Birmingham University Labour Students

Walking around the centre of my hometown yesterday, my friend points out to me two adjacent estate agents which have closed in the last few weeks. It’s all change in the Arndale Centre, too- gone not only is the independent bakery I used to work for, but also the art shop and the card shop. [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Economy | Tagged: Credit crunch | 2 Comments »

I have never really liked BB1s Question Time. To me it resembles low-brow political point scoring. Compare the way in which the London Mayoral debate was conducted compared to that by Newsnight. Paxman focused on the policies of the three candidates and that was when Boris’s Routemastergate first came to light. On the other hand David [...]

Filed under: Conservative Party, Economy, Labour Party, Tories' Porkies | Tagged: Question Time, Tax | 1 Comment »

Now three Birmingham MPs, Sion Simon, Gisela Stewart and Lynne Jones, have declared the 20p starting rate on income tax a step too far… that’s a fair cross section of MPs, from regular rebel to usual loyalist.
While the theory goes that this will be offset by tax breaks, it is claimed the poorest will be [...]

Filed under: Birmingham politics, Brigid Jones's Diary, Economy | 3 Comments »

The House of Lords has today suggested that the Government has exaggerated just how beneficial immigration is.
Inquiry chairman Lord Wakeham told Sky News: “We recognise that immigrants to this country do a good job, but there is no economic benefit to the resident population and it is damaging to low-paid workers.”
The minister for Immigration, incidentally [...]

Filed under: Economy, Immigration, National Politics | No Comments »

So it’s all bad news… Northern Rock is going to make a loss of £167.7 million in 2007, Adam Applegarth (the former CEO) will get severance pay of £760,000 (well below the contractual obligation) and the nationalised bank doesn’t expect to make a profit until 2011.
However it says it will repay the Bank of England’s £24 [...]

Filed under: Economy, National Politics | Tagged: Northern Rock | 3 Comments »

One in six households live in fuel poverty according to the Observer. With rising fuel prices we can probably expect this to be a bigger issue in years to come.

Filed under: Economy, Environment | Tagged: Fuel poverty | No Comments »

Courtesy of Tribune Cartoons

Filed under: Economy, Labour Party | 2 Comments »

The FTSE 100 has climbed above 6,000 in what are quite volatile times. The Economist is providing interesting commentary on this crisis of confidence.
Surprisingly the Daily Mail hasn’t come out on the attack and been rather level-headed. On the other hand expect Guardian readers to be selling their shares.
The economy is Labour’s strongest card and it [...]

Filed under: Economy | No Comments »

Finding myself in the middle of the season of goodwill, and perhaps having a little more free time on my hands than I do usually, I thought it only right that I should have a read of the BUCF blog. I’ve generally formed the opinion in the past that spending my time reading the inane [...]

Filed under: Economy, National Politics | 3 Comments »