Week of Mar 15 – 21

Read Time:3 Minute, 39 Second

By Steve Parkhurst, Senior Editor, USDR.

Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.

3-19-16

Why leaving the EU wouldn’t make Britain any more free

Sovereignty is not absolute, inside the union or outside it. And we have more clout as we are

Brazil’s judiciary is in danger of turning the clock back on democracy

Federal judge Sérgio Moro has become the high-profile face of the campaign to impeach Dilma Rousseff. But is he overstepping the mark?

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd on windmill-slaying, North Sea oil and the EU

The climate change minister wants a more practical focus on future bills – while admitting renewables will push them up

3-18-16

We need an Opportunity Commission, not an Equality Commission

Parliament has left a gap in legislation that the courts and a quango are filling.

Any poll suggesting Jeremy Corbyn’s doing well will make George Osborne laugh his head off

Even Ed Miliband enjoyed a double-digit lead at this point in the last parliament

My contribution to the debate on the Budget, 16 March

I support the main measures in the Budget, and the thrust of the Budget statement. I strongly welcome the tax reductions. I am very pleased that the Chancellor is making progress in implementing our promises to take more people out of income tax altogether, and to take people out of 40% tax when they are on relatively modest incomes in comparison with the costs of housing and living in many parts of the country. The more progress we can make in that regard, the better.

Voters don’t want them, but the march of the mayors is now unstoppable

George Osborne is forcing local devolution upon English cities and regions that have already declined it

Budget trouble brewing over disability benefits

Andrew Percy sounds confident that there will be sufficient Tory rebels to defeat the Government.

3-17-16

Less a Budget for renewal than a Budget for the referendum

It felt more like a pre-election than a post-election one – and was shot through by a sense of the Chancellor’s political mortality.

My contribution to the Energy Bill (Lords) in the Public Bill Committee, 14 March 2016

I rise to support the Government and to urge the rejection of amendments that would delay getting rid of the subsidies for wind power. Our country desperately needs more electrical power to be available, and I am pleased that the Government are now taking action, with capacity auctions, to try to get some more power available. We need more affordable power. We need to tackle fuel poverty and have power at prices where households can afford to purchase. We also need to have affordable power for extra industry, which is one of the Chancellor’s aims.

Are disability benefit cuts George Osborne’s new tax credit disaster?

The Chancellor can quite reasonably argue that he’s still spending more on disability benefits. It probably won’t matter though

The VAT rise in the budget that did not get a mention

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