Prime Minister Questions 18th December

Wednesday's Prime Minister Questions was about David Cameron trumpeting the reduction in employment figures. 

Whilst Ed Miliband was trying remind David Cameron how the cost of living is affecting people come and down the country. 

David Cameron has got this strange obsession with Ed Balls, one which only David Cameron can explain. 

I thought Ed Miliband did to stick the issues and trying to avoid throwing back cheap insults. 

Ed Miliband seemed calm and David Cameron seemed flustered and angry. Which in my opinion made Ed Miliband the better debater. 

Countdown to the 2015 UK General election

It is now seventeen months to the next UK General Election and the main parties are preparing their election manifesto. 

The Labour Party will probably campaign on improving living standards. 

Yesterday Ed Miliband went to the Tory heartland of Stevenage to promise that the next Labour government  will build more houses. 

I think this will resonate with voters up and down the country, many of whom are feeling the affects of the housing shortage 

Tories are also going to focus on a cost of living but from a different prespective. The Tories recently leaked their child benefit proposals to the Daily Mail. 

In this proposals, child benefit will no longer be given to parents with more than two children. 

I think this is disaster of a policy which in my opinion is unworkable. What will end up happening is that more children will end up on the poverty line. 

The Tories would also like to restrict free  movement of labour between certain countries and the UK. 

This is also an unworkable policy as the key principle of the European Union is the freedom of labour movement. 

So this would be very difficult for the Tories implement without contravening EU policy. 

Prime Minister's Questions

Prime Minister's questions was back yesterday and Ed Miliband focused his questions around the cost of living.

At first Ed asked about the proposed pay rise of MP's and both Ed Miliband and David Cameron are broadly against the pay rise. 

Ed then asked David Cameron about another tax cut for millionaires. Which David Cameron did not deny this surprised me. 

I would have thought millionaires where the last people that David Cameron would currently want to give a tax cut to. 

This really helped Ed Miliband to convey his message that David Cameron and the Tories are out of touch with every day people.

I thought that Ed did well and hopefully in time he will be seen as a credible alternative to David Cameron. 

Working till we literally drop!

I am a bit late in posting my review of George Osborne's autumn statement.

What stood out the most for me was his statement about increasing the pension age to sixty eight. 

Even if economically it makes sense it does not seem fair that millions of people in there 20s or 30s could be looking at an extra eight years of work. 

It is already hard to secure a job with a pension. George Osborne made the assumption that as people are living longer therefore they will be healthy enough to work longer. 

He may well be right but even if your healthy enough to work in your mid to late 60s. It does not seem like an efficient way to deal with the pension crises. 

 

RIP Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela died yesterday at the age of ninety five. Whilst it was not unexpected it still left me feeling sad.

I was about thirteen years old when the "free Mandela" concert to place in the Wembley  arena. 

It was at that moment I realised what Mr Mandela was going through in order to make South Africa free. 

My heart was filled with joy when he was released from prison shortly afterwards. 

Last night as I was watching the tv coverage, it occurred to me that there are few political leaders left that everybody truly respect.

Nelson Mandela belief in forgiveness and unity is something that will live with me forever and I will pass on and teach my children and  future grandchildren. 

RIP Madiba 

David Cameron trade trip to China - Day One

Prime Minister David Cameron is on his umpteenth trip abroad and this time to China.

 As David Cameron believes that the Chinese government could help stimulate the UK economy.

David Cameron hasn't even been in China for a full day and already this trip has run into controversy.

 

Firstly the amount of people that David Cameron has taken on this trade trip is ridiculous. The people he has taken include his father in law and the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. 

One of the reasons that Jeremy Hunt as accompanied David Cameron on this trip is that his wife is Chinese. 

I am sure that this connection will useful on this trade mission. But Jeremy Hunt has potentially got a winter crises looming. I hope he put an appropriate contingency plan in place before jetting of to China.

Secondly David Cameron was asked about the UK's relationship the Dalai Lama and he said it had not changed but hadn't any imminent plans of meeting the Dalai Lama.

