Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Iain Duncan Smith has aired his anger at his £30-a-week cuts being blocked in a letter. He has promised to push through the cuts anyway regardless of the warning from his own human rights watchdog. The House of Lords has twice blocked his attempts to cut ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) by a total of £30 a week. The letter sent to Tory MPs by Smith warned his colleagues to “strongly resist” the Lords’ and...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Labour leader has pulled no punches and savaged his party’s political and economic record under Brown and Blair. During his first major speech to business chiefs he attacked the pervious leaders for an "unsustainable" handling of the economy. Jezza tore apart New Labour for its 'light touch’ regulation of the banking sector, the heavy reliance on PFI schemes and inability to raise wages for the lowest paid. Corbyn has clearly tried to create economic...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Salford Council have brought a in Public Space Protection Order to cover the Salford Quays area hoping to curb anti-social behaviour. If anyone uses “foul and abusive language,” it will deemed a criminal offence due to the workings of the order. However, it does not stipulate what words are “foul and abusive.” If anyone is nabbed doing it, they will be slapped with an on-the-spot fine. This order will impact on Manchester United fans on...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor More economic gloom as housebuilding activity plunged to lowest level in almost three years. The depressing figures follow on from news in the manufacturing sector, reeling from poor global conditions and the looming EU referendum. Tuesday’s manufacturing index showed it had slipped to its worst month in almost three years in February. The housebuilding data comes from Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers’ index growth in the building sector which sank to a 10 month low in...

Hilary Clinton is the odds on favourite to become the next US President, according to trading on Matchbook. The chances of her being inaugurated as the 44th President of the US rose from 59 per cent to 64 per cent following a super 'Super Tuesday'. Meanwhile Donald Trump's probability of securing the nomination has risen 1.5 percentage points, moving to 79.32 per cent from 77.84 per cent. However, having doubled his probability of becoming president in the last six weeks, the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Politics hit another new low when a Tory MP shouted at shadow chancellor John McDonnell to “shuddap you face.” The bizarre heckle was shouted out as McDonnell wanted some answers from George Osborne about dodgy bankers. It is not clear who shouted out the insult, but Greg Hands carried on with his statement and made no note of the remark. The put down is inspired by Joe Dolce’s 1980 comedy song and is an Italian-American insult....

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The news has been pretty full of the union of 28 states bound by an economic and increasingly (add angry emoji here if applicable) political union. However, Jeremy Corbyn wanted to chat about the education system during today’s PMQs; another error at the despatch box in my opinion. He did look noticeably smarter though; an upgrade from Matalan to Asda George. It might be that the leader of the opposition doesn’t want to go too...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A new law will hugely extend the already feared snooper’s charter, which will give additional power to the police that were originally intended to fight terrorism. Police will be given the power to hack into your phone and computer and retrieve your web-browsing history, under the new law proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May. This massive expansion of the spying powers was originally drawn up to assist the security services battle against terrorism, but mission...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor More shocking news for the steel industry as the Navy’s new wave of warships could be built with steel from abroad. Ministers have made no plans to prioritise UK steel for the upcoming Type 31 frigate. This has led to accusations that the Conservative’s are sending the industry into a “death spiral.” The Navy is in the planning and design stage of the flexible and light vessels that will be a new high-tech addition to...