Rebecca Harris, Tory backbench MP for Castle Point (South East Essex if you were wondering), has tabled a Bill asking the UK government to “conduct a cross-departmental analysis of the potential costs and benefits of advancing time by one hour for all, or part of, the year”.
Labour is on course to win the 2011 Holyrood election. That’s the verdict of the latest TNS-BMRB poll for the Herald, which showed an increase in support for both Labour and the SNP. But will the build up to the Scottish election do anything to fuel the electorate’s fire?
Considering the future of Scottish Devolution within a Political, Economic and Social Union – the report of the Calman Commission will bring the biggest change to Scotland’s position in the UK since devolution.
So urgent is the need to find a solution to the matter the Scottish Government has called an Alcohol Summit in the middle of recess. The Government invited opposition parties to the Parliament on Wednesday in order to discuss the Alcohol (Scotland) Bill and specifically the issue of minimum pricing.
With the publication of the Independent Budget Review, post-devolution Scotland faces a new challenge – the urgent need for public service cuts and reform. But in the same way as the first Beveridge Report of 1942 turned despair into opportunity, shouldn’t we be looking to our politicians to do likewise?
NHS Lothian has cut 125 jobs already in its bid to cut £31 million from its annual spending, according to the Evening News. To meet its target it needs to find another 600 full time equivalent posts this year that it no longer needs, and then another 1,300 on top of that during 2011.
Following the Independent Budget Review of Scottish public expenditure chaired by Crawford Beveridge, the 2011 Scottish Elections could as well be branded as the ‘elections no-one would want to win’.