20 August 2015

Week in Brief: UK NEWS

LABOUR LEADERSHIP: Tony Blair has added his voice to those of Jack Straw, Alan Milburn and other big beasts campaigning to prevent Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour Party. Mr Corbyn’s position has been reinforced as new voters are signed up, polls indicating that he is on course to take 57% of first preference votes. Concern continues over abuse of the system under which a subscription of £3 buys the right to vote and over the belief that members of other parties are registering in order to distort the election. Mr Miliband, who has been criticised for introducing the current system, has gone on holiday to Australia.

Criticising the past leadership for imposing their own views on members, Mr Corbyn has indicated that if he wins there will be an end to top-down behaviour and that policy will be made by the membership. He has indicated that he would be happy to work with the Scottish National Party in opposition. He is also keen, as is Andy Burnham, to renationalise the rail network.

EARN OR LEARN: Matthew Hancock, Paymaster General and chairman of the “earn or learn” taskforce, has announced a three week “Intensive Activity Programme” designed to enable young jobseekers to find work within six months of first claiming benefits. The programme will involve more than 70 hours of instruction.

PAY WHEN YOU DIE: Increases in the time spent by pensioners in care homes has meant that more than 19,000 have remortgaged their homes with local authorities to pay care bills. This enables the home to be retained (presumably as the residence of dependents) until the death of the pensioner at which stage it is sold.

MUSIC VIDEOS: Music videos from YouTube and Vevo are to be classified by the British Board of Film Classification with a view to restricting access of children to inappropriate material. The ratings, which will be similar to those given to feature films, will initially be applied only to UK labels although it is hoped to extend them to US labels in due course.

JANNER APPEAL: The High Court turned down an appeal by lawyers representing Lord Janner against the decision of magistrates that he must appear in court to face charges of child abuse. Lord Janner is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and it is said that he will not be able to plead or give evidence. However the Court believed that his human rights must give way to the public interest in ensuring that those charged should attend court. Lord Janner attended the Westminster magistrates Court on Friday where he was remanded on bail to the Southwark Crown Court.

NEW PEERAGES: It is understood that there will be well over thirty Conservative appointees among the new peers to be announced shortly, with eleven Liberal Democrats and a smaller number from Labour. That will take the total number to well over 800, although in practice many of them never attend the House. There have been suggestions that the number should be reduced by introducing a retiring age or that peerages should be granted for a specific period only.

It is understood that the nomination of David Laws has been blocked by the independently chaired House of Lords Appointments Commission because of his breach of the Parliamentary rules for expenses.

SCHISM: “The Times” has published an investigation into the increase in mutual vilification between elements in the Muslim Sunni and Shia communities. In the UK the Sunnis outnumber the Shias by about 8 to 1 and the latter are becoming increasingly nervous about the possibility of hate crime.

MILK: Asda has responded to demonstrations by dairy farmers by agreeing to increase the amount paid for milk by more than 4p a litre. In Morrisons, customers will be given the choice of paying an extra 10p a litre to support UK producers. Lidl and Aldi have yet to respond to the pressure.

CHILCOT ENQUIRY: Relatives of troops killed in Iraq have attacked the delays in the delivery of Sir John Chilcot’s report and have written to Sir John asking him to set (within the next two weeks) a publication date of before the end of the year.

MIGRANT WORKERS: In the six months to June, the number of EU born employees in the UK increased by 84,000 to over 2 million. In the same period employment of UK born citizens fell by 167,000.

MIGRATION: French officials have broken up nineteen trafficking gangs in the Calais area this year. That is more than three times the number for the corresponding period in 2014.

FRACKING: The Government has reacted to complaints that councils are obstructing and delaying applications for consent for fracking by threatening to call in applications so that they are dealt with by Ministers rather than by local planning authorities.

The Government has awarded drilling licences for 27 exploration blocks affecting 1,000 square miles of countryside. A further 5,000 square miles, including areas of national parkland, have been earmarked for fracking, although that is subject to further work to assess the environmental impact.

AIRPORT SHOPS: David Gauke, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has urged airport shops to pass on the VAT which they save when they sell to long haul customers, by discounting the prices they charge them. The shops have been criticised for insisting that passengers show their boarding passes in order to justify the saving of VAT and then keeping the VAT for themselves. See Comment.

KIDS COMPANY: Concern has been expressed that a report by the London School of Economics into the charity was funded by the charity itself. Both the LSE and the charity deny Kids Company had any input into the report.

ETON: Eton College has borrowed £45 million to help boys whose families have difficulties in meeting its fees. Currently the school subsidises the fees of 20% of its pupils, with the average subsidy being 63%.

UNIVERSITIES: According to figures based on A-level results, 50% of new undergraduates will be women and 43% men. The difference continues a trend which has been established for some years. With limits on the number of places which a university may offer now lifted, popular institutions have been able to increase the number of students on their courses. It is understood that there is a marked trend among teenage boys to work as apprentices rather than going to university.

SMOKING: Public Health England has suggested that doctors should be able to prescribe e-cigarettes in view of the reduction in health risk when a smoker changes over to vaping. Kevin Fenton, director of health and well-being, has indicated that, although e cigarettes are not entirely without risk, the harm done is just a fraction of that done by real smoking.

ACADEMIES: Mr Cameron has said that he wants every school in the country to have the opportunity of becoming an academy and thus escaping local authority control. Three of the Labour leadership candidates are opposed to academies, which were originally introduced by Mr Blair’s government, although Liz Kendall has indicated that she will back them where she believes that they can be successfully introduced.

PAPARAZZI: Kensington palace has indicated that it is prepared to litigate to prevent intrusion into the life of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s young family after a photographer was found staking them out with a long lens from the boot of his car. Although the British Press generally complies with guidance from the media regulator on the privacy of the Royal family, overseas newspapers are not subject to this.

RAIL FARES: The government has announced that rises in rail fares for next year will be restricted to inflation, using the retail price index for July. This is in line with an election pledge to hold fare increases at inflation for the next five years.

CUMBERBATCH: The Lyndsey Turner “Hamlet” at the Barbican has been reordered, with the soliloquy “To be or not to be” being moved from the opening to where Shakespeare placed it.