 Many took this to mean that he would do anything to keep the Chinese government happy. 

 

Lastly the Chinese government would not allow British reporter Rob Hutton into the press conference. 

David Cameron did bring it up with Chinese President. But Rob Hutton was still not allowed in the press conference.

Hopefully tomorrow will better for David Cameron we will find out exactly how the Chinese government plans to invest in the UK. 

Preview of the autumn statement 2013

This week Chancellor George Osborne will be presenting his autumn statement to parliament.

 The most interesting topic at the George Osbourne's uturn on energy prices. 

Quite frankly it is bit of a shambles when the Labour leader,  Ed Miliband was calling for an energy price freeze. 

The Prime Minister David Cameron came out saying the government has no control over international energy prices. 

Now all of a sudden the green levy will be axed from our bills. Which means that household might get a reduction of £50 a month but only after it has gone up by £126 a month.

 

So it does sound like its a bit of a mess but hopefully it will become a bit more clearer once George Osbourne formally presents the budget to MP's. 

Hopefully budget will have a sizeable section on the cost of living crises, at the moment some middle class families are battling to keep afloat with the rising energy and childcare cost. 

Obamacare

President Obama's flagship healthcare policy has been causing him a few problems.

This problems have been technical where users had problems logging unto the website and operational where some Americans had lost their previous health plan.

However these problems have been overly highlighted by the Republians who are vehemently against the Affordable Healthcare Act, they have named Obamacare.

 

These problems have even started to affect President Obama's poll numbers and although the Republicans are desperate to repel Obamacare. 

I would say that like most roll outs it is natural for it to have its  problems in the early stages. 

But ultimately it will be defining piece of legislation that I think more and more Americans will come to appreciate in the coming years. 

Prime Minister's Questions 27 November 2013

Todays Prime Minister's questions was bit of a mix bag. Now bearing in mind that the election is eighteen months away. 

A good performance at PMQ's is important for both David Cameron and Ed Miliband. 

Today Ed focused his questions around the cost of living and  the uturn the government recently made on payday loans. 

In my opinion Ed Miliband asked the right questions and David Cameron gave weak and feeble answers.   

I would not say that it is the best PMQ's I have watched. But what makes it entertaining is watching David Cameron in "flashman mode".

So Ed got the better of the exchanges between them and he just needs to keep the momentum going for as long as possible.

18 months to the next general election

Countdown to the next general election has started and it seems that all of the political parties are setting the stage.

The Tories are focusing on Labour's relationship with unions and plus any scandals they can throw Labour's way.

The Labour Party are focusing on reminding people that the Tory policies have failed and they offer a better alternative. 

The Liberal Democrats are in deep trouble they are struggling in the polls and could have suffer very bad losses at the general election.

UKIP could steal votes from all the main political parties and get MPs for the first time. 

UKIP will be reminding voters that European Union interference is damaging the UK socially, politically, legally and economically.

 

It promises to be a very nasty election campaign with lots of muck racking. However I think social media will have a huge influence votes and voters!

I will be giving a monthly update on what each of the parties are doing so for a different perspective on the general election don't forget to subscribe to my blog:)

Prime Minister's Questions

Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions was entertaining to say the least. Ed Miliband tried to focus on the cost of living crises. 

However David Cameron was more interested in bringing up the conduct of Reverend Flowers and link him to the current Labour Party.   

In the end this weeks PMQ's was a bit of a farce and it looked and sounded like a bit of electioneering was going on from both sides. 

But I did find it particularly galling that David Cameron was constantly trying to link Ed Miliband to Reverend Flowers without a shred of evidence. 

I also noted that yougov's daily tracker still puts Labour Party at least seven points ahead of the Tories.

Therefore the whole right wing strategy of linking  Reverend Flowers is having little impact. 

However if they did find some damming evidence of a genuine link that would change everything.

At the moment it is just a lot of hear say which is not moving the polls in any significant direction. 

