The government keeps telling us that they will deliver real terms increases in the NHS budget, but the evidence proves otherwise. In fact, the House of Commons Library says net NHS Expenditure in 2009-10 (in 2010-11 prices) was £103.2bn and in 2010-11 the expenditure was £102.0bn - a real terms decrease of -1.1%.

Just a quick query: has anyone seen any coverage of the Westminster expenses scandal on the main American blogs? I had a brief search through Andrew Sullivan's site just now, but couldn't see a thing. Yet more evidence in support of Hoggart's Law,  which, as we all know, states that: The Americans are as interested in us as we are in, say, Norway The NHS, on the other hand, is ...

Walking through an almost deserted Palace of Westminster, I overheard two policement talking about expenses. "In here, they call it a mistake," one said. "In the real world, it's embezzlement." Seems even some who serve at close quarters with our elected representatives don't hold them in particularly high regard at the moment.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT MOTION Date of Lodging: 18 March 2009 Short Title: University Rector’s Torture Evidence S3M-03730 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament supports the request by the rector of the University of Dundee, Craig Murray, to give evidence to the Westminster Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights on the subject of the UK Government’s policy on...

Amid the mole traps and Maltesers, it is easy to forget that we elect politicians to do a serious job – and it is as well to recall that when casting a vote. That is true not only at Westminster, but also in town halls and in Europe, where there is a choice to be made in two weeks' time. Often dismissed as a talking shop, the European parliament now has real powers – to change law...

Government plans to set up a new Quango – the NHS Commissioning Board - has been criticised by Labour Councillors who say they are not convinced of the need for yet another costly NHS reorganisation at a time of when the government is preaching to the public about austerity in public services. Labour say that the public has yet to see the evidence that the Coalition Government has protected ...

Where was David Davis today when there was a real case of liberty being raised - 42 days with continual applications to magistrates and the Houses of Parliament doesn't look so tough, compared with being locked in a Greek prison for up to 18 months.Today, Westminster Magistrates Court delayed the hearing of Andrew Symeou until the 12th August, where hopefully it will be ruled that the evidence by ...

I hear that David Cameron is on the war path. Revelations concerning some of his MP's expenses have got his blood boiling. It true that he probably expecting some bad news, but it looks like it's worse than he had hoped. However, it seems that unlike Brown, David is going to take action and not just blame it all on a flawed expenses system. He has already made it clear that he wants any ...

UP UNTIL now, the Scottish Parliament's expenses system has been held up as the model for Westminster to follow if it wants to stamp out all those excessive claims which h

Drug reference information in the British National Formulary will become a key element of the new NHS Evidence portal due to be launched in April 2009. As a result, responsibility for provision of this information for the NHS will transfer from the Department of Health to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), as part of the development of NHS Evidence.