#public-services

#public-services

Northern Ireland is being underfunded by design in a blackmail bid to restore Stormont, Parliament has been told.Speaking at Westminster, DUP peer Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown said there was a nod and wink that cash would follow if his party was to end its powersharing boycott and the money tree will magically blossom again.

The DUP's vote in the local government elections was a recognition of the stance it had taken over the Northern Ireland Protocol, party MPA Gavin Robinson has said.The DUP emerged with 122 seats in the elections, the same number as 2019.But the largest unionist party finished some way behind Sinn Fein which increased its representation in councils by 39 to 144 seats.

Keir Starmer today pledges to lead a radical, reforming Labour government that is bolder than Tony Blair's on public service reform, as he announces plans to accelerate housing building and get more young people on to the property ladder.In an interview with the Observer before Thursday's local elections, the Labour leader insists he will more than match Blair for radical ideas on overhauling public services including the NHS.

Northern Ireland voters are bracing themselves for swingeing cuts in health, education and policing with profound concern being raised by one of the most senior civil servants in the country.In a highly unusual move, Jayne Brady, the head of Northern Ireland's civil service, wrote to the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, on Wednesday warning of the damage that could be caused by the unprecedented budget reductions to pay back a 297m overspend to the Treasury.

A Russian espionage group tracked as Nomadic Octopus has been observed spying on Tajikistan's high ranking government officials, public service infrastructures, and telecoms services, likely by infiltrating a mobile phone carrier, cyber threat intelligence company Prodaft reports.Active since at least 2014 and also referred to as DustSquad, Nomadic Octopus is known for the targeting of individuals and diplomatic entities in Central Asia, mainly in Afghanistan and former Soviet Union countries.

Tech investor and artificial intelligence specialist Ian Hogarth has said he is honoured to be chosen to chair the Government's new AI Foundation Model Taskforce.Mr Hogarth co-founded Plural Platform, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in start-ups developing new technologies, and also co-authors the State of AI report, an annual review of the AI industry, safety research and the politics surrounding it.

Conservatives need to recognise that elections are won on economics and public services rather than culture wars, Michael Gove has said in what will be seen as a rebuke to Suella Braverman.Addressing the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Westminster, a day after Braverman gave a highly partisan speech to the same event which condemned experts and elites and political correctness, Gove was at pains to make no direct criticism of the home secretary.

A senior Tory has called for his party to pursue authentic conservatism rather than the sugar-free version accepted by our liberal masters.Sir John Hayes warned that there was a widening chasm between the people of Britain and the elite who profess to serve them during a speech to the National Conservatism conference in Westminster.

(Image credit: British Columbia)
Provincial government logo designs don't tend to be hugely exciting, but concerned citizens have noticed something strange going on with the British Columbia logo.Visitors to the Canadian province's website and social media accounts have been surprised to discover that some of the letters have disappeared from the wordmark.

Poor people were hit hardest by Covid and poor people living in the north of England were hit hardest of all because of government cuts to health services in the years leading up to the pandemic, experts have said.The worst affected were poor people in northern England from minority ethnic backgrounds, said Prof Sir Michael Marmot as he gave evidence to the independent Covid inquiry on Friday.

The UK entered the coronavirus pandemic with depleted public services and widening health inequalities, the Covid inquiry has heard.A report prepared jointly by professors Sir Michael Marmot, an expert in epidemiology and director of the University College London Institute of Health Equity, and Clare Bambra, an expert in public health from Newcastle University, said Government austerity policies impacted the health of the nation in the lead up to the pandemic.

Two proposals in the course of a week present opposing approaches to England's care crisis.A government scheme will recruit volunteers to run errands, in a desperate attempt to lessen the problem of people stuck in hospital because they can't be safely discharged.Tasks, including collecting prescriptions, will be allocated via an app.

A left-leaning Welsh Labour MP has said the democratic process has been undermined after losing the selection contest for a new seat.Beth Winter claimed she will be taking advice and soundings on her next steps after Gerald Jones was announced as the candidate for Merthyr Tydfil and Upper Cynon.Proposed boundary changes in Wales mean the two MPs' constituencies would effectively be merged into one setting up the two-way contest between them.

Tax cuts and Holly Willoughby were the main stories featuring across the front pages in Britain on Sunday.The Sun reveals Holly Willoughby will make an emotional statement on the Phillip Schofield scandal on This Morning on Monday.The Sunday Mirror says Holly Willoughby is in talks with the BBC.The Sunday Telegraph writes Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants a tax cut before the next election.

Calls by senior Tories to abolish inheritance tax (IHT) have been met with scepticism from senior economists and tax experts.More than 50 Conservative MPs, including former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, have urged prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt to scrap the tax, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The front pages of Sunday's newspapers continue to carry the fallout from Phillip Schofield's exit from This Morning, The Sun on Sunday and the Daily Star Sunday feature Holly Willoughby saying her former co-star lied to her about the affair he was having with a younger colleague.Also covering the drama, the Sunday People wonders about This Morning's future, while the Mail on Sunday says Schofield's lover was just 15 when they first met.

Do political parties concur because they agree about their goals or their fears?Phil Tinline argues in his book The Death of Consensus that it is shared nightmares, not aspirations, that create unanimity in politics.This might explain why a new consensus seemed to form earlier this year personified in the Economist by the character of Ms Heeves, a portmanteau of the Conservative chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and his Labour shadow, Rachel Reeves.

Civil service unions have entered talks with the government on pay, believing ministers may finally be willing to offer more money to match rises given to health and teaching staff.Two unions, Prospect and the FDA, said they would be suspending strike action and ballots because the government said it was willing to engage in meaningful talks.