Prime Minister's Questions - 6th November 2013- Podcast

VR Online Service: 2013-11-11 08_32_26

USA and the availability of guns

As I stated in my previous blog, it is always difficult as a Brit to understand the need to be a gun owner. 

Yesterday, in New Jersey a gunman went on the rampage but thankfully caused no loss of life other than to himself.  

From a political viewpoint there is not much President Obama can do. 

As the powerful gun lobbyist NRA are not prepared to comprise on the availability of guns.

 So sadly the shootings or the threats of shooting will go on. 

NSA fallout

The NSA spying fallout doesn't seem to be dying down anytime soon.

It has gone from citizens around the world being concerned about the USA government outreach. To upsetting world leaders like Angela Merkel. 

The more we learn about the murky world of spying the more intrusive and outrageous it sounds. 

However I am from the view point that it is a necessary evil to counteract terrorism. 

But there clearly needs to be boundaries and the NSA have clearly over reached these boundaries. 

So it is very important to protect our civil liberties but at the same being to protect the public from potential terrorist attacks. 

The political fallout has been messy with the White House failing to control the narrative or reassure the public that spying is neccessary tool to use.

President Obama needs direct the narrative and this will help gain more public support. 

The fact is nobody likes to feel like they are being watched, but a better control of the narrative can go a long way.

Prime Minister's Questions - 30/10/13

Today's PMQ's was again all about energy prices. Ed Miliband was demanding a price freeze. Whilst David Cameron was saying that Ed Miliband was conning the public.

It was the loudest PMQ's in a while and Ed Miliband was very commanding. However Ed now needs to move on to another topic as I don't think he can get much more out of this energy debate. 

David Cameron has a different problem he thinks that by saying that UK economy is bouncing back will help his poll numbers. 

All the Tory MP's that stood up in PMQ's spoke about how well the economy is doing in their area. 

Whilst this maybe true, sadly it does not feel like that for the rest of the UK. It really makes the Tories look like they are out of touch. 

David Cameron's job is to tell the UK public that the economy is on the mend. Whilst Ed Miliband has to point how people in the UK are actually feeling. 

I think Ed has a much easier job that is why he has been doing so well at PMQ's, but he needs to vary his PMQ topics little bit. This will help him to connect better with British people. 

Prime Minister's Question - Major intervention

This blog is a little late... but last weeks Prime Minister'squestion was a real treat. This was because Sir John Major gifted Ed Miliband with an easy win.

Sir John a Major made a speech last Tuesday in which he urged David Cameron to do more about energy prices. 

So when Ed brought it up in PMQ's David Cameron seemed have shifted from previous position and was stating that he now believed in state intervention. 

Ed is doing well focusing on this issue,  but at the same time I hope he does not over do it as there other issues affecting families up and down the UK. 

David Cameron was well and truly rattled and was reprimanded by the Speaker for using unparliamentary language. 

So right now David Cameron is trying to get some credability back and Ed Miliband is staying on the offensive and is so far doing an excellent job. 

Prime Minister's Question's 16/10/13

Today's PMQ was really all about the economy and liviing standards. Ed Miliband is getting better with each week. 

Ed comes across as passionate and determined to help people from all walks of life. 

David Cameron was desperately trying to promote the good economic use. But you could tell that Ed was really getting to him as face got redder and redder. 

My favourite moment was when Dennis Skinner got up to ask a question and you could also feel David Cameron fear.

 Dennis was engaging and very forceful with his point of view and David Cameron found it difficult to attack him. 

It was a good PMQ's Ed Miliband who came out of it very well.

George Osborne and Boris Johnson's China trip- Podcast

Please see the link below to my podcast on George Osborne and Boris Johnson's trip to China.

VR Online Service: George Osborne and Boris Johnson's China trip

The Madeleine McCann case

The Madeleine McCann case is once again headline news all over the world. This partly due to Prime Minister David Cameron, authorising the Metroplitan Police to review the case.

 The Met police have come up with an E-fit of the men they feel were involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Three year old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her hotel room in Pria da Luz, Portugal in 2007. Whilst her parent Kate and Gerry McCann where eating in a resturant with friends.

I think that as sad as it is that their daughter has disappeared. Both of her parents should have been charged with child abandonment. 

I would not like to speculate about what happened to Madeleine. But at the very least the parents should have been a lie dectector test. 

This would have gone some way to establishing whether or not they had any invovlement in the disappearance of their daughter. 

 

Prime Minister's Question time - 09/10/13

Prime Minister's question time returned after about a months break. Ed Miliband and David Cameron discussed the energy market and various of issues.

Ed Miliband still has the momentum going  into to this weeks PMQ's and he did very well to maintain it at this weeks PMQ's. 

Ed needs to convince the wider public that he is PM material and yesterday strong performance would have helped him a little bit.

David Cameron also needs to convince the wider public that his austerity policies where needed and have been successful. 

In PMQ's David Cameron repeated the Daily Mail's talking points about Ed being a Marxist. 

This clearly the talking point that David Cameron plans to push as part of his reelection strategy. 

To some extent it is similar to the talking point the Republicans tried to make about President Obama and that was unsuccessful.

 So I don't think David Cameron will get much success in trying to claim that Ed is a Marxist. 

UK- reshuffling the pack!

Yesterday and today both Ed Miliband and David Cameron have reshuffled their junior ministers. 

It was noticeable that David Cameron has brought one or two more ladies in his cabinet, with the election in two years.  He is probably probably thinking more about the female vote. 

Whilst Ed Miliband sacked three ministers who he felt where not carrying his message. 

As it is two years before the election needs to form a team that's speaks with one voice and carry the message to the nation.  

Hopefully Ed Miliband has got that team who can confidently and purposefully carrying out message up and down the country. 

USA - Government shutdown

Today is apparently day eight of the US government shutdown. This came about because the Democrats and Republicans are in deadlock over the federal budget. 

The Republicans are using the federal budget to try and defund The Affordable Healthcare Act, also known as Obamacare. 

The government shutdown last happened when Bill Clinton was President. This means that all government procurement and day to day activities are currently on hold. 

Which is probably terrible for the US economy which has also been doing well recently.

So far the public seem to  be behind President Obama and is approval has gone up by 4%. 

However this can change very quickly and especially if this shutdown starts to inconvenience the public. Then the public support of President Obama's could disappear very quickly. 

Review of the Conservative Party conference

Last week's Tory conference was largely overshadowed by the row between Ed Milliband and the Daily Mail. David Cameron's big party conference speech had few surprises in there. 

What stood out for me was potential policy of withdrawing Jobs Seekers Allowance to men and women under the age of twenty five. 

Already there are million people under the age of twenty five who are currently unemployed. It sounds like a very quick fix solution to say that withdrawing benefits will make them find work. 

David Cameron has lurched further to the right of his party and only time will tell if it is really what the British people want. 

Conservative conference - Manchester

After the Labour Party's successful conference, the onus has been for the conservatives to achieve similar success. 

There conference has certainly started  with a bang and a string of policy announcements. First big policy announcement was the married tax allowance and this new initiative was to help married couples on a low income. 

However the Labour Party have said that this allowance will help about 15% of married couples and believes that this tax discriminates against single people. 

I would agree with this sentiment as whether a person is married or single they are working hard to pay their bills and put food on the table. To me everyone should be equally rewarded and not the select few.

Today the Chancellor George Osborne also announced there would be a crack down on long term welfare claimants. 

Which means  getting claimants to work for their dole money or making them attend the job centre every day. 

The Home Secretary Teresa May also announced that some illegal immigrants would be deported before they where allowed to appeal. She added that the Human Rights Act would be abolished in 2015. 

The Conservative have now  clearly lurched to the right wing of their party and this partly due to the growing popularity of UKIP. 

A lot of UKIP's members where dissatisfied Tory voters, so the Tories are hoping that a further crackdown on benefit claimants and illegal immigrants will encourage these dissatisfied Tory voters back. 

I think this will either go really well for the Tories or very badly now that they have  completely left the middle ground. 

