December 2010
Who’s not being straight now?
David Cameron suffered a torrid time at Prime Minister's Questions alongside the embattled Nick Clegg and Vince Cable over tuition fees today.
OBR inflation figures mean budget cuts for health and schools
New inflation estimates by the OBR mean that the NHS and schools budget will fall in real terms over the spending review period. The Government had promised promised a 0.4 per cent increase in NHS funding.
Coalition’s fees threshold increase worth less than you think
The Coalition is raising the threshold at which tuition fees will be paid back to £21,000. But this will be measured in 2016 prices and is worth a lot less in today's money.
Lansley: now scrutinised by his own side
Andrew Lansley has a new group to worry about in progressing his controversial NHS reforms – his Cabinet colleagues. It was confirmed this week that following concern within No. 10 and the Treasury, Cabinet “fixer” Oliver Letwin has been asked to scrutinise the reforms.
Coalition confusion over EU human trafficking directive
After giving the concrete answer of ‘no’ when asked whether the government would be signing the European directive on human trafficking just three months ago, is the coalition on the brink of doing an about turn? Last month, Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone told the Commons that the coalition had “decided not to opt in to the European directive at the moment”; yet last week, Solicitor General Edward Garnier seemed certain that the directive had in fact already been signed.
IDS dodges questions on DWP statistics
IDS has dodged questions from Left Foot Forward regarding the misuse of DWP statistics.