The current Welsh block grant is around £14.5 billion. Now you'll often hear people claiming that the English subsidise the Welsh. We are 5% of the UK's population and (according to the First Minister) we pay 4% of the UK's taxes. Hmmm UK budget, receipts 2007-2008 £548 billion 4% = £21.9 billion UK budget, receipts 2008-2009 £530.7 billion 4% = £21.2 billion UK budget, projected receipts 200...

The EU budget must be slashed, according to UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, who warned of a "backlash" across Europe if citizens are hit with cutbacks while Brussels' budget is untouched.

It's good to see that Britain under hard Labour can still show johnny foreigner a thing or two... "In 2003, the UK was joint third in Europe, alongside France, for the proportion of 15 to 16 year-olds who admitted taking cannabis at some point in their life - at 38 per cent. However, by 2007, the level in the UK had risen to 44 per cent making it the most prevalent in Europe. Oddly enough thi...

The deterioration in the public finances is unprecedented and is due not just to the current recession but to the credit crunch which began in autumn 2007 Britain suffered a record budget deficit of almost £90bn in 2008/09, figures showed today as the chancellor, Alistair Darling prepared to deliver what is likely to be the toughest ever Labour budget. The shortfall between spending and tax ...

Open Europe has today published the most comprehensive study to date on the cost and benefits of regulation in the UK since 1998. Based on over 2,300 of the Government's own impact assessments, Open Europe finds that regulation has cost the UK economy £176 billion since 1998 - roughly equivalent to the country's entire budget deficit.

The UK government's criticisms of a proposed increase in the EU's next long-term budget have been attacked by MEPs as a "provocation to Europe and the European Union".

Fact: The population of the UK rose by 3.737 million people between 1990 and 2007. Fact: Total net migration to the UK between 1990 and 2007 was 2.097 million, 56% of the total increase in population. Of that figure, 1.859 million stems from the period from 1997-2007. Fact: Between 1997 and 2007, 1.292 million people were granted

PA quotes the UK’s Europe Minister David Lidington describing EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton’s demands for a higher budget for the EU’s diplomatic service as “ludicrous”. “They’ve got to get real as far as the budget is concerned,” Lidington said. “The idea that they should be asking for more than the EU as a whole.

AFP reports that French Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche has described as “perfectly ill-timed” the proposals from Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski for the introduction of direct taxes to finance the EU budget. "Any extra tax is currently unwelcome. It is much more the time for the member states and also European institutions to make savings”, he argued, adding that “...

Office for National Statistics - UK Manufacturers Sales Data by Value and Volume for 2007