Across the city, vandals keep scratching off the meter numbers that drivers use in mobile apps to pay for parking.Nobody knows exactly who or why, but two things are certain: The phenomena creates headaches for motorists and parking enforcement officers alike, and it's costing the city untold amounts of money.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill has called on the DUP to get off the fence and show the political will to restore powersharing at Stormont.Ms O'Neill was commenting as she arrived for talks with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Jayne Brady about public funding pressures in the region.

Rishi Sunak insisted immigration was not out of control despite figures showing net migration has hit a record high.The Prime Minister, who has promised to reduce immigration and is under pressure from the Tory right to act on the issue, said the net migration figure of an estimated 606,000 for 2022 was too high.

Rishi Sunak has set a new goal of bringing migration down below the level he inherited, which was about 500,000 net arrivals a year when he became prime minister.He redefined his target on immigration after earlier in the week backing away from the Conservatives' 2019 manifesto promise to reduce it below the level then of about 220,000.

The length of time a party has been in power can equally make or break a premiership: it is far harder to make a mark coming to office at the end of a long period of dominance.Rishi Sunak is learning that lesson.Since last October he has been righting the listing Conservative ship.However, the losses his party suffered at the hands of opponents in May's local elections have emboldened four distinct groups of critical voices within his party: former prime ministers; thwarted ex-ministers; the Tory right and ambitious frontbenchers jockeying to lead the party after Mr Sunak has gone.

Tax levels for working people would be as low as possible under Labour, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated.The comments came in an interview with the Daily Mirror, as the Labour leader was asked if he wanted to cut taxes for those on the lowest incomes.He said: I want to keep the burden on working people as low as we can.

Tax levels for working people would be as low as possible under Labour, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated.The comments came in an interview with the Daily Mirror, as the Labour leader was asked if he wanted to cut taxes for those on the lowest incomes.He said: I want to keep the burden on working people as low as we can.

The Conservative chairman has repeated claims his party could lose 1,000 councillors in May's local elections but denied he would quit if they had a bad night.Greg Hands said independent experts had made the prediction and denied he was overplaying the potential losses on May 4, which will be Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's first electoral test.

The government's failure to tackle alcohol harm in England has led to a serious public health crisis affecting millions of people, MPs have warned.Problem drinking is fuelling violent crime and costing the NHS 25bn a year, with the number of deaths almost doubling in two decades, according to a damning report by the public accounts committee.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has met the King in London, Buckingham Palace confirmed.Charles received Mr Yousaf during an audience at the palace.On his visit to London, Mr Yousaf also met the Spanish ambassador and the Lord Mayor of the City of London.On Tuesday, he met the Irish consul general.

Sometimes there is a bleakly effective logic to underinvesting in public services.If they survive, then great, the money was saved.If they fail, then even better, because privatisation is here and ready to pick up the pieces.A classic example of this strategy is the NHS.Junior doctors are working longer and harder, being paid next to nothing for it, and then blamed when things go wrong.

What's the best way to fix Britain's economy?According to Labour and the Conservatives, the answer is growth.Yet this focus overlooks another fundamental reason for Britain's sluggish productivity.The UK is unwell.Every year, 2% of its GDP or 43bn is lost due to poor health, according to new findings from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Around 21 billion has been lost by the Government due to fraud since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).The spending watchdog also warned that it was very unlikely that most of the taxpayers' money will be recovered.The NAO said that many public bodies are unaware of the amount of fraud they face, as it revealed that levels rose from a total of 5.5 billion in the two years before the pandemic to 21 billion in total in the following two years.

Nearly one in four (24%) passenger journeys on Britain's railways will be on nationalised services once TransPennine Express comes under Government control.The analysis by the PA news agency comes as Labour reiterated its pledge to nationalise all services.The UK Government's Operator of Last Resort already controls London North Eastern Railway, Northern and Southeastern services.

The opposition parties in England have good reason to be gleeful.Results from the local elections in 230 English councils show the Tories being squeezed on both sides of the Brexit vote.Conservatives are losing badly in areas that voted remain in 2016, while Labour is gaining most in places that voted leave.

The City of Dallas is dealing with a ransomware attack that took the Dallas Police Department website offline but so far appears to have limited impact on city services for residents, the city said in a statement on Wednesday.City officials have confirmed that a number of servers have been compromised with ransomware, impacting several functional areas, including the police department's website, the statement said.

A gun-making far-right extremist who said minorities should be shot and accidentally blew up his kitchen while experimenting with explosives has been convicted of terrorism offences.Bungling Vaughn Dolphin filmed himself in a gas mask surrounded by a choking cloud of smoke, after attempting to blend a blast mixture in a saucepan, on a domestic hob.

Division within Britain helps countries like Russia and China, UK security minister Tom Tugendhat has said as he intimated the push for Scottish independence could damage the country's safety.The minister was speaking at a fringe event at the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow on Friday hosted by the group Conservative Friends of the Union.

The cost of everyday essentials have gone up by 3,500 over the last three years, Labour has said.The party said official data shows that since December 2019, housing, fuel and power have gone up by 1,480 while food and non-alcoholic drinks have increased by 700.Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figures are a mark of 13 years of Tory failure that have left families worse off, public services on their knees and brilliant British businesses on the brink.

Scotland will have to contend with high inflation throughout 2023, an economics expert warned with significant price rises particularly for food continuing to put pressure on household budgets.Professor Mairi Spowage, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute think tank, said the economic outlook is exceedingly uncertain.

A former prison is among the sites where the Home Office wants to place asylum seekers, despite warnings that many are still processing trauma.Immigration minister Robert Jenrick did not name HMP Northeye while announcing the policy, which aims to reduce the reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers, and referred to it in parliament only as a site in East Sussex.