The week outside Westminster

This week a government spokesman declared that it would be “quite wrong” to reform the Barnett Formula, and a meeting of the joint ministerial council saw tackling the deficit at the top of the agenda for the leaders of the UK and devolved administrations.

Scotland

• Ernest and Young warned that cuts could cost Scotland 30,000 public sector jobs.

• Lord Sanderson, leading a review of Conservative operations in Scotland, was revealed to have voted in favour of taking powers away from Holyrood and against giving rights to gay and transgender people on three occasions.

• Thousands took to the streets of Edinburgh in protest over the boarding by Israeli security forces of the flotilla bound for Gaza.

• Lib Dem spokesman, Jeremy Purvis, accused the SNP of propping up a “bonus culture”.

• Scottish secretary Michael Moore told Scotland on Sunday that Holyrood would not get any further tax varying powers beyond those envisaged by the Calman Commission.

• The first poll since the general election was good news for Labour.

• Scottish Labour launched its “More Nats, Fewer Nurses” campaign.

• Scotland secured £182 million of new funding from the fossil fuel levy to Holyrood.

• Labour leadership contender David Miliband backed the implementation of the Calman Commission, declaring it an “excellent” report.

• Holyrood’s Finance Committee expressed disappointment that public sector bosses in Scotland lacked the urgency required to address the budget cuts to come.

Wales

• Two arrests were made as rival demonstrations by anti-fascist campaigners and the far-Right Welsh Defence League took place in Cardiff.

• The Vice Chancellor of Swansea University warned that thousands of prospective students face unemployment this summer due to a shortage of university places.

• Plaid Cymru joined with the Greens and SNP in calling for the future of the nuclear deterrent to be consider as part of the strategic defence review.

• Plaid MEP and anti-nuclear campaigner, Jill Evans, was elected as her party’s next president.

• Nick Clegg told MPs that the Government would support greater law making powers for Cardiff after a Wales Office minister had said the coalition would remain neutral on the issue.

• Wales gained an extra £1.4 million as a result of spending on the London Olympics.

• Speaking about Labour’s prospects in Wales, Carwyn Jones told the Western Mail: “I think the other parties have a lot more to worry about than we do.”

Northern Ireland

• Unionists denounced as “farcical” an emergency meeting of Stormont to debate Israel’s storming of the flotilla bound for Gaza; 200 people protested against the actions of the Israeli Government and military in Belfast.

• DUP Deputy Leader, Nigel Dodds, called for Sinn Fein’s abstentionist MPs to have their Commons allowances removed.

• Residents from Belfast’s Shankill Road came out in force for the funeral of Bobby Moffatt who had been murdered at the hands of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer force.

• PUP interim leader, John Kyle, warned that the UVF still has weapons.

• Justice minister David Ford set out his priorities for the job.

• A pipe bomb exploded outside a house in Derry, with a family narrowly escaping injury.

Quote of the Week

“We must challenge every manifestation of racism, intolerance and discrimination as we find it and let organisations who peddle racial hatred know that they are not welcome here in Wales.”

Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, reacting to the weekend march by the far-Right Welsh Defence League