This year alone, high youth unemployment will cost government £4.8bn in lost tax revenues and unemployment benefits, more than the budget for further education for 16 to 19 year-olds, and cost the economy £10.7bn in lost output, the report said. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which contributed to the report, said

Senior civil servants are being sent to "leadership school" amid concerns they do not have the skills to run major projects like the Olympics, welfare reforms and new high-speed trains.

Southwark Councillor Rowenna Davis (who has written for LC occasionally) has launched a campaign that says betting shops are blighting local high streets across Britain. She wants councils to be given more power to stop them from springing up everywhere. She has a point, and I support the campaign - not just because I abhor betting shops.

There have been some high profile (if not high level) Blairite defections to the Tories. While there are some similarities between the Blair legacy and our coalition partners, the defectees seem to have overlooked or discarded one idea – joining the Liberal Democrats. As Jonathan Powell says in his book, The New Machiavelli, and as

The Israelis have a major new energy project in the works called High Dam, a reference to Egypt's Aswan High Dam.It involves a 'dam' in the Mediterranean near the Israeli port of Ashdod that will export electricity to Europe via an undersea electricity cable linking Israel to Cyprus and then relayed via a second cable to Greece and the rest of Europe. The electricity will be generat...

The government is looking for 12 run down High Streets in England to share £1m as a part of plans proposed by TV retail guru Mary Portas.

The Lib Dems are hated by all the other parties, but not for their politics ( though much of that is objectionable ). No the Lib Dems are hated for their hypocrisy. Chris Huhne is the high priest of nasty the nasty cult of Lib Demery. So the cheer from the whole country when he was charged with lying is still echoing around the drinking holes of Westmin...

Residents of Paisley in west Scotland, where the former RBS chief executive was raised, are divided over the move to strip him of his knighthood

The chairman of 82% taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) says banker pay has been "high for too long" and needs to be corrected.

RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton says chief executive Stephen Hester was 'entitled' to a near-£1million share bonus, which he later turned down.