02 March 2017
Week in Brief: UK
WOOD PELLETS: A study just published has revealed that the UK pays millions of pounds in subsides to power stations to encourage them to burn American wood pellets. The report concludes that felling trees and transporting the pellets across the Atlantic to be burnt in the power stations is more damaging to the environment and has a more harmful effect on climate change than the burning of coal. The report said that the desire to meet EU targets for renewable energy was the reason that Ministers had been persuaded that burning wood pellets was carbon neutral. The subsidies paid to power stations was part of the policy of the coalition government, and Chris Huhne was the Minister in charge of energy and climate change who was enthusiastic about the policy. He is now European chairman of a US company which supplies wood pellets. He has denied any impropriety.
LEIGH DAY: Another solicitor is facing disciplinary proceedings following legal action taken by her firm against the British Army in connection with the Iraq war. Sapna Malik is a partner with Leigh Day. She faces allegations of misconduct, and the hearing is expected to last 7 weeks.
SCOTLAND YARD: The Metropolitan Police has appointed Cressida Dick as the next head of Scotland Yard, after Bernard Hogan-Howe steps down. She is the first woman to head the Met. In the past she has been head of the counter-terrorism branch and held that post when Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead in 2005, in the mistaken belief that he was a terrorist. She was cleared of any blame at a trial in 2007.
COPELAND: Labour has lost the seat of Copeland to the Conservatives, a seat not held by the Conservatives since 1935. Recriminations have now begun within the Labour Party. Baroness Chakrabarti, the shadow Attorney-General, blamed the media and the weather for the loss of the seat. Apparently she said that the bad weather had meant that there was a low turn out of Labour voters, because so few of them owned cars. She attacked Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, and accused him of disloyalty. Mr. Prentis rejected the criticism. Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, attacked Len McCluskey of Unite, for failing to defend Jeremy Corbyn.
IMMIGRATION: Net immigration has fallen below 300,000 as people from Poland and other European countries return home. This was offset by an increase in the number of immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania. The figures also show that the number of people arriving from the EU was higher than the number coming from outside the EU.
FARMLAND: The value of agricultural land fell by 7% last year, as concern grew over the effect that leaving the EU may have on farmers. EU subsidies are worth £3 billion a year. The Government has promised to maintain the subsidy until 2020, but there is uncertainty about what support will be offered after that.
MAJOR WARNING: Sir John Major, the former Conservative Prime Minister, has advised Theresa May to ignore the views of hard-line Eurosceptics in the party, who want a total break with the EU. He warned that if the UK was to move towards a low-tax, low-regulation economy, there would be serious consequences for the NHS and the welfare state.
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