Finance Secretary John Swinney looks set to offer last minute changes to his budget in an effort to secure opposition support.

George Osborne’s speech to the Federation of Small Businesses tonight tries to offer some reassurance that the coalition isn’t caving into the anti-business zeitgeist. Referring to the recent rows over executive pay, he deplores rewards for failure before saying ‘a strong, free market economy must be built on rewards for success. There are those who are trying to create an anti-b...

While there are hundreds of prop bets (exotic wagers that include everything except just picking a game winner) for the New York Giants-New England Patriots Super Bowl, how about some political prop bets for the 2012 presidential election? For the most part the wagers available for the 2012 presidential election race are plain vanilla in nature that will offer you odds for who will win the Republi...

Home Office is replacing previous two-year visa with a 12-month one that will allow exceptional students to remain once their studies have ended

As some of you may know from my previous postings, one of my responsibilities in Government is the Building Regulations. So far, so dull, right? On the face of it, you might be forgiven for thinking so, but the building regulations offer a number of key tools and levers to tackle the carbon emissions produced

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released an announcement bragging that they have successfully prevented retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “We welcome Mr. Boykin’s withdrawal from this event and hope that the speaker who replaces him will offer ca...

Tomorrow the Welfare Reform Bill returns to the House of Commons. To mark the occasion Soundings journal publishes an ebook ‘Welfare Reform The dread of things to come’. Free download at ]. Contributors: Peter Beresford, Declan Gaffney, Kaliyah Franklin, Steve Griffiths, Sue Marsh, Jonathan Rutherford. Contributors bear witness, employ argument and offer statistical evidence

Labour repeats offer to work with the Government on GP-led commissioning

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, has pressed Chris Huhne to reverse his decision to allow energy companies to substantially reduce the help they offer to make our homes more energy efficient. The Tory Government is cancelling Labour's Warm Front and CERT levies on energy companies, which have helped thousands of people at risk of fuel poverty in Southampton and the south to get...

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition, writing on his blog today, said: Having returned from the meeting of business, media and politics in Davos to the storm around RBS bonuses, I would like to offer some broader perspective on this debate. It was only my second time in Davos, but what struck me was that – even there - the issue of how to make capitalism more responsible is firmly on the...