since 2011/12, new figures reveal - despite hospitals treating more than a million more patients every year since then. Meanwhile in the past year cases of E.coli, MRSA and MSSA – a strain of the MRSA bacteria – have rocketed by more than 8,000. Between 2004...