The latest concessions from the Work and Pensions Secretary to reduce the hardship of Universal Credit on the most vulnerable and needy is very welcome, but it cannot gloss over the fact that this a complicated and confusing benefit which will never work properly in practice. It may be clever, it may be intellectually elegant […]
The vote on May’s deal is set for Tuesday. It represents a climatic moment in a story of political confusion arising from the biggest failure of governance in GB’s peacetime history. But it will not end there because if the vote is lost absolutely nobody anywhere knows what will happen next, taking uncertainty about this […]
Trump has become his own worst enemy. His mid-east policy, especially in regard to Syria and Saudi Arabia, is a mess. In recent days Pompeo and Bolton have been in the region saying opposite things. Turkey is furious that Trump appears to be back peddling on his Syria withdrawal announcement, anger made worse by the […]
Yesterday’s cross party victory over the government was interesting. Dismissed by ministers as a minor inconvenience and procedural, it is not a game changer in itself. It has also emerged that parliament cannot directly stop a No Deal Brexit by simply passing an amendment prohibiting it. Therefore if it cannot agree either to May’s plan […]
Shelter’s claim that Britain needs 3 million new affordable homes at the rate of 300,000 new builds a year is both timely and on the ball. The present system, in which a handful of new social housing is completed each year, while millions of families live in rented accommodation they cannot afford which has to […]