Tractors have descended on London ahead of a Budget day protest by farmers despite a ban on the vehicles in Whitehall. Footage showed dozens of tractors rolling down the M4 on Wednesday, while another video showed a stream of the vehicles in the capital. Dozens of the farm vehicles, some draped in Union Flags and St George's Crosses, made their way to the capital despite Metropolitan Police restrictions banning tractors and agricultural machinery from Whitehall.
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One Hayward public safety operator received more in overtime pay last year than their base salary. A Hayward Fire Department battalion chief received nearly a quarter-million dollars in overtime. They're just two examples of how the city of Hayward is wrestling to rein in spending fueled by salaries, benefits and overtime. As Hayward revises its 2025-2026 budget after depleting $31 million in its general fund budget, the city is working to rein in its expenses after a 21% increase in salaries and benefits and a 14% increase in overtime that has caused city officials to return to the negotiation table with the city's labor groups.
The decision to hold rates at 4% was made by the narrowest of margins, and the interest rate panel thinks inflation has peaked. Governor Andrew Bailey said he wanted to see if forthcoming developments confirmed this view before cutting rates; weakness in the labour market could also play a part. The Bank also noted last year's Budget measures such as an increase in employer National Insurance Contributions and minimum wages contributed to price pressures over the last year.
The New York City Police Department plans to increase its uniformed headcount by 5,000 officers over the next three years to address a growing staffing crisis, aiming to reach 40,000 officers by the end of fiscal year 2029, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Friday. Adams signaled the planned expansion on Oct. 31 as part of the November 2025 Financial Plan Update, at a time when the department has lost an average of 316 officers per month this year
A veteran TD has castigated his own Government over the 'punishing' Budget as a public wallop against the coalition is emergings at the ballot box today.
What we'd love to see is a Budget that's pro-growth and pro-jobs which, as a result, will help customers with the cost of living.
Rumour has it that Rachel Reeves is limbering up for November with a Budget that will make the taxman's quill squeak like a stuck pig. Property, pensions, profits, pasties - all grist to the Exchequer's mill. The Treasury is leaving no stone unturned, no pocket unpicked, no cupboard unopened. The only thing, one suspects, that remains miraculously safe from her fiscal scythe is Larry the Cat's supper.
Simon Harris said there are no coalition tensions over varying the rate of increases for jobseekers and pensioners Jobseekers allowance should not increase at the same rate as other social welfare payments, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said, who added that he does not detect tension within Government on social welfare increases. Senior Government figures have signalled the end of one-off cost-of-living reliefs in next month's Budget on October 7. Instead, they've promised an increased focus on infrastructure and addressing child poverty.
The UK's public finances are deteriorating at speed and history shows that when the Treasury faces a fiscal crunch, pensioners are treated as low-hanging fruit. From post-war retrenchment to the stealth pension taxes of the 1990s and the allowance freezes of the past decade, successive governments have repeatedly tapped retirement savings to fill the gap. They typically see pensions as 'low hanging fruit', and there's every reason to expect a repeat in November.
The plan "seeks to bamboozle with the budget to disguise the paucity of both commitments and detail," said the Social Democrats' spokesman on public expenditure, Cian O'Callaghan.
"While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed."
Parts of this budget are indefensible. In a deficit year, SFPD and the sheriff's department got a $50 million increase while programs serving immigrant families, and BIPOC were gutted.
The city has been experiencing a structural deficit, projected to peak at nearly $2 million in 2029 or $6 million in 2035 due to growing pension liabilities and unfunded capital projects.
