Category: AP Britain

Oh My Lords!

On December 2nd, at what otherwise might have been a dull committee meeting, Sir Malcolm Jack was asked why the catering services of the House of Lords, the upper house, and the House of Commons could not have been merged to save money. He replied: “The lords feared that the quality of champagne would not be as good if they chose a joint service.” The astonished chair of the committee, Jack Straw, spoke for most of the nation as he gasped: “Did you make that up?” Sir Malcolm assured him he did not.
The national welfare budget has been cut and the number of people using free food banks has risen sharply in the past year. So the fact that the House of Lords has a champagne budget at all has caused some eye-rolling. According to The Guardian newspaper, the upper house has spent £265,770 on 17,000 bottles of the stuff since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government took office in 2010—enough for five bottles of bubbly per peer per year.

David Cameron reignites English votes row

David Cameron is risking a fresh constitutional clash with Labour and the Liberal Democrats after he announced that the Tories want to bar Scottish MPs from voting on some tax decisions at Westminster that relate only to England.

Amid signs of an English backlash at Westminster, after a historic all-party deal in Scotland to give Holyrood direct control over £14bn worth of tax and welfare policy, Downing Street said that the principle of “English votes for English laws” would apply to some tax matters.

Scottish independence: Referendum White Paper unveiled

The 670-page White Paper promised a “revolution” in social policy, with childcare at its heart.

The launch came ahead of next September’s independence referendum.

Alistair Darling, leader of the campaign to keep the Union, branded the document a “work of fiction, full of meaningless assertions”.

On 18 September, Scots voters will be asked the yes/no question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

Launching the paper – titled Scotland’s Future: Your guide to an independent Scotland – in Glasgow, Mr Salmond said: “This is the most comprehensive blueprint for an independent country ever published, not just for Scotland but for any prospective independent nation.???

Is the British Royal Family Worth the Money?

Calls for the U.K. to abolish the monarchy and become a republic are ever-present, but they tend to tick up during big, royal-centric events. Still, about 80 percent of Britons approve of the monarchy fairly consistently.

And that may be for good reason — there’s at least some evidence that the monarchy brings in heaps of tourism revenue.

According to Buckingham Palace, sustaining the royal family costs Britons 53 pence, or about 81 cents, per person, per year. The total came to about 33.3 million pounds (about $51.1 million) for 2012-2013, according to the Palace, up from 32.4 million pounds the previous year.

Calls for the U.K. to abolish the monarchy and become a republic are ever-present, but they tend to tick up during big, royal-centric events. Still, about 80 percent of Britons approve of the monarchy fairly consistently.

And that may be for good reason — there’s at least some evidence that the monarchy brings in heaps of tourism revenue.

According to Buckingham Palace, sustaining the royal family costs Britons 53 pence, or about 81 cents, per person, per year. The total came to about 33.3 million pounds (about $51.1 million) for 2012-2013, according to the Palace, up from 32.4 million pounds the previous year.

British Porn Ban Is on the Way

In order to (supposedly) protect women and children, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is going to announce a set of measures designed to curb Brits’ appetite for porn. Sometime around the end of this year, those living in the British Isles will have to let their Internet providers know if they want access to porn, and by the end of next year, it’ll be against the law to have “violent” porn.
The “moves” being enacted will include the following:

  • Every household in the U.K. will have its access to porn blocked by default. People will have to ask their ISP provider to opt out of this block.
  • “Extreme” pornography which involves violent scenes or simulated rape is going to be outlawed.
  • An organization called Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre Internet will come up with a set of search terms in relation child abuse/child porn that will then be blocked

“I’m not making this speech because I want to moralise or scaremonger, but because I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence,” reads Cameron’s expected speech today, which primarily will focus on children.

Scottish independence: Cameron and Salmond strike referendum deal

The agreement, struck in Edinburgh, has paved the way for a vote in autumn 2014, with a single Yes/No question on Scotland leaving the UK.

It will also allow 16 and 17-year-olds to take part in the ballot.
The SNP secured a mandate to hold the referendum after its landslide Scottish election win last year.

The UK government, which has responsibility over constitutional issues, will grant limited powers to the Scottish Parliament to hold a legal referendum, under a mechanism called Section 30.

