Prime Minister Questions- 29/01/14

In Today's Prime Minister's questions Ed Miliband asked David Cameron one question on Syria and it was about the number of Syrians that Britain would be willing to accept.

David Cameron gave a strong response about how Britain would take the most vulnerable but did not specify how many. 

 

Ed moved on to Labour proposal of a 50% tax rate for millionaires and he asked David Cameron three times if it was true that the Tories wanted to further reduce millionaire's tax rate to 40%. 

Three times David Cameron refused to directly answer the question. Ed managed to get David Cameron in that political corner. Which made David Cameron look weak and indecisive. 

Ed did well this week and he asking the issues that affect people up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron was shouting out a lot of his answers today and looked little out of his depth. 

Review of the of President Obama's speech

President Obama made his State of the Union speech  last night, as I expected a large part of the speech was decidated to the US economy. 

President made an impassioned plea for better pay for low paid workers and for Congress to work with him pass some bills.

President Obama discussed the successes of the Affordable Care Act and how it was changing people lives. 

It was great that President Obama talked about the NSA and making sure that they do not over reach their power in the future.  

From an international prespective it was good that he discussed the withdrawing of troops from Afghanistan and regulating the drone programme. Giving more assistance to Syrian opposition. 

Overall President Obama made a good speech and but some pundits have said it was quite a predictable speech. 

I don't think that is always a bad thing as President Obama was developing topics from last year. 

As usual the Democrats where very appreciative of his speech whilst the Republicans looked largely unmoved by his speech. 

So it look like the  President has another partisan year of politics to look forward to. Where he will probably make some progress but with very little help from the Republicans. 

Working women and childcare

One the first policies the Coalition government put into place was to cut the child tax credit.

 This has meant many families up and down country have both parents working but are struggling to cover childcare cost. 

The childcare in the UK is expensive and the average nursery in London charge about £50 day which can work out to be over £1000 a month. 

The changes in child tax credit has meant that two parent with a joint income of over £32,000 are unable to claim tax credit. 

In London £32,000 is over the average earnings and this meant some parents are staying home unable to work due to these cost. 

Historical records have shown that with each general election the female vote is increasing. 

I think there be will women up and down the country who will be thinking about the cost of childcare before they decide whom to elect. 

As families up and down the country know that affordable and trustworthy childcare is a must before either parent can even consider going back to work. 

Preview to President Obama's State of the Union address

Tonight President Obama will make his State of the Union address and there are various topics which I think he will touch on. 

Firstly he will talk about the US economy and how things have greatly improved in the last year or so but will probably state how there is a lot more to do and this is difficult without the help of Congress. 

Secondly he might talk about the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare and how after it's initial teething problems the act is greatly benefiting many Americans. 

Thirdly on the international front he might talk about Syria and how the America needs to bring world leaders together to end the current crisis. 

The topics I hope President Obama will discuss is firstly doing more to limit access to guns and I hope he worries less about the gun lobbyist. 

Secondly I hope he will talk about the NSA and hopefully he plans to ensure they do not abuse their power. 

Thirdly I hope on international he will talk about Afghanistan and how handing of power back to the Afghans is going. 

So there is a lot for President Obama to discuss and is approval rating is back up to 50% and this means that Americans are reasonably happy with his Presidency but he has a lot of work to do! 

The rise and rise.....of food banks!

Ok I will be honest before 2010 I did not know that food banks ever existed in the UK. Now there are apparently over one thousand food banks in the UK. 

Now as a mother of one myself I can see how more and more families are beginning to rely on food banks. 

Now that we are deep into winter most people are probably wisely saving money for their heating bills. This may mean making cut backs in other areas and for some families it is food. 

These days I guess that a decent family shop for food is about £200 a month and if the family eats meat then the monthly shop might be even higher. 

When times are tough spending £200 plus a month food can be very challenging. 

At this stage it looks like food banks are to stay, unless there is a change in the economy that struggling families can benefit from. 

Yay! UK economic recovery...but who is benefiting?

So the GDP figures are out and it now shows the best growth figures since 2007! So this should be a reason for all of us to celebrate right?

Sadly even the Business Secretary Vince Cable is convinced that the economic recovery is too closely aligned with the housing recovery which is not good for the economy.

This would explain why the the average families are not feeling the benefits of this recovery. More and more families are turning to food banks to feed their families. 

I am sure the Chancellor George Osbourne will be very happy with these GDP figures and the Tories will be hoping that this good news will boost them in the opinion polls. 

I personally do not believe it will have the desired affect as too many families up and down the country are not feeling the affects of this economic recovery. 

The rise of UKIP

I have'nt really blogged much about the UK Independence Party. But as the European and General Elections draw closer, UKIP could have quite a pivotal role. 

UKIP's main policy to try and get the UK out of Europe and up on until recently they have not had much input in the UK's General Election. 

However now opinion polls have been suggesting that they would poll at 

least 10% in an General Election. 

