The EU-USA free trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, has been the target of protests over Europe for its perceived faults. The chief among these is the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS), which this blog has raised concern about for its potential harm to parliamentary sovereignty and to public health. It will be… [Read More]
This week EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager issued a ‘statement of objections’ against Russian energy giant Gazprom. The formal document of accusations alleges market abuses by Gazprom, stating that the company has used its dominance of the energy market to prevent EU member states from reselling Russian gas and charging unfair prices to Bulgaria, Poland… [Read More]
Earlier this week, the Conservative’s Jeremy Hunt, Labour’s Andy Burnham, the Lib-Dem Norman Lamb and UKIP’s largely silent Julia Reid attended the Health and Social Care debate at the British Library. Evidently this was to be the ‘defining’ health debate before the general election. The Library’s theatre was packed and included many key individuals and… [Read More]
Tesco has posted the worst performance in its almost century-long history this morning. Indeed, its fall from pre-tax profits of £2.26bn last year to a loss of £6.8bn this year is one of the biggest in British corporate history. Once the darling of British retail, it has been left much diminished. The reasons? ‘An erosion… [Read More]
European foreign and interior ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday for crisis talks after 700 migrants died off Sicily this weekend. UNHCR estimates that 218,000 crossed the sea in 2014, and another 3,500 died. It is important that EU leaders do not take a knee-jerk superficial approach. Population displacement is an extremely complex issue, one… [Read More]
Today, Sir David Nicholson, former head of the NHS’s, statement that the Service is facing a ‘substantial financial problem’ has highlighted the inadequacy of the healthcare pronouncements in the various parties’ election manifestos. All have offered additional billions of healthcare funding, but, in the light of Sir David’s words, this seems the equivalent of putting… [Read More]
Since the introduction of Right to Buy in the 1980s, 1.9 million households have taken up the opportunity to buy their council property. According to the Economist, Margaret Thatcher’s policy was key to driving up home-ownership from 55% in 1979 to c.70% in 2001. David Cameron yesterday announced he intends to create a second wave… [Read More]
The Conservative manifesto will require migrants to work in Britain for four years before they can claim any kind of benefits. Theresa May, promoting the policy on Monday, said this would mean the average migrant working fulltime would pay £22,600 in tax before becoming eligible for anything. Migrants will never be able to claim child… [Read More]
Germany’s exports, imports and trade surplus all reached an all-time high last year. The country’s strong inclination towards balancing the books on government expenditure meant that they were reluctant to introduce quantitative easing this year for the Eurozone, a Keynesian-type stimulus package intended to boost demand and growth across Europe. But the depreciated euro, (the pound… [Read More]
The fact that only eight per cent of GPs think that the currently allocated 10 minute patient consultation slot is long enough is startling. When less than one in ten of a profession thinks working guidelines are reasonable then it is certainly time for a change. Today the BMA released a survey entitled the ‘Future… [Read More]