Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor On the day Jeremy Hunt imposed his new contract on junior doctors there was a 1,000 per cent increase in doctors applying for documents to work in other countries. Three hundred applied for Certificates of Good Standing on Thursday 11 February – up from an average of 26 a day in February. A doctor costs around £300k to train so on the say of the announcement £90 million pounds of talent began to head to...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Even the Health Secretary’s team can’t pin point evidence that extra staffing over the weekend period will cut deaths on Saturday and Sunday. A leaked document has admits that his trusted advisors can’t prove that his seven-day demands are going to work. This would drastically his argument for ensuring junior doctors accept his new contract. The document says the department: "cannot evidence the mechanism by which increased consultant presence and diagnostic tests at weekends will...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor If you are trying to apply for Universal Credit you will have to use an 0345 number, costing up to 45p a min from a mobile and 12p a minute from landline. In a time when the majority of people increasingly use mobiles rather than landlines, this is a bitter blow to people already on the breadline. The Work and Pensions Secretary has decided against using on 0800 freephone number, to help people up and...

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...