This more worrying for the Tories as it is mainly Tory voters who have defected to UKIP. So for the Tories to win a majority in the next general election they need to get the 10% back from UKIP. 

Labour do not need to worry so much about the UKIP vote. However the Labour Party would hope that UKIP do not get a lot votes. As UKIP would make it very difficult for Labour to govern effectively. 

Recently UKIP leader Nigel Farage has disowned the party 2010 manifesto. Saying that UKIP will write a new manifesto after the European elections.

Now UKIP realise they can return some of their candidates to the House of Commons.

 They are now trying to be a little more tactful and are trying to hold on to their 10% of the voting public and they hope that this will be sustained until the next General Election.

Prime Minister Question's

Yesterday Prime Ministers Question's was on the back of the good news that unemployment had gone done to 7.1%.

However Ed Miliband first three questions to David Cameron was about the humanitarian crisis currently going on in Syria. 

Ed was trying to encourage David Cameron to take in some of the refugees. There exchanges where polite but I couldn't help but think that. 

David Cameron reluctance to taking in Syrian refugees is more about appeasing his media backers like the Daily Mail and not given any political ground to UKIP.

 

Ed next three questions where about the economy and at that this stage like Ed put it that David Cameron had fallen back into his 'bullingdon club' routine. 

The Ed was trying to stay calm and not shout but that may not be so effective in the chamber. 

So Ed did well this his six questions but David Cameron came across as more commanding as he shouted a little louder than Ed did. 

UK Politics in 2014

We are now a few weeks into the New Year and it's about sixteen months before the next general election. 

Both the Tories and the a Labour party have a lot to do to convince the electorate that they are the right party to govern the UK.

The Labour Party need to prove to the electorate they can be trusted with the economy. 

They also need to be able to show how they would do things differently and be more successful than the current coliation government. 

Ed Miliband has been focusing on the cost of living and various policy areas such as energy and housing.

 He is hoping that this will continue to resonate with the electorate and they will elect him as Prime Minister. 

David Cameron has to be able to prove that the Tories can be the majority government. 

David Cameron has restle votes away from the UK Independence Party to have any realistic chance of leading  a majority government. 

For both Ed Miliband and David Cameron the big test will be how well the fare in the local and European elections this May. 

Prime Minister Questions - 15 January 2014

This weeks Prime Minister Questions was  heavily dominated by the news that the tax payer funded bank, Royal Bank of Scotland was planning on giving its bankers big bonuses. 

Ed Miliband asked David Cameron what he planned to do to stop it from happening. David Cameron was not clear in his response other than trying to win cheap political points. 

 

Ed also asked him about housing and the  fact that too many land owners are sitting on their land with little intention to build. 

David Cameron's response was similar to the bankers response, where threw some insults at Ed without answering the question.

It was a tough PMQ for Ed who wants to focus on policy and not sound bites. But unfortunately for him David Cameron is very much likes sound bites. 

Ed will probably need to go back to the drawing board or each week the political pundits will say that it is a win for David Cameron and Ed does not need to give David any kind of advantage. 

UK politics review 2013

Politics in the UK evolved over the year and by the end of year we had a better idea of where each of the political parties stood.

Ed Miliband

In my opinion Ed had a very strong 2013, at the beginning some political pundits where making predictions that Ed would not survive to end of the year. 

However Ed had a good year and towards the end of year, Ed's political opponents started taking him more seriously.

Ed has been able to connect better with the British people and he comes across has someone who cares about their concerns. 

David Cameron

David Cameron started off 2013 in a very strong position however it started to change and his own backbenchers seem unhappy with his leadership. 

The Tories spent the year obsessing over Europe and demanding a referendum. David Cameron has now promised them a referendum after the next general election. 

According to the various opinion polls, David Cameron is still seen has the right person to get us out of the recession but is opinion poll numbers have been going down. 

Economy 

At the beginning of the year the UK economy was in bad shape. However now the UK economy has started to grow again. This primarily to due the housing bubble and manufacturing growth. 

Health 

NHS was under real pressure in 2013 and the government response was to cut frontline staff. So NHS is under more pressure  than ever even though cuts to its service have been ring fenced.

Crime

The crime rate has remains steady from the start to the end of 2013. This has been a suprise to me as I thought because of the recession crime would go up but this has not happened.

Nutshell

So in a nutshell even though the economy has started to grow most people are not seeing the growth. 

Staff cuts to the NHS has put it under considerable strain. 

However the crime has not increased which I was quite surprised about. 

Prime Minister's Questions - 8th January 2014

The first Prime Minister's Questions of the year was a little subdued. It could have been because the respected Labour MP Paul Goggins and the tributes from across the  political spectrum made PMQ's a more somber occasion.

 

Ed Miliband asked questions about the government response to the recent floods. As well as the rise of the betting terminals in poorer towns. 

David Cameron gave a slightly more statesman response but was still trying to imply that is was all Labours fault. 

It was notable to me that Ed Miliband set the tone for this more subdued PMQ's. In my humble opinion Ed Milband is looking more Prime Ministerial than ever.