It will be interesting to find out in the coming days whether they have taken the British people with them or not as the case maybe.  

Labour Party Conference - Ed Milliband's speech

The day had finally arrived! and Ed Milliband his took place in front of the faithful party delegates.

From a presentational point of view the Labour Party and Ed did great job. Ed made sure that his key demographic where right behind him. 

From a speaking  point of view Ed explained is policy initiatives incredibly well. 

He laid out substantive policy plans like the energy policy. He discussed freezing energy prices if he becomes the next Prime Minister.

Ed came across as authoritative and well meaning. What was most impressive was that he did not need any notes or autocue. 

However this is where real work starts as now he needs to prepare himself for the right wing media onslaught. 

As Ed knows himself he needs to convince the British people that he has credible leadership qualities. 

If he can  do that then it will increase his personal standing in the opinion polls.

Then ultimately become the next Prime Minister of the UK.

Labour Party Conference

Day one of the Labour Party autumn conference and it is clear that the Tories and their right wing media friends are trying to influence the narrative.

They are now taking Ed Miliband serious and by doing so are trying to link him to the negative side of Gordon Brown's time in office. 

They are being aided and abetted by Gordon Brown 's former Special Adviser Damian McBride. Who has recently written a book describing his time as a Special Adviser.

This book has been perfectly timed to be serialised in the Daily Mail and make the Labour Party  look like a party that were not united. 

The media attacks on Ed Miliband has included the left wing paper The Guardian. Who are constantly trying to build a particular negative narrative about Ed Miliband. 

It remains to be seen in two years time whether these attacks will have any impact on voters. 

In the meantime Ed Miliband and the Labour Party need to convince floating voters in those marginal seats that they are a credible alternative. 

The fight to save Lewisham Hospital

The coalition  government has spent thousand of tax payers pounds trying to close down Lewisham hospital. 

 

But what has made this task difficult is the resilience of the local community to fight back. As a former resident of Lewisham I could not be prouder of them.

The Lewisham council and various support groups recently took the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to court. The High  Court ruled in Lewisham council  and the support groups favour. 

But Mr Hunt was given leave to appeal so the fight to save Lewisham hospital could go on for another two years or so.

But win or lose I hope that the fight to save Lewisham hospital has inspired a generation of children not to give up on a cause that they believe in.

USA and the gun culture

Another mass shooting took place in US this week and tragically twelve Americans  lost their lives. 

This shooting took in the capital of Washington DC in the Navy Yard by a man called Aaron Alexis. 

As someone who lives in the UK with very stringent gun laws. It is not easy to understand the fascination of wanting own a gun. 

Sadly the guns in the USA are now getting into the wrong hands. As to my knowledge there are little background checks done on purchasers of guns. 

Aaron Alexis had some mental health issues. It has been reported that a few days before committing this mass murder, he called police to the hotel he was staying at saying he could hear voices. 

As the inquiry is ongoing we do not as yet know what the police did with that information. We know that Aaron went to kill twelve people in cold blood.

I find it incomprehensible that a man with mental health issues can legally buy a gun. This was the case with Aaron Alexis he purchased his gun legally and the gun seller probably no idea abut his mental health issues.

From a political point of view there is not much President Obama can do. He did try to bring in some backgrounds checks but the powerful gun lobbying  group called the NRA made it impossible for this to happen.

So at this stage the mass killings will continue by unstable men who are able purchase guns. Unless the American public overcome the gun lobbyist and say enough is enough. 

 

Prime Ministers Question-11/09/2013

Yesterday Prime Minister's Questions raised number of important issues.

Ed Milliband focused his questions on the fall in living standards. Ed especially highlighted Michael Gove's comments on food banks.

Michael stated that people who use food banks may  not  have managed their finances properly.

Ed Milliband said that Michael Gove was a disgrace for making such a comment. Although David Cameron didn't back Michael Gove he didn't condem the comments either.

I think Ed gets better every week at PMQ's and a sign Ed Milliband is doing well is when David Cameron resorts to cheap insults.

