By Steve Parkhurst, Senior Editor, USDR.
Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
5-8-16
Far-right demonstrators march against Merkel in Berlin with violent clashes near Austria migrant fence
About 1,000 right-wing extremists and others protesting Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policies squared off with about 4,500 counter-demonstrators outside the Berlin chancellery on Saturday, as Italian police and demonstrators clashed during a protest against a planned Austria fence.
5-7-16
Labour’s argument won’t be settled until 2020. By then it will be too late
Sadiq Khan’s win in London will be a genuine breakthrough. But the other election results suggest a party still distant from power
5-6-16
No one ever says it, but in many ways global warming will be a good thing
Last week, a study in the prestigious journal Nature revealed just how much CO₂ increases have greened the Earth over the past three decades. Because CO₂ acts as a fertilizer, as much as half of all vegetated land is persistently greener today. This ought to be a cause for great joy.
The bell for a Liberal Democrat fightback has rung
Tim Farron’s focus on community politics is starting to pay off, as shown by Lib Dem success in Scotland and promising English council results
5-5-16
If Zac wins, if Khan wins
What the claims and post-mortems will look like – and, either way, there will be at least one Commons by-election.
Asylum, EU law and the EU-Turkey Agreement
Yesterday we raised in Parliament the issue of the EU’s wish to abolish the Dublin convention. Anne Main MP asked an Urgent Question of the government. We wanted to know how asylum claims would be handled under the revised law the EU is discussing.
We haven’t abolished boom and bust. Yet the contest to succeed Cameron threatens to become a celebrity spending auction
Alongside the Prime Minister’s social reform agenda, we also need to focus on developing a higher growth and lower spending model of government.
5-4-16
Schools should be testing, for children and teachers
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has been mocked for his apparent inability to answer correctly a grammar question from a Standard Assessment Test for 11-year-olds.
The EU and the Turkish border
This week sees the EU offer visa free access to Turkey for the Schengen countries. In return the EU has set Turkey 72 tasks to improve her border controls, visa and passport handling and more general human rights improvements along with better access to asylum for those fleeing terror. Turkey has borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran. The EU, in an effort to stop illegals coming by sea from Turkey to Greece, now has to be more concerned about Turkey’s borders with the Middle East.
What does being right wing mean?
I have an assumption that most Britons aren’t especially keen to describe themselves, voluntarily, in this way. A quick and very unscientific vox pop didn’t contradict my assumption
5-3-16
Changes urged as benefit reform ‘veers off track’
The Government’s flagship benefit reform has “serious” design flaws that must be resolved before being rolled out across the country, a new report has claimed.
John McDonnell praised terrorists and defended violent protest. His leadership ambitions are nothing to laugh about
Why is Britain’s hard Left so entertaining? Ever since Robert Lindsay starred as the eponymous “Citizen Smith” in the 1970s, the paper-selling, beret-sporting, oh-so-worthy activists have been the butt of countless jokes and endless derision, almost of it entirely deserved.
Flagship benefit reform has been watered down so much that it risks failing to achieve its original purpose, warns Resolution thinktank
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Across The Pond is edited daily by Steve Parkhurst. Steve is a political consultant, a writer at his blog as well as a Senior Editor here at US Daily Review. Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveParkhurst