Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A tiny fraction (97.6 per cent) of senior officials at the Department for Communities & Local Government actually work outside of London. This was the department that the chancellor asked to deliver the “northern powerhouse,” which aims to devolve power to the outlying regions and cities. However the government admitted that 97.6% of senior civil servants at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) are based in London. A pitiful 2.4% of the department’s...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Around 50 Conservative MPs are planning to rebel against the Chancellor’s plans to relax the Sunday trading laws, which also includes two ministers who may be ready to resign. The Chancellor, George Osborne, is facing another backlash from his party, this time over extending shopping hours on Sunday. Rumours are that 50 Tories are plotting to rebel on the vote on the issue on Wednesday only a week before his budget. The Chancellor is increasingly...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Home Secretary Theresa May has won a case to return hundreds of people back to Afghanistan. The failed asylum-seekers, which also includes former child migrants, will be returned to Afghanistan. The Court of Appeal decided that deportations can now go ahead. Since last August there had been a total ban on deportations to the country, which has suffered immeasurable hardship, due the ravages of war. The Taliban now control swathes of territory in the country and...

Morrissey is reportedly thinking about standing for London Mayor in the upcoming elections in May. Morrissey is 6/4 with Betway to challenge Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith for London Mayor in May’s election. The singer has been asked by the Animal Welfare Society to enter the race to succeed outgoing mayor Boris Johnson, and the online bookmaker gives him long odds of 250/1 to win. Providing he collects enough signatures to make the final ballot, the former Smiths frontman is 14/1...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor With less then a fortnight until the budget, the Chancellor is worried about a severe backlash from richer voters over his pension proposals. In response Osborne has had to ditch his package of pension reforms, including tax relief for high earners, due to concern that these changes would annoy Conservative voters. The proposals included creating a “pensions Isa” that would have eliminated pension tax relief for all those in work. An ally of the chancellor...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Prime Minister really should stop trying to do accents. This time he tried a Scottish one, I think, speaking at the annual conference of the Scottish Conservative Party. He told the crowd he went into a chip shop after a rugby match at Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium and the man behind the counter said: "What can we get for you, humble pie?" Cameron's attempted punchline was supposedly the attempt at the joke. Watch his "Scottish" accent...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Since July 2015 fourteen MPs have had their credit cards suspended for not providing evidence of their spending on time or making the repayments. In total a debt of £27k has led to the blocking of their credit cards. Ipsa (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) issues MPs with credit cards to pay for a variety of items such as travel, accommodation and stationery. The politicians then have to prove the spending was allowable within a month,...

North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered the country's nuclear weapons be readied for use at any time, according to reports on the Korean Central News Agency. He told military leaders the country should revise its military posture to be ready to launch pre-emptive strikes following new sanctions imposed by the UN. Although it is still unclear how advanced North Korea's nuclear weapon programme is, the actions will be seen as further acts of volatility from the Supreme Leader. He...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Emmanuel Macron, the French finance minister, has warned that if the UK left the EU it could lead to migrants crossing the channel “unchecked.” He believes the British withdrawal from European project would bring to a close the 2003 treaty that allows UK border guards to be stationed in Calais. It has been widely reported that the area around the coastal conurbation is the makeshift home to thousands of migrants aiming to enter the UK...