Today The Stirrer followed up on a story reported there yesterday about children at Birmingham schools having their fingerprints taken in order to eat a school meal. The website became aware of the procedure after being contacted by a parent...

In an interview with the FT, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague has said a future Conservative government would seek to restore full British control over employment law and social policy while campaigning against the "the centralising ratchet" of the EU.

Speaking at the launch of the ‘Farmers for No’ campaign in Ireland yesterday, Chairman James Reynolds said that, under the Lisbon Treaty, “Our voting-weight as a member-state diminishes from 2 per cent, as it currently is under the Nice Treaty rules, to 0

The Parliament reports that senior German Socialist MEP Jo Leinen has warned that Ireland risks being relegated to a “second class” nation if it again rejects the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum scheduled for the autumn. Leinen said, “If there is a 'No' vote in Ireland I think we are likely to see a two-speed Europe emerge, with Ireland being in what might be called the &...

Fancy stats, but the picture remains the same For many years now, the Office for National Statistics has been beavering away trying to develop measures of output and productivity in our public services. It hasn't been at all straightforward, as...

Working as we do to highlight the massive cost of the Government's tax policies, we often get asked how people and businesses can spread the word. One great way to do so is for businesses to adopt a policy of...

It's rare to hear anything at all about Britain's Departmental Permanent Secretaries. Even scandal doesn't usually push their names into the headlines. So Sir David Normington's decision to speak to the BBC - for a programme about Sir Ian Blair's...

I assure you - I'm a real financial wizard It's difficult to recall now, but once upon a time, PFI was meant to save taxpayers money. The idea was that by leasing schools, hospitals and roads from private sector providers,...

As of writing the Guardian jobs website is advertising 527 jobs this week as you can see from the box on the right. The pick of the crop this week, and our non-job of the week, comes from Brent council:...

A new report by the Taxpayers' Alliance reveals Britain's best and worst Members of the European Parliament, based on a detailed analysis of their performance. The assessment provides a key source of information on which MEPs are hard-working, and committed...