By Steve Parkhurst, Senior Editor, USDR.
Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
10-23-17
Helping people to learn English empowers individuals and strengthens communities
Women in particular suffer from being dependent on their husbands or children to translate for them.
Theresa May discovers the perfect answer to difficult Brexit questions
Theresa May has the perfect answer to all difficult questions: we don’t want to give away anything that will harm our position in the Brexit negotiations. No matter whether the information an MP is requesting has anything to do with Britain’s negotiating position: it’s a handy line to use when the answer is in fact ‘I don’t actually know’.
The politics of identity shakes the European continent
The Catalan crisis is deepening. The Catalan nationalists tried to engage the Spanish state in talks after their illegal referendum showed a strong vote for independence with other voters absenting themselves. Instead of offering them a legal way forward, the Spanish state proposes to double up on its unpleasant behaviour when they sent in the national police to try to prevent the vote, by now threatening to close down the Catalan regional government.
10-22-17
If it won’t build houses, the Government should focus on policy for renters
George Osborne made a bogeyman of buy-to-let landlords, but making it harder and more expensive to supply rental housing is deeply counter-productive.
The opioid epidemic is crushing America’s middle class. We need action, not words
From afar, America’s opioid epidemic may seem like just another sensationalised scare story in a country constantly at war with drugs. But this is not a fad, nor an overblown segment on morning television. It is real, it is decimating entire counties, and it represents the summation of the country’s failures towards its own citizens over decades.
10-21-17
Let’s cut to it … lower taxes will lift growth
One of the great tragedies of our times is how the Government seems to look upon tax cuts as a historical curiosity. Theresa May is an accidental revolutionary: her government has been tasked with Brexit, and it feels unable to think the unthinkable in any other area.
Brexit can strengthen the Union – but only if handled well
Ministers must curb Whitehall’s instinct to hog all the powers it gets back from Brussels
10-19-17
Social care and the NHS
Social care largely delivered by Councils with the help of a range of contractors and service suppliers needs to work smoothly alongside the NHS. Councils have a vital role to play in helping reduce the burden on NHS hospitals. It is too easy to place elderly and infirm individuals into hospital where they should be safe, even though they do not need hospital treatment.
10-18-17
May should reshuffle her Cabinet to spark renewal
People want a new settlement, not establishment politics.
10-17-17
It’s breakthrough! No, it’s deadlock! Brexit talks latest.
The Government must keep talking; be as Ready on Day One as it can be (Deal or No Deal), and resolve its position on what economic, social and regulatory model it wants Britain to follow.
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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
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