It was certainly a very lively PMQ's with Tory MP's asking questions ranging from abortion to Syria.Labour MP's asking questions about living standards. 

David Cameron did not perform particularly well this week and I think that it is going to get tougher.

 Especially as David Cameron has claimed that the recession is now over and the economy is slowly growing. 

If this assertion is not backed with data in the next few months then he could find himself having real political problems.

Ed Milliband has different set of  problems. He has to be able to convince the electorate that he is ready to be Prime Minister. 

He has about eighteen months to prove this and I for one am confident that Ed Milliband will be successful at the ballot box.

Prime Minister's Questions 04/09/13

Okay I have to admit that I expected real fireworks in today's PMQ's. However I appreciated both David Cameron and Ed Miliband's statesman like approach to PMQ's.

Both Ed Milliband and David Cameron restated their desire of a peaceful intervention with David Cameron restating that Britain would not be involved in any military action. 

I think this could become a real problem for David Cameron because already German intelligence, has confirmed that President Assad did use chemical weapons on the rebels. 

If the UN ultimately does back military intervention then it could make David Cameron and Britain appear as bystanders on an international stage. 

On domestic questions Labour MP's asked David Cameron about his view on the mansion tax versus  bedroom tax and he replied asking the Labour leadership if they where going to reverse the bedroom tax.

Another Labour MP's asked about food banks and David Cameron responded that least his government informing people at the job centre about the existence of food banks. 

David Cameron main problem came from  his back benchers who posed somewhat uncomfortable questions to him about Syria and  the NHS. In particularly the NHS question  from Jesse Norman an MP that David Cameron sacked as an adviser today!

So although PMQ's was more subdued than I had anticipated, today's questions could have a future significance. 

The Syrian crisis

The current political firestorm in both the UK and the US is about the ongoing crises in Syria. 

According numerous reports President Assad has used chemical weapons on his people. Now some people demanding that Europe and the US should now use it's military firepower to oust President Assad.

In the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is seriously under fire. He was forced to recall parliament so MP's could vote on whether military action against Syria was appropriate. 

The result of the vote was an unmitigated disaster for David Cameron and he lost this important vote by about 13 votes. 

David Cameron is in a situation that no UK Prime Minister has been in for over 300 years. He could not even convince his backbenchers that military action was needed.

It has not been a good summer recess for David Cameron with photos of him on holiday in Portugal and then another holiday in the UK he comes across as out of touch with how the average British person is feeling.

The next few weeks will be pivotal for David Cameron either he reasserts his authority or he will become a lame duck Prime Minister.

President Obama has a different challenge to David Cameron as he liked and respected within the Democratic Party. 

However the American people are tired of war and the Iraq and Afghanistan

conflict has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. 

So President Obama needs to put forward an airtight case that will ensure that he gets the American people behind him. So that the American people do not start to view him as George W Bush mark two.

My own view is that the case for military intervention has not been made. I also believe that the UN  should be taking the lead and that would ensure that if military intervention was needed it would have global support.

Trayvon Martin

I must confess that I did not follow the whole court case. However there are some things in this case that really stand  out to me. 

Firstly, I believe that the prosecution over reached itself. As I do not believe it was murder case but more like manslaughter and if the prosecution had gone with the  manslaughter charge maybe they would have secured a conviction.

Secondly now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty he is now apparently allowed to get his gun back. Now if this is really the case then rest assured as soon as the dust as settled on this case George Zimmerman will try his luck  again and claim self defence.

Thirdly Trayvon Martin did not come from the "perfect family" I.e. married parents and 2.3 children and he may not have been the perfect teenager. But he should be afforded the same rights as every other human being in the US.

I remember the 1990s was not good for race relations in the US it was the Rodney King case  and the UK it was the Stephen Lawrence case. 

I for one do not want to go back to those days where the legal system was seen as biased against people of colour.

I was hoping that both the UK and the US had moved on but it is cases like Trayvon Martin case that make me realise that we have not really moved on.

