OK, since we're dealing with Chinese politics high and low today, here's the Congressional Research Service's detailed backgounder on Xi Jinping, the next CPC General Secretary and President of China, on the occasion of his forthcoming visit to the US....

Prime Minister David Cameron attacks Labour's handling of the health service in Wales.

Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to the awarding of private contracts to provide the UK’s Search and Rescue service, said:

Yes, European countries have to cut public spending in order to put their finances back in shape. But this should not compromise essential public services such as education, health care or tax collection, writes Klaus Heeger of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI). More »

Older people needing social care are let down by fragmented services - and the Health and Social Care Bill will not simplify the system - says a group of MPs.

The UK could face a growing threat from "lone wolf" terrorists returning from fighting overseas in the next few years, the Royal United Services Institute has warned.

Most toxic is the role of commercial competition, with Monitor acting as enforcer. By opening every NHS corner to “any qualified provider”, the whole service can be taken over by private companies, with a few token charities and mutuals. NHS hospitals, cherry-picked of lucrative work, risk bankruptcy when left with only complex cases. Stroke care

I feel it is a distraction to scapegoat "evil private landlords" for our housing  problems; the problems are entirely due to the last 30 years of governments Housing policy, which uses housing benefit to subsidies our private rented  consumer service. Average house price of £237,000 in the southeast of England is 10 to 16  times average local salaries [1].  Two and a half...

Tory bosses at Southampton City Council want to take services away from the city's least well off while protecting discounts for the better off, say the city's Labour councillors. They're proposing an amendment to make the budget fairer, to be debated at the Budget setting meeting on Wednesday, 15th February. The council's own reports warn that many of the Tories' proposed...

The Guardian reports: Seven hospital trusts struggling with crippling private finance initiative debts are to receive £1.5bn in emergency funding from the government to help them avoid cutting patient services to pay their bills. The Department of Health is making the £1.5bn available – in grants, not loans – to the seven hospital trusts in