David Cameron says the agreement includes “one simple, straightforward question”

Read more about the deal at BBC

The Boris and Dave show

A BLOND beast stalked David Cameron at the Conservatives’ party conference in Birmingham. Boris Johnson, the attention-loving London mayor, charmed and titillated the party faithful. Fringe event organisers reported that his appearance, entitled “Re-elected and Olymptastic” drew more attendees than the Friends of Russia vodka party and the perennially attractive “how to exit the EU” bash.

Free from the responsibilities and compromises of national coalition government, the mayor offered intoxicating, if improbable, hints of bringing back selective schools and slashing income taxes. Johnsonism is an own-brand product, only loosely affiliated with the Conservative Party. After he had delivered his umpteenth comment at odds with party policy, one senior cabinet minister coldly described the habit as “the Boris blurt”.

See how Boris is challenging Cameron

Scots' Referendum Raises a Slew of Legal Issues

With their promise to hold a referendum on independence, Scotland’s politicians have already sparked a lively debate with their English neighbors. Now the issue is prompting questions among their continental ones, too.

During a visit to Brussels this week, Scotland’s deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, argued that Scottish independence, if approved in a referendum expected in 2014, could usher her country smoothly into the European Union as a separate member

Scotland is to vote on independence

After three hundred years of union, Scots are to be given the chance to vote for independence. The offer of a legally-binding referendum, probably in 2014, comes from David Cameron, who is not just prime minister of the United Kingdom but also leader of an outfit formally known as the Conservative and Unionist Party. It is more than a remarkable concession. Since the Scots may indeed plump for independence, it is also quite a risk…

Mr Cameron wants a straight in-or-out question. Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which dominates the legislature in Edinburgh, is not so sure. He has said he favours a simple question. But he also points out there is a powerful view in Scotland that the country ought to be given more powers, taking it just to the brink of independence—“devolution max”, as it is known. Perhaps the referendum should reflect this view by offering three choices. Or perhaps two questions should be asked at the same time: whether Scotland should become independent, and whether it should acquire more powers…

A bit of cross-party parliamentary civility?

A Briton in America notices something about comparative politics. Britain’s House of Commons reeks of conflict. The rival parties glare at one another from opposite benches. Debates are barbed and sometimes vicious—especially during the gladiatorial spectacle of prime minister’s questions. America’s Congress is different. Members of the House of Representatives sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the shape of a horseshoe. Debates, such as they are, are marked by an exaggerated decorum. The casual observer might easily conclude that America has the more consensual form of politics and Britain the more adversarial.

…Compared with the total war that is American politics, the British version is sport (amateur sport at that: the $1 billion that Mr Obama is said to be seeking for his re-election campaign would pay for an entire British general election 20 times over).

A Bit of Cross party Civility Please?

Bees to be privatised

BRITAIN’S bees are to be privatised in a bid to reverse their decline.

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Bees have been destroyed by communism

The insects have been hit in recent years by a huge drop in productivity, mass redundancies, and the collapse of traditional honeymaking communities, and the move is aimed at getting the ailing bee industry back on track.

Beehives will be rebranded as ‘Apiary Solutions’ and the bees will get a new uniform of regulation grey, updating the traditional yellow and black outfits that bees have worn since the 1950s.
They will also be assessed on aspects of their performance by a new regulatory body, Ofswarm.

Nathan Muir, director of free market think tank Urethra, said: “The traditional neighbourhood bee – buzzing about, collecting honey, occasionally stinging people who threaten the hive, maintaining a crucial balance between plants and animals in a precarious ecosystem – is a hopelessly outdated relic.

“For instance, the idea of a lone bee collecting pollen is absurd. Privatisation will allow us to to glue three or four bees together into one ‘megabee’ that will collect five times the amount of pollen of a 20th Century bee.”

He added: “Privatisation has trasformed so many organisations that barely worked to organisations that are very good at pretending they do.

“The problem with the natural world is, and always has been, that it doesn’t grasp the importance of free markets. Bees are just the start.”

A bee spokesman said ‘bzzzz’ before doing a sad little dance.