However I continue to be cautiously optimistic that as awful as the verdict sounds for people of colour. We have  to continue to believe that legal system works for us well. If people of colour stop believing in the legal system it would not help our cause.

Lastly George Zimmerman maybe legally free but in his mind he will never be free as ultimately it was his gun that ended Trayvon Martin's life.

PMQ review 10/07/13

Today's PMQ's was all about party funding and Ed Milliband did not hesitate ask David Cameron questions about Tory funding. David Cameron sidestepped most of Ed Milliband's questions and instead focused on how much political influence unions have on the Labour Party.

As it is questions to the Prime Minister it was evident that David Cameron had not answered any of the questions put him by Ed Milliband and therefore Ed Milliband was the clear winner. My problem with focusing the entire PMQ's on funding is that voters have real concerns about their jobs and standard of living.

Tory backbenches also asked questions about Britain's influence in the EU and the unions. Whilst Labour backbenchers asked about Tory donators like JCB allegedly  having influence over policy. I sincerely hope that  in the last PMQ of the year next week Ed will go back to fighting the rights of squeezed middle and leave David Cameron to talk about union influences.

However for this week it was imperative that Ed Millliband stood firm on this issue of union donations and even suggesting a cap of £5000 on political donations because if he hadn't then Tories would have accused him of being indecisive and weak.

 It remain to be seen whether fighting about donations moves votes either way however what Ed Milliband doesn't need is voter antipathy as this will discourage them from going to the polls and voting in 2015.

Ed Milliband Union Reform

Ed Milliband made a historic speech yesterday on the Labour Party links with the unions. I applaud Ed for taking this initiative especially as it could have some serious financial implications. It shows that Ed is not afraid to take on challenges no matter how serious they are.

If Ed wants to be the next PM he has to be seen as a man that has no fear when it comes to taking on challenges. The fact that Ed's speech was applauded by both Tony Blair and Len McCLuskey goes to show that Ed is working hard to unite the different factions of the Labour Party.

As Ed is aware that if he did not take the initiative then David Cameron would have seized on this opportunity and would have described him as weak and an ineffective leader. Now I hope that  Ed will take the real argument about party donations to David Cameron.

Prime Minister's Questions review 03/07/13

Today PMQ's started off fairly nicely with Ed Milliband asking about the UK government responses to the clashes in Egypt. David Cameron provided a nice considered response about how the government was liaising with the Egyptian government and how President Obama had spoken to President Morsi.

However when Ed Milliband asked David Cameron about primary school places that's when Cameron became defensive and started his usual "its all Labour's fault". Today Cameron went a step further and most of his responses to the Labour MPs was embedded with "they are all here because of Len McCluskey"

Cameron responses were a little interesting at first but then just got repetitive and boring and he came across to me as quite desperate as well. Cameron is clearly gearing up for the next election and he thinks that it can be fought on painting Ed Milliband as a die had trade unionist.

Cameron was asked various questions ranging from food banks to bedroom tax and his standard response was either it is all Labour's fault or the Unite union is pulling the strings of the Labour party.

I thought Ed Milliband did quite well today in raising issues that are affecting families up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron does not come across as a man who understand the daily struggles of families in the UK.

Spending Review 2013

The coalition government has two more years in power before the next general election. The economic situation in the UK is serious as unemployment stands at 2.4 million and growth is about 0.3% annually.

In 2010 David Cameron promised that he would be able to balance the budget by 2015. Now in 2013 Cameron has yet to admit that the deficit is actually going up and not down.

George Osborne’s spending reviewing included the following:

·         No more welfare cuts.

·         People currently claiming job seekers allowance would now need visit the job centre on a weekly basis.

·          Making it prerequisite for new claimants who do not speak English to learn it.

·         Automatic pay increases in the public sector would also come to an end 

·         Increase the number of free schools.

Mr Osborne has spent the last three years tackling the deficit and yet it is widely known that the UK deficit has risen. By this time next year it will be abundantly clear to all whether or not Mr Osborne economic policy has been successful. Which in turn will determine whether or not this coalition government will be re-elected in May 2015.  

