This week the No to AV campaign started to lay out its case to the British people ahead of a May referendum on changing the voting system. It was a poor start to what should be an easy task.
Central banks in the U.K., Europe, Australasia and Latin America, are focused on the ill effects of inflation, which is rising at a rate that threatens to impair economic growth in their respective jurisdictions. This follows a period where these economies were attempting to stoke growth through monetary stimuli that led to lower interest rates and sizeable gains in bond prices. This is now changing.
IBTimes interviews Jeanne Allen, the President of The Center for Education Reform, about education in Great Britain and the United States and about the rise of charter schools in the US and of academies and now free schools in Britain.
The IMF estimates the U.S. gross outstanding public debt to GDP ratio at approximately 100% for 2011. Not good, but the U.S. can point to Japan and Italy as having higher ratios. But probably not many think that Japan's dismal economic picture is one that the U.S. should try to model itself on. Italy also has more than its share of economic issues and an economic framework that not many countries aspire to.
On Tuesday 08 February 2011, Manchester City Council outlined detailed plans of its £109 million in cuts that it will make during the coming financial year. The City Council state that they are being forced into making these substantial cuts by a dramatic reduction in central government support. A further withdrawal of central funding is forecast for the 2012/13 financial year compelling the City Council to make additional savings of £170 million.
Yesterday Trevor Phillips, head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, said that he felt "physically sick" when he read that Labour MPs had mocked a Conservative MP with cerebral palsy. The case raises some interesting questions about what "equality" means.
The international reaction to the ongoing political chaos in Egypt took an amusing turn today when the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Catherine Ashton, penned an article in The Guardian saying she wanted to see "deep democracy" take root in Egypt.
The new head of the Confederation of British Industry has spoken out against proposals to break up the country's largest banks.
Last night BBC Four aired a documentary which took a look at climate change sceptics and in particular one of the movement's most prominent poster boys, Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley.
There was little good news for Fianna Fáil this past weekend with a general election expected to be held on 25 February and no change in the prediction that the current ruling party are going to lose badly. However, with a new party leader, Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil's support does appear to have stabilised at 16 per cent. This was found to be the case in two opinion polls, one conducted by Red Co for the Sunday Business Post and another by MillwardBrown Lansdowne for the Sunday Independen...
It emerged today that Colin Firth, the lead actor in the new film "The King's Speech", in which he plays King George VI, may not be the biggest fan of the monarchy.
Trade union Unite has said that plans by the government to sell a number of England's forests as part of its deficit reduction plans will lead to the loss of hundreds of "green jobs".
On Thursday, 20 January 2011, Brian Cowen, Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) announced that a general election will be held on 11 March 2011. Somewhat earlier than he and his Fianna Fáil Party would have liked - their preference was the 25th - it is unlikely to make any significant difference to their expected trouncing at the election by a Fine Gael/Labour coalition.
The embattled Prime Minister Ireland, Brian Cowen, has said that he is stepping down from his position as head of the governing Fianna Fail Party.
With flagging economies and worries about austerity measures further crimping growth, about the last thing central bankers from the U.K. and Europe need to consider is combating inflation. But that is exactly what is being heaped upon decision-makers at the moment.
Andy Coulson, the controversial head of communications at Number 10 Downing Street, has quit.
Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson, has quit his position, citing "personal reasons".
The Chair of the Conservative Party, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, is to speak out today against prejudice against Muslims, which she claims is the last acceptable form of bigotry in Britain.
A disturbing new trend is slowly arising in Great Britain which if unchecked could spell the end of the relatively free society we live in and risks taking us back to a less tolerant age.
Voters in Oldham East and Saddleworth in Greater Manchester went to the polls in a by-election on 13 January 2011, caused by former MP Phil Woolas being found guilty of offences against his Lib Dem opponent, Mr Elwyn Watkins during the May 2010 general election campaign and thereby forfeiting his seat. This case should be good for British democracy despite the fact that the injured party failed in his bid to win the seat, and may well have implications in the way future election campaigns are ha...
Voters in the ongoing referendum in South Sudan on independence from the rest of the country have been given a very interesting choice on their ballot papers.
South Sudan is voting to secede from the North. Their chances are better than those of the Confederates 150 years ago.
Africa, long known as the birthplace of human kind, may soon be giving birth to a new country as the southern region of Sudan began voting today on whether it should secede from the North.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday Israel needs to revise its position over peace talks and settlement-building to reach a final accord with the Palestinians.
With 2011 well under way it might be worth reflecting on the fact that this year will mark the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 11 September and the beginning of the still raging war in Afghanistan.
The federal fiscal policy debate is being overwhelmed by a growing sense that America must slash its deficit now, before it is too late. Actually, the United States is in no danger of a Treasury debt crisis and can carry far more debt than people believe without dire consequences.
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the top militant group fighting in the country's remote northeast for almost three decades has dropped its demand for independence in talks with New Delhi, softening its stand in an insurgency that has killed thousands of people.
The Coalition's Business Secretary, Vincent Cable, has come under serious criticism after it emerged that he told undercover reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch.
On Tuesday, 14 December 2010, Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial Prime Minister of Italy, survived a confidence vote in both houses of the Italian parliament. He won by a comfortable margin in the upper house, the Senate, but in the lower, the Chamber of Deputies, his majority was a wafer-thin three votes, 314 to 311.
It's not often that an article in the Guardian interests me, but yesterday between the regular complaints about the cuts and the stories of the plight of downtrodden workers in far away places, there was a real gem of a piece about the Chinese dissident and now Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