Prime Minister's Questions

In this weeks PMQ's Ed Milliband mainly focused his attack on the lack of banking regulation. Whilst David Cameron claimed that Labour had done nothing to regulate the banks when in power.

However the most interesting point of this weeks PMQ was when a Labour  MP asked David Cameron what he was going to do about the rise in child poverty.

Mr Cameron responded that he was trying to reduce the national debt. At this point Speaker Bercow interrupted and told Cameron that he was going to move on to the next question as he (the Speaker) not responsible for the national debt.

It's the first time I have seen the Speaker tell off David Cameron and Cameron looked very embarrassed. 

So PMQ's this week was not a classic but Speaker Bercow telling off David Cameron made it a little more interesting.

PMQ's review

I was a little disappointed in PMQ’s  this week as I thought that Ed did well last week but he was little too cautious today. However Cameron was in full flash man mode today and even to the point that his attacks on Ed Miliband started to sound like he was laying the ground work for the general election. 

Cameron was courteous when it came to discussing Syria but that soon disappeared once Ed started talking about the standard of living in the UK going down.  Then Cameron went on the attack and again and started obsessing about Ed Balls and the deficit. From a policy point of view I hope that the UK does not arm the Syrian rebels as this happened with Afghanistan in the 1980s and look how that ended up!

As for the standard of living, where I live you just have to look around to see how these government cuts are affecting everyone and three years ago I had never heard of food banks now I see them advertised in the local shops. So PMQ’s left me feeling a little unfulfilled this week but I’m hoping Ed will do better next week.

Prime Minister's Question

Today is one of my favourite days in the political calendar as it is Prime Minister’s Question time.  These days PMQ’s have become more important than ever as I found it is when we actually find out what is this government is up to.

Last week PMQ was a little strange and I even felt a little sorry for Cameron as his backbenchers were asking him really uncomfortable questions and at times it was hard to tell the Labour MP’s from the Tory MP’s.

What I also like about PMQ’s is it’s probably the only in time the week where David Cameron has to deal with uncomfortable questions. Ed Miliband is getting better at PMQ’s and I have to admit that when he was first elected as the Labour leader I was worried.

I thought he would return the Labour party back to the Neil Kinnock days but he has proved me wrong and even Cameron seems to be little scared of him now.  Although the Tory’s seem to be obsessed with Ed Balls which is little frightening because they seem a little too desperate to get him out of his job.

I’m hoping today’s PMQ’s will be as good as last weeks and hopefully Ed Miliband will continue to pile on the pressure with questions that Cameron will probably be unable to answer (fingers crossed).

Challenges facing President Obama

President Obama has found himself in a situation that few could have predicted. Whilst, the Republicans have spent the last four and a half years looking for scandal. One of the biggest controversy since his re-election has been the allegation that the US government has been collecting private data on its citizens.

This information came to be public knowledge due The Guardian’s interview with Edward Snowden. Now what makes this story interesting from my perspective is that the most critical Republicans i.e. Lindsey Graham and John Boehner are now largely siding with the President and they are attacking Edward Snowden.

It does show that some Republicans even though they largely disagree with the President are somewhat prepared to back him on this issue. This is something that has been largely missing since President Obama first got elected.

What concerns me from the UK perspective is The Guardian’s involvement, The Guardian is my favourite newspaper and I love the way they take politicians to task. However in this case I don’t really believe that it’s investigative journalism but more to do with their desperation to penetrate the US market. I sincerely hope for their sake that this does not back fire and that they have not over reached.

As for the actual data collection, I for one do believe that it is necessary for governments around the world to collect this kind of data. However I also have the fear that this data could be misused and I certainly do not want to hear of President Obama in a Nixon kind of scandal. At this stage the President has handled controversy well by reassuring Americans that the US Government are not reading emails and listening in on their phone calls.  

As I think it important for Obama to show real leadership on this issue because IRS issue to me made him look like a little bit of a bystander. However only time will tell whether this data mining issue will be a profound moment in his presidency.